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4.0 

Expecting Better

By Emily Oster
Expecting Better by Emily Oster digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

Fully revised and updated for 2025, from the bestselling author of Cribsheet, The Family Firm, and The Unexpected

“Emily Oster is the non-judgmental girlfriend holding our hand and guiding us through pregnancy and motherhood. She has done the work to get us the hard facts in a soft, understandable way.” —Amy Schumer

The award-winning economist named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people disproves standard recommendations about pregnancy to empower women while they're expecting.

Pregnancy—unquestionably one of the most pro­found, meaningful experiences of adulthood—can reduce otherwise intelligent women to, well, babies. Pregnant women are told to avoid cold cuts, sushi, alcohol, and coffee without ever being told why these are forbidden. Rules for prenatal testing are similarly unexplained. Parents-to-be desperately want a resource that empowers them to make their own right choices.

When award-winning economist Emily Oster was a mom-to-be herself, she evaluated the data behind the accepted rules of pregnancy, and discovered that most are often misguided and some are just flat-out wrong. Debunking myths and explaining everything from the real effects of caffeine to the surprising dangers of gardening, Expecting Better is the book for every pregnant woman who wants to enjoy a healthy and relaxed pregnancy—and the occasional glass of wine.

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1783 Reviews

4.0
“1. Recommend for anyone thinking of having children 2. Gives a great framework on how to think about the choices you want to make 3. Listening to the audio version was almost like listening to a friend. So casual and had some funny moments.”

About Emily Oster

Emily Oster is a professor of economics at Brown University and the author of Expecting Better, Cribsheet, and The Family Firm. She writes the newsletter ParentData and her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Bloomberg. She has two children.

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