The Prenatal Prescription

This is an excellent book for any couple to read well before they embark on the journey of pregnancy. When you realize that the nutritional and emotional environment has such a key roll in the life of the child for the rest of their lives - you take things a lot more seriously in preparing for a healthy pregnancy and working to adjust your life and habits accordingly. Don't get pregnant without reading this book!

This is the single most informative and enlightening book I had read in a long time. After reading it, I asked my mom for details of how she cared for herself when she was pregnant with me, and it shined a light on so many things that I had dealt with since childhood. Now, I am myself 7 months pregnant and reading the book for a second time so that I may be mindful to do all that I can to grow a healthy baby. I recommend this book to all women who are pregnant or plan to conceive.

There aren't many books out there that address ways you can prepare BEFORE conception to promote the health of your child. The Prenatal Prescription carefully details the ways in which you can prepare your body, both before and after conception, to provide a healthy environment for your developing baby. There are two things that set this book apart from other preganancy prep books. The first is that Peter Nathanielsz has carefully surveyed the research literature to answer some of the questions that every parent wants to know during pregancy (e.g. Can I exercise? Is caffiene okay?). He sifts through the evidence to evaluate the current thinking on prenatal development. It's very helpful to have access to this information in a pregnancy book. He also addresses topics that the reader may not even know are pertinent to pregancy; the chapter on stress and its effects on fetal development is fascinating, and the chapter on exercise is worth the cost of the book alone.The second thing that sets this book apart is its tone. Nathanielsz writes with clarity and with great respect for the mother-to-be. He presents complex information in a way that is easy to process and absorb. This is a nice balance point between overly cutesy popular press and the too-technical-for-laypeople scientific literature. Finally, he manages to convey the need to provide a good prenatal environment without terrifying the reader, frequently putting the information back into the context of the 'big picture'. This is an excellent book for anyone just thinking about when to plan a family; some of the recommended changes may take time to put into place.

Easy to read. Very informative and well written. I enjoyed it immensely.

The Prenatal Prescription should be read by all pregnant women and by their families. It helps everyone to prepare and plot their way through the crucially important period of pregnancy. Professor Nathanielsz explains exactly what happens to the foetus, and more importantly, what is essential for the good health of the unborn child and its mother. The guidelines which he presents here are of inestimable importance. The book is immensely readable, presented for the general reader: the science does not obstruct our understanding of the extraordinary, exciting story of pregnancy.