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What to Expect When You’re Expecting cover art

What to Expect When You’re Expecting

By: Heidi Murkoff
Narrated by: Heidi Murkoff,Meeghan Holaway,Emma Bing,James Patrick Cronin,Khristine Hvam,Vanessa Johansson,Inés del Castillo,Almarie Guerra,Tanis Parenteau,Mat Vairo,Jasmin Walker,Sofia Willingham
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Summary

It’s all here. Everything you need to know--and can’t wait to find out—about your amazing nine months, from conception to birth and beyond in the world’s best-selling and best-loved pregnancy guide: Heidi Murkoff’s What to Expect When You’re Expecting. And now, only from Audible, you’ll hear it in the reassuring, relatable voice expectant parents turn to for the must-have advice and information they crave and trust.

Heidi’s warm and empathetic narration will put moms- and dads-to-be at ease every step of the way through life’s most incredible journey. With the help of a diverse cast of voices—including her daughter Emma’s (also featured on the cover of What to Expect when she was expecting her first son, Lennox), Heidi answers your most pressing and personal questions and concerns, offering practical advice, realistic insight, easy-to-use tips, and lots of reassurance, along with the most up-to-date medical information. With the landscape of pregnancy and childbirth ever-changing, and with more choices facing expectant parents than ever before, you’ll hear the latest on pregnancy screenings, medications, and supplements during pregnancy, IVF, and multiple pregnancies, breastfeeding while you’re expecting, every birthing option (from VBAC and gentle c-sections to water birth and hypnobirthing)—plus, everything you need to know about your first three months postpartum, aka that vital fourth trimester, including how to spot the signs of postpartum depression and other mood disorders. Your pregnancy lifestyle (from work to working out, travel, beauty, skincare, and more) gets equal attention, as does your pregnant sex life. Get expert advice on juice bars, raw diets, coffee drinking, e-cigarettes and edibles, push presents, baby bump posting, omega-3 fatty acids, grass-fed and organic, health food fads,and GMOs. Expecting to become a dad? This book has you covered, too. It’s your pregnancy explained, demystified—and completely supported.

With more than 19 million copies in print, What to Expect When You’re Expecting is read by 93% of women who read a pregnancy book and was named one of the Most Influential Books of the Last 25 Years by USA Today.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, an accompanying PDF of charts and diagrams will be available in your Audible Desktop Library along with the audio.

©1984, 1988, 1991, 1996, 2002, 2008, 2016 What to Expect, LLC. (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about What to Expect When You’re Expecting

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The narrator is seriously annoying

Impossible to listen to because of her highly irritating delivery. Had to switch off.
Pls pls can I have a refund?

4 people found this helpful

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Brilliant pregnancy book

Overall, a great comprehensive pregnancy book. The tone was a bit too "cute" though that may be cultural since I'm not from the States. In Sweden, things are told in a more neutral/natural way. Really useful and quality content though, would recommend for all pregnant women!

3 people found this helpful

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Good source of information

Had lots of information about what can happen during your pregnancy and what you can expect each month. I really liked the part for dads too.
I think this book would be better as a physical book rather than an audiobook so that you can easily skip parts that aren't relevant to you.
Struggled to finish because there was a lot that wasn't relevant - either to my pregnancy or because the book was American.

3 people found this helpful

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Perfect for pregnant mums

Super informative, covers every aspect that you can think of. Loved it, will definitely be referencing to it through my pregnancy. I just skipped the parts that didn't apply to me.

1 person found this helpful

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This book scared me

I couldn't finish it as every time I picked it up I was more worried than anything. it's very USA centric so doesn't apply to a global audience. the only book in my life that I haven't finished!

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As a father

Found this book full of information. Must read for dads and dads to be.

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Very American

I couldn’t cope with the narrators voice. I’ll maybe just buy and skim through the rest of the book…

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Literally made my partner feel more sick

Should hold a warning to people that can't stand the cheesy OTT American accent. This audio book is clearly made for profit and marketing purposes, my partner genuinely felt worse and more worried after hearing the first 3 chapter.

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  • Mr
  • 23-02-22

If this isn't the last word on the subject. . . .

. . . . .then I don't think I want to hear the last word.

This is a *very* long and dense book, that sometimes meanders and detours and tries to encompass perhaps a little too much ground. You certainly can't say you don't get your money's worth, the whole thing is packed with information and advice on every vaguely relevant subject conceivable: from developments at every single stage, to relationship issues, to employment law, to every possible problem before, during and after birth. I certainly learned a great deal, and although none of it is directly relevant to me, it satisfied my wish to know more about how we all came to be. It would certainly need a second or subsequent listen to take everything in, but I think you can probably be more selective about which chapters to not bother with if they're not relevant to your particular circumstances 2nd time round. The sometimes irreverent commentary also tries to bring some lightness to a topic that unavoidably consists of a great deal of discomfort and anxiety for those going through the process.

I would have personally liked it to be a bit more focussed on the medical/biological aspects, but I suppose not everyone is me, and no doubt every chapter was relevant to some of the people listening.

The main drawback from my POV is that it's very US centred, with a lot of discussion of different US laws, insurance packages and treatment options that are not much relevant to those outside that setting.

There are also regular little asides addressing the role of fathers and offering advice for them on how they might be feeling and how they can help. Even though dads are inevitably side characters in this particular drama, it was still great that those are included and I appreciated them. The book also hasn't (yet) succumbed to the fashionable madness that if you're pregnant, it is possible to be anything other than female - which was a relief.

The narrators are all competent, and the principle one has a delivery that is both warm and professional: which is ideal for the topic.

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  • V Diploe
  • 15-11-20

The author writes as though we are children

The writing and reading style is overly cutesy makes me cringe. I can't listen to it any more. The author writes and reads as though the readers/listeners are children. For example, the experience of morning sickness is constantly referred to as "a case of the queezies" and "tummy troubles". I'm a grown woman and just because I'm pregnant does not mean that I've lost my ability to understand nausea and anatomical terms like stomach.
Additionally, as a listening experience, the Q&A sections are hard to navigate. Much of it is not be relevant to each person. It requires constant fast forwarding and you never know what questions are next. The excerpts for male partners are sparse and patronizing (which is hilarious). It is written with the unsympathetic, uninvolved, and clueless stereotype of a male in mind. These also assume there is a male partner or Daddy. Some folks are going at it alone and some folks are not partnered with males.

13 people found this helpful

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  • Kanukipper
  • 04-06-19

Narration Grating, Tone Somewhat Condescending

I know this is supposed to be the pregnancy bible, but I am not a fan.

I gave it overall 3 stars because the information is there, but I was really not a fan of the narration. I usually can listen to audiobooks for hours while I clean, take walks, commute etc, but the author's voice has a tone to it that would cause my ears to hurt. If I listened too long (in my case about an hour), I started getting a headache. The author is not the only narrator. There was a woman who seemed to pipe in with the more science type passages. I MUCH preferred her voice.

I also felt like the author was condescending but trying to hide it with obnoxious, cutesy expressions and puns. The condescending tone is in the language, but I think having the author read the book herself made it more obvious. For a pregnancy bible, I would like the information without the undertones of "this is what you should do if I were you".

I listened to this book because my husband and I are preparing to have children. I should note that I'm also a fan of the Great Courses and listened to the book Scientific Secrets for Raising Kids Who Thrive. In that book, some interesting pregnancy information was provided, and I wanted to get more scientific information specifically targeted to pregnancy. Since this is the pregnancy bible, this is where I started. I would say the book is science-lite mixed in with those infantile expressions (I plan on having an infant, that doesn't mean I want to be talked to like an infant) and suggestions. I suspect there has been criticism in the past because there were several times when the author made statements at the beginning amounting to "even if you are from (insert nontraditional background or role here) this book is still for you".

I'm disappointed because I was hoping for something that provided the facts and information without an agenda. I will say that compared to other books, the agenda is not as in your face, but the agenda while more subtle is still there. (Not going to lie, I wish there were a Great Courses version of this...)

I was happy to encounter more modern day topics such as the low carb (keto) diet, paleo, and raw food diets as well as things like e-cigarettes discussed (even though none of them apply to me). They seemed to be trying to address modern issues that are coming up.

13 people found this helpful

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  • Sarah
  • 23-08-19

Great resource...with some caveats

I would not recommend getting this book as an audio book. There's just TOO much content and there's no value add from listening. In fact, you'll be able to skim through it and only focus on what's relavent to you with a hard copy.

There's a lot here, which is why this book is still so popular. There's some things that they did surprisingly well, like their coverage of post partum health for mom - especially mental health.

But there's a number of areas where the advice they give is too conservative for my taste. For example, there was a section on food where they cautioned against the health food aisle because there haven't been studies on things like the safety of herbal teas or flax seed. I don't recall them spending ANY time discussing why there's a natural child birth movement. There was no discussion regarding the negative consequences of epidurals, which made me scratch my head since she literally cautioned against too much mint tea. I'm not against epidurals, I believe to each their own, but understanding why some people are concerned is helpful and important information. I also don't recall much discussion on the rising popularity of doulas. There were pieces here regarding exercise that made me too nervous to continue many of my regular activities, which my doctor ultimately didn't agree with.

The book also chooses to cover SO much which means that there's not a lot of depth in a lot of areas. Moreover, there's not a lot of WHY. If understanding the logic, numbers and research is important to you, I strongly suggest reading Expecting Better by Emily Oster. Surprisingly this book actually provided more info on the labor and delivery process than this one.

All in all this is a good resource, but please don't let it be your only one!

8 people found this helpful

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  • Lindsey Arnold
  • 16-06-19

Too much of everything and not enough specifics

It feels like the reason this book has been so successful is because it has a great title.

This book covers pregnancy in broad strokes. It spends a lot of time on what to eat, and jumps back to eating often. It also spends a lot of time on beauty upkeep. Which I find to be annoying. It’s hard to skip through the BS because of it being an audible. I also find the over use of baby puns annoying.

It also is written to speak to a very traditional family archetype. They clearly made an addition to it where they said hey— this is to represent all families even though we say mom and dad throughout the entire book. Just pretend we’re talking to you & your circumstance. Woo woo.

I am certain there are better pregnancy books than this one. Save your credits and find one. This is one feels dated, despite being updated often and tries to hard to cover a very broad audience.

7 people found this helpful

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 18-03-21

least helpful book on pregnancy

After becoming pregnant I reached for this book as if it were the bible of pregnancy. It's the most common known and I assumed for a good reason. This book filled me with fear and uncertainty within the first 15 min of reading. Definitely wouldn't recommend. There are so many wonderful pregnancy books available. From the hips being my most favorites and easily digestible.

5 people found this helpful

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  • Ariel and Harrison
  • 26-08-19

Informative But Not Reference Based

The author uses a lot of "Some Doctors" and "a study" and "Should", not a lot of references as to which ones. Also, the book is riddled with cliches that would make your middle school teacher flunk your paper. Overall a better paperback than an audio book.

3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Crystal
  • 17-08-19

not all authors should be narrators

I couldn't finish it. The narration was so mind-numbing that my pregnant brain always shut down and it lulled me to sleep. The book is great, but the audiobook is not one I can recommend. (Written by Sam's wife)

3 people found this helpful

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  • Ryan
  • 30-05-19

Terrible narrator!

The narrator of this title is very difficult to listen to and has a grating and annoying voice. Instead of letting the author narrate her own book, they should have hired a professional!

3 people found this helpful

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 20-07-19

great

very long but jam-packed with very helpful details on almost everything that you can think of

2 people found this helpful

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  • Chris Lago
  • 26-06-19

Obvious statements with overly technical jargon

Spent hours talking about common sense ideas like not drinking or doing drugs. Of course that's bad! I know learned nothing about this process because this was either overtly obvious Do's and Don'ts with opinionated non factual based statistics like what to eat and in what quantity. No one is measuring Everything they eat for 9-10 months and what qualifies you to say stay away from 'Google' when you yourself have no educational background or expertise to speak of. You wrote this book for complete idiots who will throw money at a problem rather than seeking expert medical advise.

2 people found this helpful