Connie Livingston BS, RN, FACCE, CD(DONA), CCCE, CLD, Birthsource.com
Should be on everyone's recommended reading list! If you read only one book during your pregnancy, this MUST be it.

Ann Stadtler, MSN, CPNP, Director of the Brazelton Touchpoint Center at The Children’s Hospital, Boston
The style of writing is clear, warm and very supportive. The breadth is terrific. A great reference for any question.

Maureen Corry, Executive Director, Maternity Center Association
A consumer-friendly book filled with great women’s quotes, helpful information and tips for pregnant women and new families.

Peg Moline, Editor-in-Chief, Fit Pregnancy
Emotions, physical changes, lifestyle changes, baby development, it’s all there. Get ready: It will get dog-eared from all your reading.

Sharon Schindler Rising, MSN, CNM, FACNM, Founder and Executive Director, The Centering Pregnancy & Parenting Association
Fun, readable and full of good information. Helps to make the normal discomforts of pregnancy worth the bother!

Book Description
Congratulations! You’re pregnant! Welcome to the journey of a lifetime. GREAT EXPECTATIONS: YOUR ALL-IN-ONE RESOURCE FOR PREGNANCY & CHILDBIRTH is the most comprehensive and authoritative resource available today to guide mothers through pregnancy, childbirth and the months that follow. Written by an experienced mother-daughter team, it is both reassuring and encyclopedic offering mothers-to-be nearly 700 pages of critical pregnancy information. In this one volume, you'll find sound, practical answers to your every pregnancy question -- including how to choose the best obstetrician or midwife; how to fight morning sickness; when to tell your boss your "news;" the best infant car seat to buy; how to read your baby’s first sonogram, and the risks and benefits of common medical tests. GREAT EXPECTATIONS' "Pregnancy Week-by-Week" section offers realistic drawings and descriptions of how your body and your baby change and grow with practical advice from conception through labor pains. "Managing Your Pregnancy" helps you with the everyday aches and pains of pregnancy, such as headaches, backaches and swelling. It offers great suggestions for what to eat with warnings about what to avoid. You'll also find plenty of tips for keeping healthy including great exercises to do, how much weight gain is normal, tips for stopping smoking, and practical mom-to-mom pointers on dealing with dads and emotional issues. "Your Guide to Giving Birth" is an informative, minute-by-minute labor manual presenting research-based suggestions for giving birth to your baby. You'll also find detailed descriptions of epidurals, inductions, and cesareans to prepare you for every possibility. Whether it's choosing baby duds, cribs, changing tables, car seats, diapers, play yards, or strollers, the "Baby Gear Guide" tells you the "skinny" on getting the right stuff and saving money at the same time. "Your Complete Mother’s Manual" holds your hand while you’re recovering from birth and helps to turn you into a pro when it comes to feeding, clothing, diapering and interacting with your new baby. The "Resource Guide" has hundreds of Web addresses for searching out stylish maternity clothes, to learning more about breastfeeding and circumcision, or locating baby product manufacturers. "Pregnancy Dictionary" has 60 pages and over 800 terms to give you a leg up on med-speak. And there's even a table to help you calculate your own due date. It’s all there, and packed into a single, easy-to-hold volume compact enough to perch on your nightstand, or to stash in your briefcase for quick answers to those nagging questions that keep popping up.

From the Publisher
Highly praised by childbirth educators, GREAT EXPECTATIONS: YOUR ALL-IN-ONE RESOURCE FOR PREGNANCY & CHILDBIRTH has been expressly created for the intelligent, inquisitive woman who is seeking sound, research-based guidance, and practical advice about childbearing. It's designed to help readers keep on top of the complexities of medical, physical, emotional, and psychological experiences of this important life transition. The book allows them to rapidly navigate thousands of topics using its 150 "quick-reference" tables, bulleted sections, page-by-page headers, and detailed index. It collects all of the most critical new findings from hundreds recent obstetrical studies into one easy-to-read volume, presenting them as "flash facts" to help readers make informed choices using lists of proven benefits and risks for common tests and procedures. This notable, woman-centered volume also offers detailed information on genetic and glucose tolerance tests, labor augmentation and induction, elective cesarean sections, epidurals and other common tests and procedures. The book's low, affordable price makes it an excellent resource in the pregnancy field for parents-to-be, libraries, and for nursing students, childbirth educators, and organizations concerned with improving family life.

From the Author
We wrote GREAT EXPECTATIONS: YOUR ALL-IN-ONE RESOURCE FOR PREGNANCY & CHILDBIRTH to serve as a map and travel guide for the experience of pregnancy. Maybe you’ve discovered as we have that most pregnancy books seem to be written by people who’ve never been pregnant, or who have forgotten what the real experience of pregnancy feels. Our book offers you more than simple platitudes and shallow reassurances, it supplies you with unbiased, research-based information without being preachy or judgmental about it. After all, there’s nothing more annoying than having someone wag her finger at you as though you were a child, or a chorus of people telling you what you "should" do. What most mother-to-be really need is the opportunity to become well informed, and then allowed to make up their own minds about issues and to base their decisions on real facts and not someone else's biases. No single volume can supply you with all you need to know. You also will need human and medical support too. That’s why we consistently recommend that you seek the advice of a trusted healthcare provider, such as an obstetrician or midwife. (And we tell you exactly how to find the right caregiver for your needs). We also remind you that pregnancy and birth are natural, healthy events, and not illnesses. It's important to remember to trust your body with its deep, sophisticated built-in abilities to nourish and give birth to your baby exquisitely. Hopefully, our book will make your process of carrying, birthing and caring for your baby and yourself easier and less intimidating. Please feel free to post feedback for us at: BabyGuide@citcom.net.

From the Inside Flap
"Congratulations, you're pregnant!" Whether you've just heard these words, or seen the telltale blue lines on the pregnancy test, you've now entered a world filled with ever-changing medical issues to face, conflicting advice, a huge array of birth options, and a costly baby products list. With your active, hectic lifestyle, it's important to get the information you need without having to wade through mounds of extraneous information. How can you be sure you're doing all you can to have a happy and healthy baby? GREAT EXPECTATIONS:YOUR ALL-IN-ONE RESOURCE FOR PREGNANCY & CHILDBIRTH is the most comprehensive and authoritative pregnancy and childbirth book available today. Designed like a field guide, GREAT EXPECTATIONS organizes and delivers all the basic medical and lifestyle information you'll need for these exciting months ahead.

About the Author
Sandy Jones, M.A., is the author of six other best-selling parenting books, including CRYING BABY, SLEEPLESS NIGHTS; GOOD THINGS FOR BABIES; LEARNING FOR LITTLE KIDS; and the CONSUMER REPORTS GUIDE TO BABY PRODUCTS. A former columnist for "Parents" magazine, she has written over 150 articles on pregnancy and parenting for "Parenting," "American Baby," "Baby Talk," "Mothering," "Working Mother," and "Fit Pregnancy," and has appeared as a baby and parenting expert on "The Today Show," "Good Morning America,""CNN," and hundreds of other programs. Her daughter and co-author, Marcie Jones, M.A., is a graduate of Mills College and a freelance writer, editor and publication designer. She has written for magazines and newspapers, and has taught writing at the University of Baltimore (Baltimore, MD). She is the mother of a three-year-old daughter. Peter S. Bernstein, MD, MPH, FACOG, Contributing Editor, is a specialist in Maternal-Fetal Medicine, an Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology and Women's Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Comprehensive Family Care Center of Montefiore Medical Group in Bronx, New York. Claire Westdahl, CNM, MPH, FACNM, midwife and Contributing Editor, is the Director of Nurse-Midwifery at the Emory University School of Medicine. She is a Fellow of the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

Excerpted from Great Expectations: Your All-in-One Resource for Pregnancy & Childbirth by Sandy Jones, Marcie Jones. Copyright © 2004. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
ARE YOU PREGNANT? You feel like you have PMS, but your period won't come. Missing a period may seem like an obvious sign, but many women have irregular periods and don't make note of the date every month. Early pregnancy symptoms feel a lot like PMS: cramps, bloating, achy or sensitive breasts, fatigue, and crankiness. You may even experience light blood spotting. Your sense of smell is sharper. For some women, the first sign of pregnancy is their ability to suddenly detect odors that they couldn't before. The stink of exhaust fumes, cigarette smoke, incense, or other airborne odors may offend you to the point of queasiness. This reaction will intensify as your hormone levels rise and may last your entire pregnancy. You feel bloated. Your underwear, rings, and bracelets may feel like they've shrunk, and you have to suck in to zip up the tighter clothes in your wardrobe. Something's different about your breasts. Your breasts may simply feel tender, as they would if you had PMS. But pregnancy breasts are more extreme: they suddenly appear larger, fuller, and perkier, as if you were wearing a push-up bra. Some women may even experience tingling. Your home pregnancy test is positive. If you take a home pregnancy tests, and it's positive, you can believe it. Pregnancy tests detect the presence of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a hormone produced by the fertilized egg and, later, the human placenta during pregnancy. It takes about four days for the fertilized egg to begin secreting any amount of hCG. Unless you've misread the test results, or have been taking very specific fertility drugs that contain hCG, it's virtually impossible to get a false-positive read._______________ MOM COMMENT: "I told my mom by mixing a sonogram picture in with our vacation pictures. It was so funny watching her figure it out!"_______________ What if I Think I'm Pregnant, But the Test is Negative? Pregnancy-test false negatives are really common, in spite of what test packages say. Recent research published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that only one of eighteen brands tested were sensitive enough to detect pregnancy at four weeks from LMP (last menstrual period). If you get a negative result on a home pregnancy test, but your period is still late, test again a day or two later. A pregnant woman's hCG levels will double every two to three days in early pregnancy. Plenty of pregnant women will not have levels of hCG high enough to be detectable by over-the-counter tests until as late as six weeks after their last periods. The Test is Positive, Now What? If you get a positive pregnancy-test result, you'll want to call your family doctor, gynecologist, healthcare provider, midwife or clinic right away to receive independent confirmation of your results, to have your health evaluated, and to get your due date calculated. Care providers can also be great to talk to about some of the early concerns you may have before you tell your partner, family and friends. You may also decide that you want your baby to be delivered by a different care provider than the obstetrician/gynecologist who performs your checkups, or that you'd like to be cared for by a certified nurse-midwife (CNM). It's okay to make prenatal appointments with your current doctor now and to politely cancel them in advance if you find a different care provider. (See "Managing Your Care," on page 162, for details on different types of care providers.) Hearing the News Women's reactions to positive pregnancy tests can range from total denial to unmitigated glee to hyperventilating horror. Don't blame yourself for your emotions -- there's no wrong way to reach to such big and shocking news. It's also okay to be happy about the baby, but not thrilled about the prospect of pregnancy, labor and birth. Everyone's different, and you have nine months (and eighteen years!) to figure out how you feel about parenthood.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

“Congratulations, you’re pregnant!” Whether you’ve just heard these words, or saw the telltale blue lines on the pregnancy test, you’ve now just entered a world filled with ever-changing medical studies; conflicting nutritional advice; a myriad of birth options; and lists of products you’ve been told you must buy. With your active, hectic lifestyle, it’s important to get the information you need without having to wade through mounds of extraneous information. How can you be sure you’re doing all you can to have a happy and healthy baby? Great Expectations: Your All-in-One Resource for Pregnancy and Childbirth is the most comprehensive and authoritative pregnancy and childbirth book available today, and the ultimate pregnancy guide for today’s intelligent, discerning parent. Neither an update, nor a revision, Great Expectations contains: the most current, evidence-based information medical information available today critical week-by-week timetable of mother and fetus development up-to-the minute guidelines for nutrition and exercise comprehensive baby gear information by the nation’s top expert the most detailed pregnancy dictionary ever produced in a pregnancy book Designed with the accessibility and thoroughness of a field guide, Great Expectations organizes and delivers all the basic medical and lifestyle information pregnant women will need for these exciting months ahead.Sandy Jones is the author of six international best-selling parenting books including, Crying Baby, Sleepless Nights, Good Things for Babies, Learning for Little Kids: A Parent’s Sourcebook for the Years 3-8, and The Consumer Report’s Guide to Baby Products. She has written over 150 articles on pregnancy and parenting for such publications as Parents, American Baby and Fit Pregnancy and has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America and CNN. Her daughter, Marcie Jones, is a writer and editor and a professor of writing at The University of Baltimore and the mother of a three-year-old daughter.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Great Expectations really is great! I told a girlfriend of mine that, "it's so good it makes me want to get pregnant all over again." (Editor, Mommy Too! Magazine) — Jennifer James

Emotions, physical changes, lifestyle changes, baby development, it's all there. Get ready: This book will get dog-eared from all your reading and then passed along to your best friends and sister. (Editor-in-Chief, FitPregnancy) — Peg Moline

Great Expectations is the perfect resource for moms-to-be. Sandy and Marcie Jones speak to the expectant mother of today in a friendly, approachable tone, and present their thorough information in a way that's great for both quick look-ups and in-depth reading. (VP, Community & Parenting, iVillage.com) — Stacia Ragolia

[Great Expectations] is terrific. The style of writing is clear, warm and very supportive. The breath of the information is terrific. It's a great reference for any question that might arrive in pregnancy. I'm sure parents who are asked to s hare their opinion or explanation of everything will find this reference very helpful for enhancing their confidence in forming an opinion of their own. (MSN, CPNP, Director of the Brazelton Touchpoint Center at Children's Hospital in Boston) — Ann Stadtler

Consumer friendly book filled with great women's quotes, helpful information and tips for pregnant women and new families. (Executive Director, Maternity Center Association) — Maureen Corry

Accurate, comprehensive, empowering, and current. I see this as being the new Dr. Spock for pregnancy....This is definitely a book I will recommend to my clients who are planning a pregnancy or currently pregnant. (RN, BS, MSCN) — Cherie C. Binns

Lots of good info and advice for moms and dads￯﾿ﾽ.a book that's fun, readable and full of good information...a great combination. I especially liked the embryology/fetal development sections that make it easy to envision how the baby is growing. Helps to make the normal discomforts of pregnancy worth the bother! (MSN, CNM, FACNM, Founder and Executive Director, The Centering Pregnancy & Parenting Association) — Sharon Schindler Rising