Before Your Pregnancy: A 90-Day Guide for Couples on How to Prepare for a Healthy Conception (2nd Ed.) Paperback – May 24, 2011

For someone who has devoted their life to medicine, I certainly don't know everything about the field (and I willingly admit that). I have a lot to learn and a long way to go before I would be considered an expert in anything. Pregnancy would be no exception. There are a lot of things, maybe 40-50% of the book, that were review for me -- but even then, that leaves a lot of information to learn. And even the things that were review were great to refresh my memory on. It's also great to have all of this information in one place for reference. That's one of the most difficult things for parents, expecting-parents or those exploring parenthood...finding information. You get some here, there and then more somewhere else. Having it in one place is so helpful.The book was also great for my husband. While he has a basic anatomy and physiology understanding, he is definitely not medically oriented by any means (and I love him for that!). So this book was a huge help for him in learning some about pregnancy and preparing both of us for that event. Though he had done research on his own long before, I think (again) having it in one place helped and, for him, having it put in front of him was good. For a lot of folks exploring the idea of parenthood, they don't know exactly what to look for. This gave him the information so that he didn't miss any important topics.I found this very helpful and engaging, even as a healthcare provider. My husband, a non-healthcare provider, found it helpful and was able to get into it as well. Pick it up, and you'll probably have a hard time putting it down.

Like many women, I have spent many years trying not to get pregnant. When my husband and I decided to begin our family, I realized I knew a lot about what you should and should not do while pregnant, but didn't know a lot about how behavior can affect conception. While a lot of this book doesn't apply to me, I did find it very informative. It provides recommendations about alcohol consumption before and during conception for both the mother-and-father-to-be as well as recommendations for fitness and diet. While I eat relatively healthy, this book provided wonderful information about ways to eat more seafood and other nutrient-beneficial foods that will help with preparing your body to be it's healthiest while conceiving.The book was a quick read and not too scientific in it's language. I would recommend this for any mother or father who wants to make the best lifestyle choices they can prior to and during conception of their children.

So I'm giving this four stars, which I rarely do. This is an incredibly comprehensive book--from start to finish, it's all about PREconception, and how to better your body to make it the best environment for a potential baby.The one thing I take issue with the book however, is their treatment of obesity. Now, I'm overweight, and I will happily admit that. Throughout this entire book there is a consistently negative twist on the idea of being overweight and trying to conceive. ABSOLUTELY there are risk factors to being overweight, but this book recommends that you hold off conceiving until you're at your goal weight. I find this absurd. I've spoken with my many doctors and they have recommended I lose some weight, but have not emphasized it anywhere near as much as the authors of this book.That issue aside, I highly recommend this book. It is one of the only books I've come across that is dedicated SOLELY to preconception care. I love that about this book. It touches on some topics lightly for during pregnancy but that is not the focus of this book.

A lot of the book was very informative and helpful, however much of it was way too detailed. Especially all of the different vitamins and minerals and how much of each is too little or too much. It could be enough to make someone crazy trying to keep track of their daily intake of protein, omega 3's, vit A/C/D/E, etc.They are also rather conservative about things like not eating sushi up to weeks prior to even trying to conceive.I used it more as more of a reference and less of a read from cover to cover.

Amy's book opened up my awareness to male pre-pregnancy health. I was aware of the need for female pre-pregnancy health, but not male. As a father of two married sons, both planning of having children of their own, this was an obvious gift for them. It opened up my eyes and it opened up theirs.

This book is great in that it covers tons of information. It has answers to almost every question you could think to ask about what to do before trying to conceive. That's awesome, because you can learn a lot, but it also could be seen as a negative because there's so much to get through. What I ended up doing was skimming the portions/chapters that weren't applicable to me, and focusing my attention on what was applicable and/or interesting. I think that's the best way to do it -- otherwise it could end up being overwhelming. I expect to use it as a reference guide down the road as well.I recommend this book to anyone who is planning on trying to conceive in three to six months and who wants to know how best to prepare herself and her body. I saw other reviewers say you can find all the information in it online, and that's probably true, but I prefer to have it all at my fingertips with a good index in the back.