[.ca] Healthy Parents Better Babies (ISBN 0895949555)

From Amazon.com:
In recent years, the importance of preconception health care and preparation has become more widely recognized. In Healthy Parents, Better Babies, authors Francesca Naish and Janette Roberts present a strong case for creating "better" babies by encouraging parents to rigorously and proactively improve their health through nutrition and supplements, exercise, and stress control. Naish, a naturopath, herbalist, and hypnotherapist who runs a natural fertility clinic in Australia, and Roberts, a clinical nutritionist, combine forces to instruct potential parents (yes, dads, too!) on ways to detoxify their bodies, clean up their local environment, and improve their reproductive health. At least four months before conception is attempted, the authors stress, potential parents should focus on their health. Healthy Parents, Better Babies occasionally resorts to scare tactics. The authors describe, for instance, a healthy child born to parents who followed their preconception plan and then contrast that story with the story of a woman who did not detoxify her body, suffered a terrible pregnancy and birth, and whose child suffered from colic, irritability, bad skin, allergies, bed wetting, and learning disabilities as a result. Beyond the sometimes heavy-handed message, however, is an invaluable guide to nutrients, herbs, and a super-healthy diet. --Ericka Lutz

excellent advice:
I am studying to be a certified nutritional consultant and have been looking for a pre-conception book to recommend to future clients. Healthy Parents, Better Babies is just that book. The authors define a healthy diet in easy to understand terms and also explain and give examples of the importance of exercise and stress reduction. Much better, more accurate information than I've seen to date on parent health and it's relationship to baby's health. Naish and Roberts explain why avoiding smoking, drugs, alcohol and caffeine are so important and dedicate 7 chapters to the ways in which you and your spouse can improve your lifesyle in preparation for a pregnancy. Even if your about to begin baby #2 or #3, this book is a must. It all but guarantees an easier, healthier pregnancy this time around. The authors give you sound advice on fertility enhancement, conscious conception, a healthy full-term pregnancy (avoiding morning sickness, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, constipation, etc.), short and straightforward labor, a healthy baby (reduced incidences of colic, thrush, eczema, allergies, etc.) and successful breastfeeding. In my opinion, if you're having trouble conceiving, read this book, follow the suggestions and then try again.

Alarmist, very strict advice:
I would only recommend this book for people who are already very "crunchy." Large portions of the book are dedicated to herbal remedies, acupressure, detoxification of the body, etc. The chapter on detoxing your environment is pretty alarmist. The authors recommend completely avoiding airplane flights (except for emergency), completely avoiding microwave use and electronic devices in the bedroom, etc. On the other hand, they are fairly anti-vegetarian! I don't despise this book--it offers a lot of information and I feel it's well-intentioned--but it really scared me to death. Just be sure you know what you're buying.

worked for us!:
We may not be perfect candidates for this book, but all I can say is, we adopted many of the guidelines (especially diet and timing ovulation) and got pregnant on our first try! We had no known fertility problems and we're in our 30's - but we were interested in creating an optimal environment for conception to take place. I especially liked that my husband had an equal role in this program. One of his "jobs" was to produce the healthiest sperm possible, which is described in detail. Now here I am, expecting our first child in a week! I would encourage anyone to give this book a try, especially if fertiltity is an issue.

This book helped us achieve a MIRACLE......:
We had been trying for 4 years to have a baby on our own and via hi-technology (too many medical procedures, IVF's etc to mention). I had been aware of this book for some time and decided that we needed to make a concerted effort to help OURSELVES before we started our next (and final) IVF treatment. No-one could give us any definite answers as to why we weren't pregnant, but I figured that following the advice from this book, the pre-conception care could only improve our general health and well being. Not a bad thing considering how run down we were. Yes, at times the advice in this book sounds like tough love, but realistically it was a lot easier than being a medical experiment yet again. It isn't designed purely for couples with trouble conceiving but for those who want better babies and a better pregnancy..... So, the success of our story is that we followed the programme in conjunction with our Naturopath and despite all the doom and gloom stories we had been told before, we have now managed to conceive our own little miracle baby, which will be due later this year. This is the ONLY thing we have done differently in 4 years and I truly believe it is the only reason we are pregnant today. I have listed my address as both the USA (where we spent a large percentage of our time during our efforts to conceive) and Australia (where we now reside) to dispel any myths that this is a book with Aussie content that may not be suitable for those based in the USA. Whilst it may be true that Alternative Therapy practitioners may be less available (per Capita) in the US than Down Under, I would advise you to buy this book to give you some practical advice and guidance before you head off to the health food store. Self-medicating (even with herbs) can be quite dangerous so it is important to have an authoritative reference guide. There are other books available with a similar approach but none that are this thorough..... I will also be buying Francesca's follow-up books as my pregnancy progresses......

Excellent source!:
I found this book to be an excellent resource to use while preparing for conception. Most of all, I found the dietary information to be very valuable. The information in this book really defines the importance of good basic health and how it relates to the conception period (and to your growing baby once you're pregnant). We followed the dietary advice and we were pregnant on the first try!!! It was a very easy read and I encourage all to read it, everyone can benefit from it.