Beyond Parenting Advice

Book excerpt: This book provides pregnant women and new parents with evidence-based information on pregnancy and parenting. Most parenting books advise pregnant women or new parents what to do and, at best, defend that advice by citing recommendations from highly selected “experts” or equally selective “studies.” Some parents prefer an advice book, but an increasing number do not trust the advice they receive unless they are convinced of its scientific backing. Dr. Kramer does not tell pregnant women or new parents what they should or should not do. Instead, he focuses on controversial decision choices for which recommendations and practices differ substantially. He systematically reviews and synthesizes the available scientific evidence bearing on those choices, summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of that evidence, and translates the summaries in a way that encourages parents to make their own informed decisions. He summarizes the risks and benefits of different decision options, as well as the degree of certainty around them. The risks and benefits then need to be valued by the individual parent and balanced against the effort and financial costs incurred by the decision. Beyond Parenting Advice does not cover every conceivable topic relevant to pregnancy, infancy, and childhood. Instead, it focuses on key controversial areas with abundant but conflicting advice and information. The book’s contents are organized into four sections: an initial section comprising two introductory chapters and one section each devoted to topics concerning pregnancy, infancy/toddlerhood, and childhood/adolescence. Each topic is limited to one chapter. The two introductory chapters are short but dense. They are essential, however, to understand the scientific concepts and vocabulary used in the evidence review of each topic area. After reading the two initial chapters, the rest of the book can actually be used like an encyclopedia. In other words, the reader should be able to read and understand any later chapter in the book, or even a short section from any chapter. Despite the chronological order of pregnancy and the aging child, the topic chapters in sections 2-4 could have been written, and can be read, in any order. An initial Reference Tools section provides a glossary and reproduces a diagram and two tables that define unfamiliar words and concepts. Armed with the information provided in this book, different parents will make different decisions. But those decisions will be informed decisions—not blind obedience to a book, blog, health provider, friend, family, or public health authority. Moreover, the skills that parents acquire in reading this book will help them throughout their lives in critically evaluating new information relevant to health, science, and technology.