UPDATE: Congrats to J., the lucky winner!
There is a new, fully revised and updated edition of the pregnancy bible, Your Pregnancy Week By Week by Glade Curtis, MD, MPH and Judith Schuler, MS. This updated edition covers new trends, the latest medical advice and safety recommendations and over 80 new topics to assist you and your baby. Dr. Curtis and Ms. Schuler have also developed a great online resource for expectant parents.

During my pregnancies, I found this series to be the ultimate help and joy. The weekly tips are so practical, and the weekly Dad tips give great ideas on how to more fully involve your partner in the pregnancy. The sections for each week on the baby and the mother are ingeniously divided, so that you are not bombarded with too much disjointed information per chapter. There are safe, easy exercises for each week of your pregnancy that I found not only lightly toned what muscles I had beneath the mama chub, but helped relieve pelvic pressure, sciatica and massage end-of-the-day joint pain.

I particularly love the drawings that show each week the actual size of your baby, making the chapters on the baby’s development and growth so fun to read in bed at night with the husband and older kids. This book spares us the diagrams of Giselle-like women’s belly profiles and comparisons of the baby to a piece of fruit, and gives us the straight scoop on what organs your baby is working on and his length in inches. And since this is the only best-selling pregnancy guide written by an actual doctor, this lack of pandering makes total sense.

I have one brand new hardcover copy of the sixth edition of this best-selling guide available that I will give away to one lucky reader. If you are expecting or trying to conceive, just send an email to jessica dot mcfadden at g mail dot com. If you’re newly expecting, don’t worry, I won’t tell a soul! I will have my son draw one name out of the old Bob the Builder pith helmet tomorrow.

Thanks to the good folks at Da Capo Press and the Perseus Books Group for the free copy!