Your Amazing Newborn

With over 120 stunning photographs-all of babies less than two weeks old-Your Amazing Newborn illustrates the incredible new findings of research on newborns and guides parents and caregivers through the fascinating first weeks of a baby's life. Newly identified abilities are shown in astonishing photo sequences and insightful explanations. Abilities such as reaching (once considered impossible) are seen in exciting detail, along with the beautiful choreography between infants and parents, new discoveries about the five senses, the wonderful adaptation of adopted newborns, and above all that first spark of recognition that ignites a lifetime bond.

For example, one of those abilities is the capacity to instinctively know how to reach for his or her mother's breast, typically within 45-90 minutes after birth....there are many photographs, some astounding, especially the ultrasound photos)...

I would not have the slightest reservations giving this book as a present to expectant parents or parents of a newborn.

This book was both educational and delightful both for my wife and for me.


amazing book   February 26, 2003
cchrissyy (Berkeley CA)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

I justt loved all the photos in here of newborn faces and behaviors. every baby in this book is two weeks old or less, and it was so interesting to learn aout the skills they are born with.


Great for health care professionals, too!   February 27, 2006
C. Smillie (CT USA)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

I'm a pediatrician, and I recommend this book, not only to new parents, but also to health care professionals. This fascinating work is basically an annotated illustrated bibliography to the research in this field. Any professional who wants to know more can take this work as a wonderful, paradigm-shifting and enlightening starting point, and follow the cited works to further work.
I do a lot of teaching, and I recommend this book to doctors, nurses, midwives, doulas, lactation consultants, and to medical, midwifery, and nursing students, and particularly to residents and fellows in pediatrics, OB and family practice--and of course, to new parents. A huge body of research over the past several decades has demonstrated a grand repertoire of innate hardwired newborn capabilities, including a wonderful capability for very young babies to interact with, and respond to, their parents beginning the first hour of life. My reasons for recommending this updated work begin with all the reasons that the parents who have reviewed this book here have already so eloquently stated. Beyond that, let me add: Marshall Klaus is a neonatologist from UCSF, co-editor and author of Klaus and Fanaroff, a solid neonatology textbook, and a careful and very observant researcher and scholar. Phyllis Klaus is a brilliant and thoughtful psychotherapist. They are an amazing team. The book is beautifully illustrated and fully referenced. Much of the work cited are the classic, seminal studies in the field. It should be required introductory reading for every pediatric resident and neonatology fellow on the planet.