Emily Oster has declared war on the rules governing pregnancy, said Erica Schwiegershausen in NYMag.com. Recently, while expecting her first child, the University of Chicago economist began to wonder how many of the prohibitions her doctor passed along—no alcohol, no caffeine, no cleaning cat litter—were grounded in solid research. So she combed through hundreds of medical studies and came to the -conclusion—which she advances in her new book, Expecting Better—that doctors have been overselling many of the risks for convenience’s sake. “I think there’s a general feeling that women should like rules,” she says. “One of the reasons to have rules is so it’s like, ‘Well, you don’t have to think about this, because we’ve already thought about it for you.’ And sometimes that’s okay. But it was frustrating when I did want to think more about it.”
Oster should have stuck to economics, said Jacoba Urist in TheDailyBeast.com. Confident in her ability to interpret medical data, she ignores the fact that low-percentage risks are more meaningful in medicine than in her own field, then recklessly encourages other women to analyze the data themselves. But Oster shouldn’t be vilified just for writing a book that’s only meant to be a conversation-starter, said Kristen Kemp in Parents.com. “The book isn’t a substitute for your doctor—not by any means,” Oster says. “It is a way for women to be more informed and less anxious.” To the author, that means recognizing that a little wine or coffee is fine, and sometimes even cleaning a cat box.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'Making a police state out of the liberal university'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
8 looming climate tipping points that imperil our planetThe Explainer New reports detail the thresholds we may be close to crossing
-
Try 6 free issues of The Week JuniorSpark your child's curiosity with The Week Junior - the award-winning current affairs magazine for 8-14s.
-
Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
-
Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
-
The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
-
Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
-
Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
-
Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
-
You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
-
Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”