The Expectant Father (Fifth Edition)

The Ultimate Guide for Dads-to-Be (The New Father)

By: Jennifer Ash Rudick, Armin A. Brott

Narrated by: Armin A. Brott

Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

The Expectant Father is the best-selling pregnancy guide for men, trusted by millions of dads-to-be and their partners.

This reassuring month-by-month overview gives you the facts and advice you need to understand your baby’s development, support your partner, and prepare for the joys and challenges of fatherhood. It concludes with two special sections: one on labor and delivery, and the other covering the first few months after your baby’s arrival.

The fifth edition of this New York Times best seller is updated with the latest information about fertility, prenatal care, and delivery; work-life balance (including the lessons learned from COVID-19); financial planning; and much more. It incorporates the expertise of leading OB-GYNs and researchers and the real-life experiences of hundreds of dads and moms.

The Expectant Father is a friendly, listenable, and inclusive companion for all dads-to-be. (Moms will love it, too!)

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021, 2015, 2010, 2001, 1995 Jennifer Ash Rudick and Armin A. Brott (P)2021 Armin A. Brott

A good start.

The Expectant Father is a great book for any expecting father to get their start. I definitely feel more prepared for this pregnancy than before.

Excellent Primer all things Father

I definitely enjoyed this book. It was a great overview of what a future father can do to be prepared or at least have a jumping of point for the issues that could and will arise from having a child. Reading this book was like getting great advise from a trusted friend. It doesn’t drill down too deep on any one issue but does provide enough info so that you can go ahead and do your own research. Also I really appreciated all the studies that were sited as evidence that what was being suggested is based on science. I found myself writing the date of when my baby was going to be at the stage in the book, month one, month two, etc.

Amazing overview for first time dad.

Clear, concise, and easy to follow in audiobook form. This was the first book I listened to upon learning I am going to be a dad!

Great read

Super insightful, play-by-play, that I will definitely be revisiting as the months of our pregnancy roll along

ok overall

some good info but also alot of meandering and going on too long about topics

over the top

Some of the information is very useful, such as financial information and what basic questions to ask. Other stuff just seemed silly. The author seems like he was just jealous that people were paying attention to his wife. Take the life betterment information and get another book for pregnancy-specific information.

Ok if you are clueless about fatherhood

A few useful tips, but many of the suggestions were common sense. Perhaps forums give more information about specific topics you care about.
Consider skipping chapters that are not relevant for you.

Bad jokes don't teach me or mom anything

"mom using morning sickness as an es excuse to get out of doing laundry" and ending some aimless paragraph about "safety" with a "just don't bring your gun" joke.

These were just a couple of our favorite bad jokes to highlight in the physical copy I unfortunately spent money on to accompany this audio book.

Chapter 4 (Month 4) Suggests that dad both purchase jewelery to make mom happy and also worry about a 529/401k/will/college fund. All in the same chapter. Which is it? Tennis bracelets or College Fund?

Mediocre at best; some decent information, kinda sexist bro-vibes throughout.

I’ll start by acknowledging that this book is clearly written for the “middle of the pack/bell curve/whatever”.

Pros: If you know absolutely nothing about pregnancy or childbirth, this might be a really useful book. It’s pretty accessible, really speaks to your average American bro who knows nothing and barely cares about experiences of people other than himself (like, ya know, his wife). Good validation and normalization that yes, men have feelings too. Some useful practical information about planning etc. Some useful information about labor and delivery.
Cons: whiny, fragile man ego abound. Misrepresentations of masculinity (see below). Very, very white-focused, no mention of racial disparities. The lack of mention of poor birth outcomes for American women and particularly women of color, was astounding - oh yeah, this book was more about white guys’ feelings being hurt than they’re partners lives. Over normalized medically unnecessary interventions and overmedicalized birth.
The overreliance on attempts at jokes felt like an attempt to compensate for moderate lack of substance.

So much time is spent essentially trying to tell men how to not be complete and utter pieces of shit to their partners, while giving off a distinctly whiny and rank “but what about meeeeee” vibe. “My poor little fragile man ego that society has taught me to overvalue can’t bear to be sidelined for 9 whole months!!” was a common theme.

I expected more…nuance…and less pandering to existing toxic masculine BS. It’s not the mentions of “guy stuff” or stereotyped male attitudes - those things are real, but never have I read (listened to) a book which so delicately walks the line of highlighting problems/negative consequences of gender socialization and masculinity while also expertly doing everything possible to reinforce it. Seems like a bit more higher level thought could be given to this.

The book is scantily referenced up until the end; there’s a lot more science that could have been discussed here.

that being said, fairly engaging, a bit heavy handed with the subtly sexist jokes (quite, for my taste). This is clearly a book for men having children with women, so gets a pass on exclusivity there, but feels like maybe mostly written in the 90s with the preoccupation with gender roles etc. Sure, some of this is biological around childbirth, but again, really does as much to reinforce the fragile man ego and toxic masculinity as it does to dismantle much of anything.

Organization was a bit disjointed - the chronological walk through gestation was ok, but got very tangential most of the time. Could be better, but not terrible.

Performance was great, hit that fragile little terrified man ego bro vibe right on the head.

4/10. I’m sure lots of bros thought it was great.

Also, “it’s important to talk about discipline - are you going to spank your child, or not? Talk about it.” Good god what decade is it? This is child abuse. Don’t. This is well studied at this point. Don’t hit your kids. Please, and don’t let this bro-pandering, mediocre, pop-scientific attempt to dig into the realities of mens’ socialization and experience of emotions, bonding, and attachment tell you otherwise.

We’ll, that was kind of a waste of time.

I understand it’s not an easy task to write a book on pregnancy for dads. But the advice laid out in this book felt like it was written for a caricatures of stereotypes. So not terribly helpful to me, a dad, living in 2023. And as such this book failed to deliver much of any valuable information and -0- nuance to the topic. I might advise skipping the book and finding some worthwhile videos on YouTube. It’ll be a far more informative experience.