Heidi Murkoff with Sharon Mazel2016 · 5th editionFirst published 1984
Forty weeks is a lot to carry at once. This guide breaks it into one month at a time, and answers the worries as they come.
The core idea
Heidi Murkoff wrote the first edition of this guide, published in 1984, with her mother Arlene Eisenberg and her sister Sandee Hathaway, after her own first pregnancy left her with more worries than answers. This fifth edition, written with Sharon Mazel, keeps the plan that made it a standard: one chapter for each month of pregnancy. Each month covers how the baby is growing, what is happening in your body, what you may be feeling, and the questions and worries that tend to come up, answered one at a time. Around the months sit chapters on getting ready for pregnancy, eating well, labour and delivery, and the first weeks after the birth. The tone is that of a calm, well-informed friend, and it keeps sending readers back to their own doctor or midwife for anything that concerns them.
The guide's real gift is its pacing. Pregnancy throws up a stream of small questions: is this twinge normal, can I eat that, should I be feeling more, or less? The book meets them where they arise, in the month they tend to arise, and says plainly which ones are worth a call.
Earlier editions were criticised for a tone some readers found alarming, especially around food. Later editions are gentler. Read it the way it asks to be read: a month at a time, alongside your own midwife or doctor, who knows your pregnancy in a way no book can.
Pillar one
Read the chapter you are living. The later months can wait until you get there.
Pillar two
Most questions are common ones. Knowing what is normal makes the rare real warning easier to see.
Pillar three
The book informs the conversation with your midwife or doctor. It never replaces it.
Interactive · this month
Enter your due date or the first day of your last period. The tracker works out your week and trimester, opens the month you are in, and keeps a running list of questions for your next appointment.
A general guide, not medical advice. Every pregnancy is different, and this is not a substitute for care from your midwife or doctor. Your dates from a scan may differ; go with the ones your team gives you.
From your scan or your provider, if you have one.
Enter a date above to see your week, your trimester and your month.
0weeks0days
You are past your due date. That is common, especially in a first pregnancy. Your team will talk with you about checks and next steps, and you should keep feeling your baby move.
Weeks 1–4
Weeks are counted from the first day of your last period, so for about the first two of them you are not yet pregnant. Conception usually happens around week two, and the fertilised egg settles into the lining of the womb over the following week or so.
HourLife's summary of what many people go through each month, in our words, not the book's. You may feel all of it, some of it or none of it.
Don't wait for an appointment
Call your midwife, doctor or maternity unit. If it is an emergency, or you have thoughts of harming yourself or your baby, call your local emergency number now.
Concept anatomy
Pregnancy is counted in weeks, but the book is organised in months. Here is how the two line up, in the grouping most month-by-month guides use. A month here is four or five weeks, not a calendar month.
Each month chapter works through the same layers, so you always know where to look. HourLife's names for them:
The date maths
Why from the period? It is the one date most people know. Conception is usually about two weeks later, so the first two weeks are counted before you are pregnant.
It is a window. Only a small share of babies arrive on the day itself. Babies born from 37 weeks are counted as term, and an early scan may move your dates.
Community insights
Nº 01HourLife takeaway
The book is built around that idea. Each month gets its own chapter, so you can read the part you are living now and leave the later months for later. Reading ahead to the ninth month in week eight mostly adds worries you cannot act on yet.
Nº 02HourLife takeaway
Much of each month is a run of everyday questions answered one by one: a strange twinge, a food you ate before you knew, a symptom that came or went. The answers explain what is common and say plainly when something is worth a call.
Nº 03HourLife takeaway
Worries tend to show up at night or between visits, and appointments are short. Keeping one running list and reading it out at each checkup means you leave with answers instead of remembering the question in the car park.
Nº 04HourLife takeaway
Heavy bleeding, a severe headache or changes in your vision, fluid leaking, a fever, severe pain, or your baby moving less than usual all mean calling your midwife, doctor or maternity unit straight away. Knowing that short list well makes the long list of ordinary aches easier to live with.
Nº 05HourLife takeaway
The book gives eating well its own chapter: regular meals, protein, fruit and vegetables, whole grains, enough fluids, and a prenatal vitamin if your provider recommends one. Earlier editions were criticised for making every bite feel like a test, and later editions soften the tone. Steady habits matter more than a perfect day.
Nº 06HourLife takeaway
It is counted as 40 weeks from the first day of your last period, which is about two weeks before conception. Only a small share of babies arrive on the day itself. Treat it as the middle of a window, and plan for the weeks around it.
Nº 07HourLife takeaway
Symptoms come early, late or not at all, and a friend's pregnancy or your last one predicts less than it seems to. The book describes what many people feel each month and keeps adding that you may feel all of it, some of it or none of it.
Nº 08HourLife takeaway
The labour chapters walk through the stages of labour, the options for pain relief, and caesarean births, so none of them arrives as a surprise. Knowing the range makes it easier to take part in decisions when plans change on the day.
Nº 09HourLife takeaway
The book follows readers past delivery into the first weeks of recovery: healing, bleeding, feeding and sleep. Low mood or worry that lasts more than a couple of weeks, or any thought of harming yourself, is something to tell your provider about right away rather than wait out.
Action steps
Find your due date or the first day of your last period, and use the tracker on this page to see your week and trimester. Write the due date somewhere you will see it, and remember it is the middle of a window.
Make a single note on your phone called Next appointment. Every question goes there, the moment you think of it.
Put your midwife's or doctor's number, the after-hours line and your maternity unit in your phone today, next to your local emergency number. Add the list of urgent signs to the same note.
List every prescription, over-the-counter medicine and supplement you take, with doses, and go through it with your provider. Don't stop or change a prescribed medicine on your own; ask first.
Pick three meals or snacks you can face on a tired or queasy day and keep what they need in the house. Regular small meals are easier to keep up than a perfect plan.
At the start of each month, read the part you are living now. Leave the later months until you reach them.
Open your questions list at the start of each checkup and read it out before the visit ends. Write the answers next to the questions.
Once a week, write one line about your sleep, your mood and any new symptoms. If low mood or worry lasts more than two weeks, tell your provider.
Once you feel regular movements, notice your baby's usual pattern. If the movements slow down, change or stop, call your midwife or maternity unit the same day rather than waiting.
Take it one month at a time, write down what worries you, and ask.HourLife note after Heidi Murkoff
Pick setup actions and daily habits from What to Expect When You're Expecting, choose a start date, and download a printable checklist with real calendar pages.
Heidi Murkoff wrote the first edition of this guide, published in 1984, with her mother Arlene Eisenberg and her sister Sandee Hathaway, after her own first pregnancy left her with more worries than answers. This fifth edition, written with Sharon Mazel, keeps the plan that made it a standard: one chapter for each month of pregnancy. Each month covers how the baby is growing, what is happening in your body, what...
HourLife’s key takeaways include: Forty weeks is a lot to hold at once, so hold one month at a time. Most of what worries you has worried a great many people before you, and most of it is normal. Write your questions down when they come, because they never come in the exam room.
It's a strong pick for readers exploring Conscious Parenting and How Your Body Works. HourLife distills its core idea into key insights and practical actions worth trying.
Work out your dates — Find your due date or the first day of your last period, and use the tracker on this page to see your week and trimester. Write the due date somewhere you will see it, and remember it is the middle of a window.
About five minutes. The HourLife summary distills What to Expect When You're Expecting into its core idea, 9 community insights, and 9 practical actions you can apply right away.
One idea from one book and one small habit from another, every week or once a month, on the day and around the hour you pick, where you are. Nothing else, and one link stops it.
Print it, pin it, post it. Ways to take What to Expect When You're Expecting off the screen and into the world.
The core idea, key takeaways, and how to apply What to Expect When You're Expecting, as one clean, readable page.
Read summaryEvery action from this page as a printable to-do list, with a 7-day tracker.
Download PDFA shareable card with the book and its top-voted insight, for saving or posting.
The summary card and every quote card in six sizes: Instagram feed, Story, Pinterest, YouTube thumbnail, phone wallpaper, and link preview.
Save the insights that land, build the habits that stick, and keep what you learn from What to Expect When You're Expecting working long after you close the page — inside HourLife.
