cover image Childbirth and Marriage: The Transition to Parenthood

Childbirth and Marriage: The Transition to Parenthood

Tracy Hotchner, Tracie Hotchner. Avon Books, $10.95 (554pp) ISBN 978-0-380-75201-0

This 500-plus-page book, which purports to help couples make the ``transition to parenthood,'' only breaks ground in presenting curious advice for new parents. Self-described ``consumer advocate'' Hotchner ( Pregnancy & Childbirth ) suggests that ``a closet or built-in bar'' can be converted to ``the baby's space''; observes that ``it is not unusual for a man to be afraid of his wife's large, leaky breasts'' (followed shortly by a paragraph on a new father's desire to suckle); and proposes that a mother worried about breast-feeding ``poke fun'' at herself by saying aloud, `` `Babies in Biafra survive on their mother's milk, but I am so deficient that my baby will be the first one in my neighborhood to suffer from malnutrition.' '' Hotchner does offer sound ideas as well (communicate, work as a team, have realistic expectations), but these are lost in a muddle of careless writing and offbeat remarks. And although the author pays lip service to ``shared care,'' she clearly believes that the task of parenting should fall primarily to the mother, as evidenced by such statements as ``men are generally less nurturing'' and ``some mothers make the mistake of trying to shove the child down his father's throat.'' Author tour. (October)