She is extremely negative about natural childbirth, for starters. She refers to natural childbirth methods as "way too organic" and weird. How you give birth is a personal choice, and natural childbirth may not be for everyone, but I didn't appreciate the repeated digs at the way we hope to give birth to our child.

I was also offended at how she asserts that all husband are totally turned off by their wives while they're pregnant. I know that some couples struggle with this, but her assumption that they all just turn to the Playboy channel until their wives get their figures back was very offensive to me. She even made it seem like we shouldn't mind, and maybe be grateful, if this happens.

I would've loved this book if it hadn't been for items like these. If you're considering or planning a natural birth and/or your husband loves your body regardless of how it looks right now, skip this book. If you're planning a medicated birth and/or think it's kind of cute when your husband turns to pornography instead of you, this book is right up your alley.


The most condescending, ignorant, untrue pregnancy book out there   February 19, 2006
 37 out of 37 found this review helpful

I really hated this book. Because I did spend money on it, I did read it all the way through, although very grudgingly. I have a FANTASTIC sense of humor and hardly anything offends me, but this woman managed to do it. Her whiny, self-important, condescending attitude actually made me hurl the book at a wall...and that wasn't just pregnancy hormones. It was THAT bad.

Ms. Iovine, a former Playboy playmate, would like you to believe that she is on YOUR side - she and her bevy of what I'm convinced are imaginary girlfriends. However, she goes on about what an evil thing pregnancy is and that it will rob you of your body and good looks...FOREVER. She clearly states numerous times that after having a baby you will be fat, overweight, unattractive, and have saggy breasts. This was one of the first books I bought after finding out I was pregnant and didn't know what to expect. I literally cried after reading it thinking my life was over. I was surprised Ms. Iovine doesn't have a Smith & Wesson ad in the back of her book. The "you might as well die" tone just unsettled me.

She is obviously unhappy with herself and her life and is looking to bring others down with her. She's like the girl who claims to be your "friend" but gives you backhanded comments every chance she gets (eg. "Oh, wow...those pants really make your butt not look as huge as it really is!"). In reality, I think SHE was probably too lazy to exercise after pregnancy and expects you to throw in the towel, too, and be just as miserable as she is.

For anyone else depressed after reading this, I had my baby and lost all the weight and now have six-pack abs and my breasts don't sag even after six months of breastfeeding. My husband DOES still find me attractive and my life didn't end. Thank you for nothing, Vicki Iovine and your fellow whiny, former size 4 girlfriends.

If you want the "I've been there" assurance from a non-catty girlfriend who is looking out for YOU with laugh-out-loud humor, buy 'Belly Laughs' by Jenny McCarthy or 'Pregnancy Sucks' by Joanne Kimes. Where I wouldn't have a cup of decaf and discuss my burgeoning belly with Ms. Iovine, I'd glady do so with McCarthy and Kimes.


A welcome dose of humor   August 13, 1999
 34 out of 36 found this review helpful

I was a typical nervous first-time mother, devouring my What to Expect books and trying to find a bit of comfort in there. Those books are so clinical. I felt like a traitor when I snarfed down a Poptart instead of eating the recommended quotient of veggies.

I had a natural birth and was preparing for it when I read this book but I was not offended that Vicki Lovine was so hip on the epidural. Everyone I met was. Frankly, it was a nice relief from the "Childbirth is such a wonderful, incredible experience" pap that I was reading (all of it true, but proselytizing, too).

Pregnancy IS wonderful and beautiful, but it's okay to acknowledge that sometimes you feel fat and sick and tired. It was more helpful knowing that I wasn't the only one who felt this way than all the goody-two-shoes advice in the other books. For once, someone told me not to worry, to view the experience with a sense of humor, and everything would turn out all right.

Like any advice from your girlfriends, even if you don't agree with it, it's reassuring to know they've been there, too.


Poor Vicki!   June 18, 1999
 33 out of 44 found this review helpful

This book is supposed to be a helpful, hip guide to the real inside scoop on pregnancy. Some of the advice -- especially how not to spend a fortune on maternity clothes, what to take to the hospital, things like that -- is excellent; but I was disturbed at how awful she makes the whole pregnancy and birth experience sound. I'm currently trying to conceive for the first time, and she almost made me rethink the whole idea! Fortunately, my girlfriends who've been there and done that claim it's all not as dire as Iovine makes it sound. Maybe if you pop out four in six years (!) the experience wears a bit thin ...

I found the endless moaning about how fat and disgusting pregnant women look, and how repulsive they are to the men in their lives, to be quite tiresome, especially coming from a woman who repeatedly reminds us that she wears a size four. The tone throughout makes it sound as if Mr. Vicki is hell on wheels to be married to -- the second she became marginally less decorative he can hardly stand to look at her or, indeed, be in the same room. Now there's a man I'd be dying to be married to!

Parts of this book are quite funny: Iovine has a nice, chatty, girlfriendy tone throughout, and you come out rather liking her as a person. But the end result of reading this book, for me, was depressing rather than comforting. Do women ever actually want to get pregnant, and not regret the choice once it happens? If you listen to Iovine, you sure wouldn't think so.