PARENT SAVVY, Straight Answers to Your Family’s Financial, Legal & Practical Questions

by Nihara K. Choudhri, Esq.

 

Rating:

 

Published by Nolo Publishing, a respected organization dedicated to educating consumers, Parent Savvy is a nice attempt by a main stream author to touch on the many options pregnant and new parents have.  Unfortunately, the main stream bias overpowers many areas by discrediting options that are time-tested to be safe.  For example, the discussion of birth plans includes mention of midwives of all kinds, but gives short shrift to non-nurse midwives by stressing that they are not nurses while failing to point out that birth is normal and studies fail to confirm the need for medical care for the vast majority of American women.

 

Another area that is covered is where to give birth.  The author covers hospital birth in depth, but obviously has no first hand experience regarding home birth.  No mention of unnecessary interventions as a disadvantage for hospital birth, but the author states that the reason most American women choose not to give birth at homne is because you cannot find a physician to attend you there, emergency care for those inevitable complications is not available and you can’t ghet you’re epidural at home! Eek!

 

Regarding breastfeeding, there is little in this book to recommend it.  The author basically looks at breastfeeding as a legal topic, rather than as womanly art, and so directs the reader to state laws.  Where are the practical answers to someone with breastfeeding problems?  Not in this book!  The default resource for all issues is www.babycenter.com, a main stream site supported by main stream ads hawking breast pumps and bottles. 

 

Perhaps the problems I have with this book are that the author should have restricted herself to the areas with which she was most familiar – the legal ones.  The book gives good information about choosing childcare, health insurance issues, college savings plans, tax breaks, wills and making your home safer for your newest family member.  Relying on this book for those topics may be helpful for many families.

 

Reviewed by Roberta Waters