I Wish Someone Had Told Me

Comfort, Support and Advice for New Moms
by Nina Barrett

For the new mom or mom-to-be, this is a book full of eye-opening stories written by real-life mothers. Revealing all the unpleasant things that people usually don't talk about when anticipating a new baby- difficult and painful births, colicky infants that scream for hours on end, strains in the marriage relationship, etc. Nothing very rosy here. If you want to know just what you might be in for, it can be an interesting read, but I can't say I agree with the subtitle. It's not comforting, unless knowing you're not alone in your misery is comforting. And I didn't find much advice given in how to handle things; if I had, this book would have felt more worthwhile. I Wish Someone Had Told Me is like a dash of cold water to wake you up and realize: hey! new babies are not all sweet cuddles and smiles- it's tough to be a new mom, but we survived, so you can, too. That's the message I got. Well, it did make me laugh a few times, but I can't really give this book a wholehearted recommendation. (If they changed the subtitle to something like: Warnings, Alarms and Scares for New Moms, that would be more like it).

Rating:2/5                    238 pages, 1997