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Your Amazing Newborn

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Your Amazing Newborn celebrates a baby's extraordinary abilities in the first hours and days of life.

Marshall and Phyllis Klaus take parents and all those who care for new families into this freshly charted world, one they have been exploring for decades. The results of their fascinating research are illuminated by over 120 exquisite photographs, all of babies less than two weeks old.

Your Amazing Newborn begins before birth with images of fetuses actually comforting themselves in the womb. We then see newborns less than one hour old crawling unassisted to the breast, recognizing the voices of their parents, and shutting our unwanted sights and sounds.

Parents will learn how to discover an infant's clear preferences for certain shapes, smells, tastes, and tones of voice. They will be delighted by the ways babies seem to be able to ensure their own survival, and they will be amazed that within days after birth, newborns can engage in an intimate and reciprocal choreography, and nestle into a parent's embrace as though they had practiced for years.

Your Amazing Newborn is a must for parents-to-be, grandparents, siblings, and caregivers; through its stunning photographs we see the first reach, the first mutual gaze-and most wonderful of all-the first spark of recognition that ignites a lifetime bond.

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

9 people are currently reading
293 people want to read

About the author

Marshall H. Klaus

29 books2 followers

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5 stars
125 (40%)
4 stars
119 (39%)
3 stars
54 (17%)
2 stars
7 (2%)
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0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
Profile Image for Staci Woodburn-Henry.
453 reviews18 followers
July 31, 2017
Sweet and succinct. Not a ton of new information for us but fun to get excited for the first few hours of Baby's life.
Profile Image for Kumar.
170 reviews2 followers
September 19, 2021
Great pictures illustrating what your newborn is capable of and how you can pick up clues of what they are trying to "say". A few things I did not know about Newborns (1-3 weeks) before I read this:
1. Newborns can recognize by all senses. Smell is an important one.
2. Active alert state is the best one for bonding. They observe in an enchanting way that attracts even the most emotionally closeted people 🙂
3. Active sleep state should be ignored. They are still asleep no need to harass them into waking up.
4. You have 1min 30sec when crying begins before they become inconsolable (at least difficult to console in less than 1 min)
701 reviews5 followers
July 27, 2011
The instincts of a newborn are amazing. This book is a quick read (good for parents of newborns) and it gives a lot of insight into all of the reflexes and talents babies are born with. It gave us a great appreciation of our baby's skills and development and it was nice to have different things to look for (and be excited about and proud of) as we were getting to know him.
Profile Image for Jekaterina Dmitrijeva.
252 reviews10 followers
March 5, 2014
Brīnišķīga grāmata par jaundzimušo spējām un maņām un pieķeršanos veidošanos starp bērniem un vecākiem. Skaistas un skaidrojošas fotogrāfijas. Īpaši noderīgi pirmās reizes vecākiem, kad viss ir jauns un nezināms.
Profile Image for Yuliia.
217 reviews7 followers
January 6, 2023
It's amazing to read about a newborn and think about your own baby, dream about him/her. I didn't know how important that first our of birth is, I didn't know what newborns are capable of. I am very glad I have read this beautiful book.
Profile Image for Chris Mercado.
212 reviews
June 20, 2023
Quick, amusing read, but not incredibly valuable for a new parent...

The pictures are interesting, and it doesn't take long to read, but none of the information provided is new or anything I have not read already in other books. This book is 35 years old by now, and while the studies cited are interesting, they're no longer groundbreaking...

If you have not read much at all about newborns, and start here, this would be an easy, quick one to start with...
Profile Image for Lucy.
178 reviews1 follower
July 29, 2019
This was a little too dry for my taste. It discusses all these studies that were done to demonstrate abilities of newborns such as facial recognition. Instead of being amazing it came out sounding a little too academic and routine. Great concept, not the most trilling execution.
Profile Image for Juan Manuel.
143 reviews19 followers
January 21, 2020
Short and easy to read, it has a few jewels of information and feels quaint nowadays, as it dates from a few decades ago.
The photography in it is quite beautiful and the explanations remarkably accessible.
13 reviews
October 10, 2018
Amazing book. So much information in such a small book. I'll be reading this over and over.
Profile Image for Danielle Alana.
52 reviews10 followers
May 22, 2022
Highly recommend every new parent read this book before baby arrives. SO much helpful and interesting information about the fascinating time period of a newborn.
Profile Image for Anete Siņija.
14 reviews1 follower
February 9, 2023
Mīlestības un maiguma valodas pilna grāmata, kas paver skatu uz jaundzimušo pasauli
Profile Image for Gena.
112 reviews3 followers
October 17, 2016
Good, balanced information on what newborns are capable of. Wonderful, illustrative photographs. Short, easy read.
Profile Image for Julia.
1,088 reviews15 followers
August 13, 2016
This book was highly recommended by the instructor of my childbirth preparation class, and it is indeed a fascinating read. The authors have spent many years researching the behavior and innate abilities of newborns, demonstrating that commonly held misconceptions such as a newborn being unable to recognize its parents or interact with them in any meaningful way until it's older are simply untrue. The reader will find the evidence both surprising and astounding. I'm currently awaiting the birth of my first child with even more eagerness and anticipation than prior to reading this book.
Profile Image for Andrea.
8 reviews
July 24, 2008
This book is fascinating in that it explains precisely the complexity of what newborn babies are capable of. I really love this book and reading it when Aiden was an infant helped me to understand and appreciate what he was doing and experiencing. I would highly recommend this book to new parents or to anyone who is interested in learning more about babies or in understanding them better.
4 reviews6 followers
September 26, 2009
wonderful to read while holding a newborn...helps you understand what you already intuitively know. Favorite quote: "A Mayan Indian saying tells us: 'In the baby lies the future of the world. The mother must hold him close so he will know the world is his. The father must take him to the highest hill so he can see what his world is like.'"
Profile Image for Alice Chau-Ginguene.
262 reviews7 followers
January 3, 2022
An eye opening book on how newborn interact and communicate with us as young as a few hours old.
A must read for any new parent.
I am a birth and postpartum doula. I shall lend this book to any new parent I work with from now on.
It's a book that you can finish in one day. Lots of pictures to show how to 'read' newborn.
A classic.
Profile Image for Danielle Rich.
11 reviews1 follower
Read
August 24, 2012
I loaned it to my neighbor who I was helping w volenteer postpartum Doula service. She said "I have never seen a book like this wish I would have had this for my first baby Amazing book! wonderful pictures. step by step walks u threw ur baby .
Profile Image for Denise.
856 reviews5 followers
June 1, 2015
I found my old reading records from the time I was studying midwifery.

Interesting look a newborn learning, behavior, interaction. Good for parents to understand their baby and how to interact with him/her. Biology of attachment, etc.
Profile Image for Kitty.
1,480 reviews12 followers
November 4, 2016
I feel bad ranking this so low, but it's not going to be particularly memorable for me. It's a great book for people who don't know about bonding or skin-to-skin, and the photos are awesome. It's full of info for being so slim. And only a tiny bit dated.
10 reviews
February 29, 2008
a really good refrence for first time moms or moms with big gaps between the births of their babies.
Profile Image for Rachel.
30 reviews3 followers
November 11, 2008
This book is fascinating... mostly for the pictures. But even if you know a bit about babies it's a good one for restoring your sense of the wonderment of life!
Profile Image for Sara Elice.
64 reviews9 followers
February 19, 2010
The pictures in this book are really cute and it's a quick read which teaches ways to try to interact with your newborn to stimulate their senses and responses.
Profile Image for Angela Eschler.
Author 6 books20 followers
August 21, 2010
pretty interesting book---babies are amazing. I wasn't wowed by the format or writing, but the info is great.
Profile Image for Susan.
205 reviews3 followers
December 28, 2011
Pretty incredible research and photos. Definitely an amazing read for your last months of pregnancy.
Profile Image for Georgina.
575 reviews5 followers
March 8, 2013
Nice photos and some interesting info. I can't wait to play with my amazing newborn.
Profile Image for Kelly.
1,036 reviews72 followers
February 21, 2013
Fascinating stuff about new babies and how to interact with them; includes lots of pictures.

The author has an unfortunate evolutionary bias.
Profile Image for Jessyca Wyant.
115 reviews9 followers
August 2, 2013
Great, short, easy to read book with lots of pictures. Fascinating how much smarter newborn babies are than most people realize!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews

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