Parenthood the Swedish Way

a science-based guide to pregnancy, birth, and infancy
Cecilia Chrapkowska, Agnes Wold (trans. Stuart Tudball, Chris Wayment)

‘Agnes Wold has been a guiding hand when I’ve been pregnant and had small children. A more comforting hand than various parenting bibles, a more allowing hand than the leaflets from the maternity care and the child health centres. She gives the parent more room to be a human being, and less bad conscience … What parents need is advice based on science and level-headed tips. And some encouragement.’

Sydsvenskan

‘These are things (the sterilising especially) I could have done with knowing all those times I was staring, eye a-twitch, while willing a kettle to boil at 3am as an infant mewled in my ear.’

Anna Whitehouse, Grazia

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‘Are you of the opinion that the Trump administration rely on alternative facts much? That is nothing compared to what women are confronted by as soon as they get pregnant. In the parallel pregnancy reality the alt-facts are commonplace. ’Truths’ are constantly foisted on you, and shockingly enough they often turn out to be intrusive opinions, moralism, or pure inventions … If The Handmaid’s Tale is an exaggerated and dramatised reminder of the anxiety of becoming breeding stock, Wold & Chrapkowska’s book can be a crucial antidote. One by one, they deal with some well-known ’truths’ related to bearing and birthing that are in part being spread by social functions, e.g. the variety of advice on what you can eat and drink during pregnancy and breastfeeding — some are correct while other recommendations seem to have been inspired by Christian faith and morality rather than science.’

Dagens Nyheter

Using the latest research and a wealth of personal experiences, this is the fact-based, no-nonsense approach to birth, child health, and shared child-rearing you have been waiting for.

Many expectant parents will be surprised and relieved to hear the following: breastfeeding doesn’t protect against allergies; sterilising bottles and dummies is unnecessary in most countries; and if you think you shouldn’t drink alcohol when breastfeeding, you’ve been taken in by plain moralism and not scientific evidence. And by the way, you can forget the housework and prescribed routines: as long as you attend to your baby’s basic needs and maintain your social and work connections, you’ll be doing just fine.

Paediatrician Dr Cecilia Chrapkowska runs one of Sweden’s most popular parenting blogs, Barnakuten, and is a specialist on vaccinations. Dr Agnes Wold has been named Sweden’s Woman of the Year for her tireless work in women’s health. Together they present cutting-edge research from around the world that can guide you to make better parenting choices. Drawing on Sweden’s famously generous parental leave and enlightened social policies, they also demonstrate the importance of equal parenting, and provide practical tools for parents everywhere to share responsibility equally.

Parenthood the Swedish Way is an egalitarian, myth-busting guide through the maze of challenges that parents face raising healthy, happy families in the twenty-first century.

Sydsvenskan

‘These are things (the sterilising especially) I could have done with knowing all those times I was staring, eye a-twitch, while willing a kettle to boil at 3am as an infant mewled in my ear.’

Anna Whitehouse, Grazia

View all reviews

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 234mm × 153mm

Extent:336pp

ISBN (13):9781925713916

RRP:$35.00

Pub date:4 Feb 2020

Rights Held: World English

High-res cover:Download Image

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AUTHORS

Cecilia Chrapkowska

Dr Cecilia Chrapkowska is a board-certified specialist in paediatrics. She works at Astrid Lindgren’s Children’s Hospital at Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, and regularly appears as a child-health expert in national Swedish magazines and newspapers, and on radio and television.

Agnes Wold

Dr Agnes Wold, PhD, is a professor and senior consultant in bacteriology at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg. She first became internationally renowned for her seminal paper published in Nature in 1997 on nepotism and sexism in peer-review practices, and has been a columnist for Sweden’s largest newspaper and for the political magazine Fokus.

TRANSLATORS

Stuart Tudball

Stuart Tudball is an experienced translator of Swedish, with works including the Eyewitness Travel Guide: Sweden and The Nordic Guide to Living 10 Years Longer.

Chris Wayment

Chris Wayment has been translating professionally since 1998, with works including Dos and Don’ts — Conflict Resolution at Work and the official guidebook for Skansen open-air museum.