Year 5 / Book 18: The Expectant Father

18) The Expectant Father by Armin Brott

The title of this book should give some indication of why I’m a bit behind on book reviews – and has me questioning whether I’ll be able to keep up the book-a-week pace. My wife and I had a son towards the end of April (peak-pandemic) and I was flicking rapidly through this in the weeks and months preceding that; building up to the ‘what the hell do you do when it’s actually here’ section at the end of the book.

To be honest, it feels a bit mean to ‘review’ this book: I was in it purely for the information and a base level of understanding, and I think it fulfilled that – there’s plenty here for the rookie dad-to-be, both in terms of support & understanding for their partner, and also in terms of what to expect when baby arrives. So in that sense it did its job – and is filled with lots of practical information, brought together with a simple approachable style that also achieves one of the book’s other aims: to share experiences and help you understand that all of these feelings and things are normal and shared by lots of other people too.

So that’s that really – if you’re an expectant father, this largely does what it says. Of course, I’m now on to ‘Your Baby: Week by Week’ and ‘The Wonder Weeks’, but I’ll try not to let baby-related reference books dominate the blog in future. More fundamentally, and more challengingly, I’ll try not to let the baby mean that there isn’t a blog in future….

Score: 6/10

BUY IT NOW:  The Expectant Father: The Ultimate Guide for Dads-to-Be (The New Father Book 1)