The Joy of Pregnancy: The Complete, Candid, and Reassuring Companion for Parents-To-Be

This is going to be THE next classic pregnancy guide! Friendly yet factual, and more practical than medical, this comprehensive guide to pregnancy and birth is intended as the only book parents-to-be will need as they wait for the baby. With a chapter for each month and another for the postpartum period, this book tells expectant parents what they want to know-how the baby and the mother's body are changing, how to prepare for the baby as well as the birth-when they want to know it. The tone is reassuring, nonjudgmental, and often humorous.

Tori Kropp, R.N., has delivered thousands of babies at the prestigious California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, where she has worked for nearly two decades. The birth process has been a fascination of Tori?s since childhood, and even as an experienced nurse, she still considers pregnancy care to be more of a passion than a career. After studying anthropology and psychology as an undergraduate at Michigan State University, she earned her nursing degree from Manatee College in Florida. Tori chose to work in perinatal nursing because it allows her to have a hands-on role in childbirth. An active member of the health care community, Tori is a member of the Association of Women?s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, and the California Nurses Association. In 1990, after observing that pregnant women were coming into the hospital more and more worried and anxious about labor, Tori founded a unique pre- and post-natal teaching program: PillowTalk, Modern Childbirth Education. Her strategy in these classes?teaching women not to overwhelm themselves with information and to focus instead on trusting their bodies and enjoying their pregnancies?was an instant success. In the mid 1990s, Tori used this same evenhanded, positive approach to pregnancy in founding Stork SiteR, a community website for expectant and new parents. Bursting with activity, this site became one of the Internet?s first successful communities and later became a part of ivillage.com. Known as ?the Dear Abby of pregnancy,? Tori has been interviewed on national television and radio and in national print publications, including CNN, Good Morning America, The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Washington Times, Atlanta Journal Constitution and Chicago Sun-Times. She lives in Marin County, California, with her family. For more information about Tori, please visit her website at TheJoyOfPregnancy.com