The third edition of the venerable Mayo Clinic’s pregnancy guide is chock full of research-backed advice and more inclusive of LGBTQ prospective parents than ever before. It is aimed at a general audience, but includes a dedicated chapter for single, trans, and gender-diverse parents-to-be, along with same-sex couples, with some additional information for LGBTQ people throughout. How well does it do in its inclusion? Let’s explore.
There’s a lot of information here, including sections on how to prepare for and become pregnant (though the Mayo Clinic Guide to Fertility and Conception delves deeper on this); genetic screening and prenatal testing; staying healthy and safe during pregnancy; a month-by-month guide to pregnancy; labor (including C-sections); signs and symptoms that may cause questions or concerns; complications of pregnancy and childbirth; postpartum issues and care; basics of newborn care, including feeding; pregnancy loss; and more. There’s even a page about introducing your pet to a new baby. It’s as comprehensive a guide as I’ve seen that wasn’t for medical professionals, and I found it less patronizing and more palatable than some other pregnancy guides.
Throughout, the book uses language that is inclusive of pregnant people with same-sex partners (even in the parts about sex during and after pregnancy). A chapter for partners says explicitly that it is for “families of all kinds, including nonbiological parents, same-sex partners and gender-diverse partners.”
One entire chapter, too, is dedicated to “Transgender and gender-diverse pregnancies,” and explores topics like gender dysphoria during pregnancy, whether to stop hormone therapy during pregnancy and nursing, finding affirming care, and more. To the extent that this cisgender reviewer can tell, the information here is accurate and affirming. Oddly, though, while there’s a note in this chapter about a nongestational parent needing to do a co-parent adoption to become the legal parent, there’s no such note in the chapter that discusses assisted reproduction more generally, which means that queer people who don’t consider themselves trans or gender-diverse may miss it—although they are still subject to these legal needs.
Throughout, the book generally seems to avoid talking about “women” who are pregnant, leaving room for pregnant people of all genders. But it does still use gendered language in a few places, particularly in reference to babies, e.g., “If your baby is a boy, you can avoid being sprayed with urine by covering his penis loosely with a diaper or cloth.” The book also uses the term “breastfeeding” almost exclusively, though I did see two references to “chestfeeding,” one in the chapter specific to trans and gender-diverse pregnancies, and one later).
There’s also little here on issues specific to same-sex couples, such as particular concerns that nongenetic/nongestational same-sex partners may have about their feelings and roles. And none of the additional resources at the end are related to finding LGBTQ-affirming care. (I would have like to see mentions of the LGBTQ+ Healthcare Directory, the Directory of Trans-Affirming Care, and the Queer Doula Network, for example.) Luckily, there are a growing number of queer-specific books on conception and pregnancy that can fill in those gaps.
If you don’t mind the relatively small amount of gendered language, though, the Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy is perhaps the most thorough, readable, and authoritative guide to the universal parts of pregnancy and early parenthood available today and will probably annoy you less than many other pregnancy books intended for a general audience. Read it along with some of the queer-specific books, and you’ll have a good deal of the information you need to feel educated about the whole process.
