Nobody Told Me About That: The First 6 Weeks

by Ginger Breedlove, Michelle Doyle, Libby Rosen

This book covers many critical issues confronting the first few weeks of parenting. Nobody receives a comprehensive education on how to be a new parent. The authors are experienced professionals from a variety of disciplines dedicated to helping families of newborns.

Each chapter is written to stand alone, with the book covering an array of topics. The book is designed to be read a chapter at a time as you need to know, now! Every reader will gain confidence, coping skills, and an increased sense of calm through those first six weeks.

As a brand-new parent, if you have experienced the phrase, "Nobody Told Me About That", we have answers!

Genres: Nonfiction, Parenting

308 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 15, 2018

Reviews

[CC · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by my midwife as I was being discharged from the hospital after laboring and birthing our son, three weeks ago. It kept my attention, spoke to many of my challenges and fears, and the mindfulness section especially felt relevant. The immediate postpartum period is so challenging and scary at times, and any resource that helps others (including me) feel understood and not alone in it is worth its weight in gold.

[Susanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

There's no getting around it, this book needed a much much heavier editing hand--not only to fix the many typos, half sentences, and grammar errors and not only to rewrite passive voice sentences into active voice, but also to dramatically reduce and restructure the content.

Here's an example of a sentence begging to be rewritten: "Information shared was that something happens to every family during the labor, birth or early postpartum period that is challenging to manage."

Each chapter is contributed by a different midwife, mom, or expert and is a hodgepodge of the individual author's experience and thoughts, loosely centered on a topic.

My guess is that the midwives who contributed just wrote their thoughts freely without worrying about organization or grammar. And maybe the copy editor wasn't detail-oriented, edited each chapter as it came in, and had too much respect for the midwives to suggest more cuts and restructuring?

Regardless, I thought I could ignore the bad writing and find the gems of wisdom. Unfortunately for me, there actually wasn't much new to me and it was stuck between pages of filler and questionable information. At a certain point, I was just hate-reading to confirm that it would never get better. This was not a good use of my reading time from 7 months pregnant to 1 month postpartum.

One section that actually was useful and unique was on how to call the doctor with a health concern postpartum--when it's so easy for providers to dismiss life-threatening symptoms as part of the wide range of normal postpartum issues. The author of the chapter "Finding Your Voice Postpartum" had good tips for what to say specifically and what the doctor needs to hear on the phone. But with a chapter title like that, how would you know to look at that section if you hadn't read it ahead of time and remembered that this section was in that chapter?

Now for a few examples of content that bothered me.

Not surprisingly, there was fear mongering around formula ("it may make the baby more gassy or fussy") in the chapter "I slept like a baby." There was fear mongering around crying it out ("but remember that research shows that babies that are held a lot and do not have as much crying...are more self-regulated at a year of age and more independent"). What research? And do they also sleep worse?

The chapter on "Breastfeeding Realities and Formula Facts" implies that breastfeeding takes no time because "You will also save time by not having to measure formula or warm bottles." (!!!)

The chapter on birth control helpfully points out the effectiveness of numerous options. But I'll contrast two here in a way that shows it could be very misleading: it says the combination pill is only 91% effective with "typical" use and exclusive breastfeeding is 98% effective with "perfect" use (as defined by frequency of nursing). Why not share efficacy for both with perfect or typical use? This type of statement is probably why some women don't know they can get pregnant while breastfeeding!

I bought the second (2023) edition of the book. It was recommended by one of my midwives, and my library didn't have a copy. Not a great use of money, but at least I got to underline the bewildering half sentences and scrawl my responses in the margins.

[DENIZ WESLEY · Rating 2 out of 5]

Awesome first few chapter but then it kept dragging on forever...

[Tessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skimmed through this. Some good information, but also plenty of info which didn't apply to me.