GETTING PREGNANT, What You Need To Know Right Now; by Niels H. Lauersen, M.D., and Colette Bouchez; Rawson Associates; 320 pages. $22.95.
Forget passion, poetry, and miracles. CONCEPTION IS AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT. The authors obviously think so! THEY USE SO MANY CAPITAL LETTERS AND EXCLAMATION POINTS THAT YOU THINK THEY ARE TRYING TO SELL YOU A USED CAR. It gets ANNOYING!Questions of style aside, there is a bigger problem with this book: Dishonesty. "Getting Pregnant" promises, in bold type all over the front and back covers, that any couple can conceive.
In the introduction, Lauresen and Bouchez reiterate that promise. "In fact, thanks to what has been learned in just the past three years alone, almost every couple who wants to have a baby, can have one!"
In fact, reading chapters one through seven, you learn there are a myriad of reasons why couples can't conceive. Don't get the mumps, Lauresen and Bouchez caution males. Don't be exposed to low levels of radiation while you are growing up. They advise females not to get endometriosis, or pelvic inflamatory disease, or to ever have an unsterile abortion or an ectopic pregnancy.
Thank you, authors. But what if it's already too late? What if you just paid $23 for a book that promises you a baby, but as you sit reading it there is scar tissue growing in your fallopian tubes?
Well, then you could have in vitro fertilization, which the authors describe in chapter 18. But for that procedure you would need to see a fertility specialist and "Getting Pregnant" with its REVOLUTIONARY FERTILITY DIET and fascinating section titled CAN SWEAT MAKE YOU MORE FERTILE? is money wasted.
Along with some fairly boring sections lifted straight from an eighth-grade health book, "Getting Pregnant" contains intriguing news. It's not just the sweat study, wherein researchers at the Monsell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia suggest a link between the male's underarm chemicals and the length and timing of the female's menstrual cycle.
NO! Lauersen and Bouchez ALSO report on a Japanese study that shows women tend to be more fertile on their BIRTHDAYS! They report on new drugs, new tests, new methods for avoiding miscarriage, and, in their own words, MUCH, MUCH MORE.
If you are having trouble conceiving, see a doctor. If you like to read about fertility, and are not put off by INSENSITIVITY! and HYPE!, buy this book.