The Unexpected: Navigating Pregnancy During and After Complications

Oster (economics, Brown Univ.; The Family Firm) and Fox (ob-gyn and maternal fetal medicine, Icahn Sch. of Medicine, Mt. Sinai; host, Healthful Woman Podcast) help parents navigate the fears and questions of a pregnancy with health complications. Their book is divided into into trimesters and common complications, such as severe vomiting, gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, premature birth, miscarriage, and more. The authors talk women through how to best talk to their providers and ask questions about these challenges and how to make the best decisions for themselves and their situations. Their book highlights pertinent definitions, summarizes each chapter, and includes statistics about Black women having a higher risk of complications and 2.3 times the maternal mortality rate of white and Hispanic women. Their numbers also indicate that higher-income Black women with health issues have a higher maternal mortality rate than white mothers who make far less. The book points to other resources that explain these inequities in greater detail. It also comes with recommendations for supplements, vitamins, tests, and preventions.