Emily Oster Doesn't Mind the Haters

One of the reasons why I think the book was so resonant and made the big splash that it did make, Expecting Better, this was 2013? Yeah.

The literature around pregnancy and what women can do when pregnant, what risks are okay, it was sort of scattershot.

The data were not so robust.

What were some of the things that you found in the research that surprised you and that helped inform your book and made it so resonant?

I think what people like about the book more than the individual pieces of research is the idea that you are an adult person who can engage with the decisions that you're making in your pregnancy.

I think that is the thing that was...

I think that's the thing that was at least different than what's in the market.

Mayo Clinic Guide is a very nice guide to how large is your baby at different times and what are some different...

This is foundational information that there's no problem with people having.

But it isn't telling you, hey, here's how you can evaluate with your preferences and your values and what the evidence says and make your own best decisions.

That was just missing.

And then, of course, there are pieces like... sushi that you know people like and some coffee and we talk about alcohol and there's like a bunch of you know and then there's things like bed rest and thinking about having an epidural and all kinds of stuff where I think individual pieces of the of the decision making and the evidence were valuable to readers but it is the frame of hey you're a person who thinks seriously about the other decisions in your life and engages with them and is an expert in various ways on your own person.

And you can bring some of that to this experience too.

I think that's the thing that people liked.

There's like an infantilization of pregnant person because they're like, just sit down, do what your doctor says.

We're just going to be super conservative on this advice.

There was another book that I read in Writing and Expecting Better, which I've forgotten the name of now, which actually came to all the same conclusions.

It was written by a doctor and was like, it's fine to have coffee.

It's fine to have some sushi.

It was very relaxed, but it didn't engage with any of the here's why.

And that is the piece that people want.

It turns out people want to understand.

People want to understand because they feel more confident in their decisions when they understand why they are making them.

That seems pretty straightforward,

Emily.