Works Books

Hillary Johnson's fascinating book, first touched upon in her article in Rolling Stone is a compelling read. The poor response by the CDC and the NIH to an epidemic that has now affected more lives than both AIDS and Lung Cancer is tragic. Ms. Johnson's beautifully woven story (though at times technical) would make for a very moving film in the tradition of And the Band Played On.

The author does an outstanding job of revealing how some of our most "respected" agencies in western medicine attempt to deal with what they can not define, despite what the patient says. Through constant shifts in focus, we are shown how several different groups deal with this syndrome. The writings illicit a tremendous amount of rage at the incompetence, pain at the ignorance, and confusion in the beurocratic anchors. This book reads like a mystery, and keeps you intrigued until the last page. It concludes like the reality of the search for this anomoly- with no 'pat' answers.

I read this book when it first came out. I would highly recommend it to any health care professional, any sufferer, or any relative of any sufferer. Society has come a long way over the years. Around 1990 I took a copy of one Dr. Jay Goldstein's books on chronic fatigue to a lecture on another subject. One of the other attendees picked it up, read the title, and disdainfully tossed in back on the table declaring, "Chronic fatigue? There is no such thing. It's only depression." On the other hand, myths are still all too common.

Back to this book. It leaves me dumbfounded how many of the issues clearly dealt with in this book are still reported incorrectly. Example: Epstein-Barr virus. It has widely been reported that since EB virus does not appear in clusters/epidemics, and that antibodies are present in a very high percent of the population, attributing chronic-fatigue to and EBV outbreak is, well, wrong. And that the doctor(s) should have known that.

However, in the book is it made clear that the doctors at Incline Village where an outbreak occured did know that. So when one of the doctors started seeing many of his patient's showing up with positive blood tests for EBV, he sent some samples to a researcher. The researcher found an antibody pattern that was not indicative of new infections, but rather of a recurrence or reactivation of a prior infection. This was a pattern the researcher had never seen before, and implied another cause, possible a weakening of the immune system. But not an epidemic of new EBV cases. By the way, that also argues against the assertion some have made that EBV is a possible cause, although it should be ruled out clinically.

The book is replete with many stories and issues, that differ remarkably from what is commonly reported about this issue.

One final chilling note. In the book dozens sufferers are introduced, some in depth, some obliquely. In an annex at the end of the book, the is a short follow up on many of the sufferers. What is chilling is how many have died.

This is the most informative book I've read on Chronic Fatigue. The reading is dry at times, but very informative. This book is about the Center for Disease Control (CDC) involvement in investigating CFS up to the date when the CDC was found quilty of misappropriation of funding for CFS research. Anyone new to the illness should have this book in their library, even if it is just used for references.

This book really gives you an understanding of how and why ME has been stigmatized, ridiculed and ignored as much as it has. It makes it very clear that it was not a mistake or an oversight at all but that it was in fact utterly deliberate. The pure stupidity and lack of basic human compassion involved is astounding. It's important to know how we've ended up in this mess so we can see how we might get ourselves out I think. It's also important that we not underestimate how low these people will go - its lower than you could even imagine.

A must read if you are well enough to tackle such a long non-fiction book, it'll just blow your mind and really fire you up about how badly we have all been treated historically and the...well you'd have to call them evil, people behind it all. A fantastic book to fire up your activism urges.

Don't fall victim of your own success. This book reveals the paradox of success, and how to avoid downfall.

This is a very good, perhaps great [?], book masquerading as a "how to succeed in business" tome. It is in reality a powerful handbook for those of us in the 4th period of life to try to make some sense of all we have done, all we have left undone, & what is the purpose of it all. I'm 65; I found this a clever combination of Jung, Jung's theory of the 'shadow', & strong suggestions for living with inner tranquility & financial success; O'Neil is a gifted & insightful writer; I doubt that many under the age of 50 would find this book worthwhile - my opinion. A minor criticism: O'Neil cites 6 - 8 - 10 authorities in this field who have written books; he provides an index; but no bibliography? Why? A very minor criticism. Extremely well done. Easy to read.

It is an amazing journey through our deepest fears and questions about life whether personal or professional. The first part goes through those questions all of us have or have had combined with real life examples and a second part where the author shares his insight as to what to do with all those questions and answers we start to get by reading the book.

I have read this book once before back in 1995. Since then I have learned a lot about shadows. I am aware of my shadows and this book is helping me to be a better person.
I have a friend who is intellegent and smart. However, after reading this book second time I am beginning to know his hubris and. I do not know how to relate with this person.
Knowing my own shadows I am now less critical of others. We all have multi-selves.
The book should be read by any adult who wants to have a balanced perspectives of life and deal with others appropriately.

I first read this book when it came out, at the time the O. J. Simpson story was just breaking. It was PERFECT timing - offering insights into how otherwise highly-successful people can have darker sides show up in their lives unless they periodically renew themselves and take stock - what might be called taking an "internal audit" of oneself. I've often thought the title for this book could have been "The Shadow Side of Success."

I highly recommend this book for anyone who's in a position of influence, power and responsibility (or who WANTS to be). The author has included a rich assortment of ways one can avoid the egoic pitfalls of success and fame - a real MASTERPIECE!

John Renesch, author, Getting to the Better Future

This is the most thorough book I've read on peanut allergies. You probably won't find this information on the internet, because most of the answers are substantiated with trials performed by experts.

The book is set up in a question and answer form. All the questions are listed in the contents with pages showing where to find the answers. It is also easy to read, so you won't be stumbling over annoying medical jargon.

I highly recommend this book to anyone recently diagnosed with, or having a child diagnosed with peanut allergy. Grandparents and other close family would also benefit from this book. (This should also be on the reading list for daycare employees and teachers!) Peanut allergy should not be taken lightly because of the serious consequences (which most people seem to be ingnorant about).

This book is written in an easy-to-read question and answer style and covers all aspects of the condition. I have learned so much from this book and continue to reference it. I have highlighted many passages and am quick to show them to family or friends when they just don't seem to be "getting it".

I can't recommend this book enough!

I read all the reviews on this book before buying it. Plus, it came recommended by my son's allergist. Amazon has a great price on it too. It was a quick read. I will hold on to it for reference. I just wish it had more resource listings for helping you locate peanut free foods.

I purchased this book when I found out my 6 month old was allergic to peanuts. I learned so much from it and parent that has a child with this allergy should buy it. I am fortunate that it was Dr. Young's partner that is my daughter's doctor I do intend to transfer to him as a doctor after reading this book if he is accepting new patients. I had no idea when I purchased this book the author was from Boston. I'm so glad he is!!

I thought this book was very helpful as I have 2 children with peanut allergies. It answered many questions that I have in very easy to read language. It is a must read for anyone with concerns about peanut allergies.

Penguin is a book that contains photographs by Frans Lanting and text and commentary by Christine Eckstrom. Lanting is one of the world's best known nature photographers and a number of his photographs are instantly recognizable. The book contains exquisite photographs of the many varieties of penguins in both Antarctica and lower South America. There are large penguins, small penguins, beautiful penguins, ugly penguins (or at least penguins that only a mother could love), and chicks of quite a few species. Some of the photographs are portraits, others show action. Many of the photographs contained in this book are already rather familiar and popular, especially the cover photo of a mother and father penguin with a small penguin chick. We see in these photographs why Lanting is a master nature photographer and why so many of his photographs are featured in magazines such as National Geographic.

Everyone will enjoy this coffee table book. Nature lovers will enjoy the majesty of these great birds. Photographers will find inspiration. Certainly after viewing the photographs in this book one may want to travel to the remoter areas of the world to see these creatures, but for those of us who would find the trip to be too cold and cost prohibitive, this book will serve us just fine.

Known for his exquisite images and extraordinary fortitude, Frans Lanting will travel to the ends of the Earth, weather the most extreme conditions and still persist in making the most beautiful and creative photographs of his subject imaginable. Over the course of a decade, he traveled to the Falklands, South Georgia, South Orkney Islands, Antarctica, and the Southern Ocean, where his subject was penguins. In "Penguin", Lanting exhibits his photographs from these expeditions, in which he aspires to evoke the personalities of the individual birds and convey some sense of the experiences that their lives entail. "Penguin" features photographs of a wide variety of penguin species, from the diminutive to the imposing: Emperor, King, Gentoo, Galápagos, Rockhopper, Macaroni, Magellanic, Adélie, and Chinstrap, representing all four main clans of penguin species. The book is organized into three large sections: Coming to Land, Going to Sea, and Living on Ice, which each consist of an preface by Lanting introducing us to the featured penguins and explaining a little about their lives, followed by many color photographs of penguins doing what the sections' title implies. There are also several smaller sections containing an introduction, an essay about photographing the penguins, and an image index. Most of the images in this book are at least full page. Many span two pages. Some images are accompanied by captions, but more detailed captions are found, alongside thumbnails of the images, in the image index. This is a little awkward, but it does allow images to be printed full page without having to leave room for captions. The reproduction quality of the photographs in "Penguin" is not on the level of fine art books, but it is very good for a book in this price range. Recommended for penguin lovers and Frans Lanting fans.

This book is top-notch and amazing, just like anything else you would expect from Frans Lanting. You can just imagine the hardwork the man goes into just get these photos you see, not to mention the ones you don't see. This book made me feel a connection to penguins I didn't have before. You look at the book and you can see how similar these animals really are to people, their behaviors and family and emotions are so human-like, it is scary and quite emotional sometimes. Amazing book.

"Penguins" by Frans Lanting is one of the most beautiful nature books I have ever seen. In it he details the lives of various species of penguins through his brilliant photographs and a modicum of text. Make no mistake; this is a book of pictures: it does have a small amount of informative text, but the main attraction is the incredible color photographs. The photos are arranged artfully, but my one nitpick would be the captioning: each photo has a very abbreviated caption (though not always on the same page,) but to find out more detail about a given picture, you must flip to the back of the book and cross-reference the photo in the image index, a feature that I found annoying.

Overall this book is great, and I appreciated that Lanting did not devote the book to the more commonly known King and Emperor penguins, but also detailed the lives of other less well known species like the Rockhopper, Gentoo, and Macaroni penguins. For those interested, Lanting includes a section on penguin and Antarctic conservation in the back of the book. This is a great and visually stunning book, and I recommend it without reservation.

No, neither have I but you'll find them in Frans Lanting's beautiful paperback of penguin photos, along with the emperor, gentoo, king, magellanic, chinstrap, adelie and rockhopper, all in dazzling color. As he says in the books short introduction it is not a natural history of these amazing birds but a personal photographic interpretation shot over a ten-year period. The birds are shown in all weather conditions, as huge groups, ten or so and as individuals in very detailed close-ups. Naturally the close-ups of parents with chicks are the most appealing photos in the book.

Many of the photos have captions and rather strangely there are twenty-four pages at the back of the book with thumbnails of all the photos and detailed captions, I would have thought it better to use these pages for more photos and have a caption (where needed) on each page. Apart from this I think it is a lovely book of penguin photographs and excellent value too.

any thing by pink floyd gets 5 stars, an A+, and ten on ten. an absolute must for anyone who wants to know what music looks like.

I recommend this book to all P.F. lovers, I collect all of there stuff from books, dvd's, cd's and whatever else is available, this book tells of all whose been involved with P.F. since they've been around, real interesting. Shine On!!

At first I thought I wouldn't like it because it was definitely an encyclopia and I was expecting more of a book (regardless of its name) but the more I delved into it, the more I appreciated it. I bought another Pink Floyd book at the same time so it helped as a reference to that, too. My only complaint is how small the print is. Again I understand it is an encyclopia and know it would be thicker or bigger but think it would be worth it to have larger print. But it is very interesting to the Floyd fanatic like me. It has a lot more information than I expected.

This book is great. Things I never new before. Try it, you won't be dissapointed

This is THE most detailed and expansive resource for Pink Floyd info. That said, it's a true encyclopedia. Don't buy it expecting to read through it, because although its really cool to know specifically what guitar David played in WYWH, you'll find yourself skipping over the page to the next section.

Recommended.

As a student at Yale Law School planning to go into estate planning, I found this book very helpful. Highly recommended for anyone who needs to plan their estate or for law students taking estate tax or planning courses. This book is easy to understand, well organized, and provides a good amount of detailed information, not just vague ideas. Highly recommended.

This book provides an easy to understand overview of estate planning plus easy to understand detail on many special circumstances. It is very easy to understand which estate planning techniques are right for you, and there are many examples that illustrate how the techniques work. Approximately half of this book is relevant to everyone. The other half gives clear, common sense explantions of advanced planning techniques that are typically reserved for those fortunate enough to be planning a high net worth estate (lets say $1M+). The advanced techniques are not for do it yourselfers, but the book gives you a good understanding of the issues and lets you converse intelligently with an attorney.

Now in a newly updated and expanded seventh edition, Plan Your Estate is a resource provided by attorneys Denis Clifford and Cora Jordan which is packed from cover to cover with everything anyone needs to know to ensure their worldly goods are promptly willed to loved ones. Written in no-nonsense terms that the non-specialist general reader can readily grasp, individual chapters clearly address wills, how to avoid probate, living trusts, property-control trusts, naming guardians for children and leaving property to children, estate taxes, living wills, how to reduce estate taxes, and much, much more. Especially recommended for individuals who own a business or who have children from a former marriage, Plan Your Estate is a "must-have", "do-it-yourself" legal resource, which is applicable to all American states except for Louisiana. Even those who prefer to let a professional handle the whole process of estate planning would be well served to read Plan Your Estate cover to cover, before stepping into an attorney's office where time is money and the clock is running.

Great for law students taking an estate planning course or an estate and gift tax course. Also good for people wanting to learn about estate planning in general. I would recommend this book.

This book is a must buy resource for persons interested in estate planning. Whether you are planning to do-it-yourself or use a lawyer, it is good to know what your options are. I am much better informed after reading this book.

This flowing book of poetry is so enjoyable that you might want to read it in one sitting. The beginning has the beautiful language of pomegrantes, figs, and nature. At "Bach's Concerto No. 1 in C Minor" (210) the true feeling that this is great poetry dawned on me. And the poetic craft became better, too, through "The Bees" (217), "Straw-Blond" (243), and "Things I Didn't Know I Loved" (261). These poems progress through decades of his life and reach their peak in his maturity.

I was introduced to Hikmet through his poem, "Things I didn't know I loved". On the strength of this poem, I picked up this collection. I was tremendously suprised to find that there are many, many more poems that beautifully and powerfully express Hikmet's relishment of life, of love and the constant frustration he experienced as an exile.

His politics are a constant thread throughout many of his poems, as is his optimism in the future - in spite of being imprisioned and separated from his wife, his son and eventually his country. It is his passion for living, however, that struck me most powerfully. "Because of You", "On the Matter of Romeo and Juliet" and "This Journey" are among my favorites (and are among my favorites of ANY poet.)

If you own only two books of poetry, this should be one of them. (The other, in my opinion, should be anything by Rilke, but that is my taste.) Hikmet's words are exquisite and sublime. Highly recommended.

It's hard to express in words just how wonderful and beautiful Hikmet's poetry is - intimate, honest, uncompromising, gently humorous, filled with longing and hope and refusing to let despair triumph in spite of outward circumstances. In other words, profoundly human.

I don't think he'd mind if I quoted his poem "Hello":

HELLO

Nazim, what happiness
that, open and confident, you can say "Hello"
from the bottom of your heart!

The year is 1940.
The month, July.
The day is the first Thursday of the month.
The hour: 9.

Date your letters in detail this way.
We live in such a world
that the month, day, and hour
speak volumes.

Hello, everybody.

To say a big
fat "Hello"
and then, without finishing my sentence,
to look at you with a smile
- sly and gleeful -
and wink. . .

We're such perfect friends
that we understand each other
without words or writing. . .

Hello, everybody,
hello to all of you. . .


(translated from the Turkish by Randy Blasing & Mutlu Konuk; published by Persea books)

Thank you, translators, for bringing this wonderful poet to English readers. From the bottom of my heart - thank you and hello!

A poet of great humanity, great compasion, a believer in the human race in spite of having been in jail from many years, as well as been exiled by the Turkish leaders. refreshing and immediate, poetry for everyone, simple and strong.

Does not matter how good the translation is, it is not comparable to the original work. Nazim Hikmet is world's one of the great poets, but what makes him special really is the way he uses Turkish.

I read a friend's copy while visiting her. Since I have suffered from neck pain (not severe, but real) for about 15 years, I figured I might as well give it a try. I found that results were immediate. I was also shocked by having to confront how bad my habitual posture was.

I have been doing the basic one-minute routine for about eight months now. My neck pain (and tension -- I used to have two bands of muscle of almost wooden hardness running down the back "corners" of my neck) is reduced about 80-90%, and I continue to improve. I also look taller and slimmer, as promised (my parents both said to me, "you're so tall!" as if it were a new thing -- but then I suppose it was). I would agree that you will look ten pounds taller and ten pounds slimmer. Maybe more. Now, since then I've also *gained* about ten pounds...but that's another story.

This book is worth it's weight in gold!!! The techniques and posture improvement exercises work so well and fast that I am already receiving compliments on how I look - and it has only been a few weeks. I also found out Ms. Novak has a video containing all the exercises (ImproveYourPosture.com). I find it much easier doing exercises along with a video than from a book. The video has more exercises than the book but the book contains chapters of info on things like how to re-arrange your computer work station to make it better for your back, how to adjust your carseat, sleeping positions, etc. All of these chapters contain simple things you can do that make a huge diference in your posture and back comfort. The book and video have been a GODSEND for me. This program is better than any other on the market. I know this because I have tried them all. Thank you Ms. Novak for very valuable information.

The techniques in this book released back tension I did not even know existed. I had become accustomed to bad posture. If you have bad posture this book will show you how to fix it.

This book is great for those of us who may have spent many years bent over a desk, & are looking for practical, easy to follow tips on how to straighten ourselves up, & to alleviate that mild lower back pain from being just a touch out of allignment.
The writing style is easy to read & understand, & so are the exercise descriptions. The exercises are also very easy to do (as opposed to some posture books, where the descriptions are hard to follow, & just not practical).
My lower back is feeling a lot better thanks to the tips for stretching & standing up straight in this book.

This is a great book. I would recommend it to everyone. I've been working with my trainer at the gym to help my posture, and this book really helped me to understand some of the underlying concepts of posture.

This book is written to women, and I am a man, but I thought that this was actually a very good idea. There are a couple of references to "men should do this instead," when they are needed, but I thought that focusing on one gender made the book very clear and very understandable.

Which reminds me of the coolest thing about this book, which is the illustrations. All of the illustrations are of the same woman. And this is very cool, because I was able to tell really quickly what good posture was and what was not. By focusing just on women, and by focusing just on one person giving examples of good posture and bad posture, it made the book very understandable.

Also, Janice Novak gives the meat of the book in the first ten pages, where she talks about her "One minute to better posture" exercise. This is a really cool exercise that will transform your life instantly. It's really cool, because the book starts out with a real bang and then the rest of the book supports that initial bang until the end.

The only improvement that I would suggest for the next edition is to have pictures of all of the exercises, and have two pictures for the two-step exercises. This would increase the size of the book by about twenty pages, but I think it would be worth it. I can be slow sometimes and pictures help me a lot.

I wish Nora Gallagher lived next door to me. I'd like to hear more about her courageous faith. I wanted more about practicing resurrection. She left me hungry. What a great title! Gallagher writes so wonderfully about matters unspeakable, ineffable, silent and deep. She puts words to hidden yearnings. The glimpse into the clerical side of the Ep[iscopal Church was fascinating too, and her critique enlightening. It's so gratifying to read a book about God that is real, touching, and grounded.

In Practicing Resurrection, Nora Gallagher writes movingly and spiritually about the various crises facing her and the world around her. Her book has a lot to say about living in community and finding spiritual direction; unfortunately, the structure of her tale does not contain a similar direction. It is riveting in the middle, but suffers from a muddled, boring beginning and a rambling, uncertain ending. It contains a lot of good thoughts hidden in the midst of irrelevant chatter. Perhaps the problem is more than structure, for Gallagher seems to travel from uncertainty to uncertainty and, though this is a journey, in the end, doesn't change all that much. Maybe she just wanted to write another book.

In this sequel to her bestseller Things Seen and Unseen (1998), Nora Gallagher continues to explore what a life of Christian faith marked by authenticity and integrity might look like in our contemporary world. She compares her journey of faith to the swimming lessons she took as a child: "The life of faith [is] amorphous, ephemeral, a glimpse, a moment. Trusting it [is] like my early swimming lessons learning to float." In particular, her brother Kit's diagnosis of bladder cancer, a prognosis for a "zero percent" chance of recovery, the horrors of surgery and chemotherapy, and eventual death all forced her to ask life-altering questions about God's call upon her own life.

The themes of vocation and call loom large in Practicing Resurrection. Through her many involvements at Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, Gallagher began to wonder what might God have for her. To what could she devote her passion and considerable skills? Where did her joy and gladness intersect with the world's needs, as Buechner once put it? Sensing a possible call to the priesthood, her church formed a "discernment committee" of four saints. They met once a month for three hours across the year, plying Gallagher with questions, telling their own stories about vocation, reading the Scriptures, praying, and, perhaps most important of all, "honoring listening." What voices should she listen to? Which ones should she tune out? What about her husband's deep ambivalence? Was the priesthood any more sacred than her identity as a writer that she had nurtured for over thirty years? After negotiating the labyrinth of the Episcopal bureaucracy and its application process, Gallagher was "exiled" to a very different parish with a very different priest for a year as a ministry-study student. At first she felt like she and the priest were on a "bad blind date," but across the year she gained a deep appreciation for her mentor's faithfulness.

While Gallagher was trying to discern how she might hear God's call, Trinity Episcopal grappled with how as a church they might extend a call. Their interim pastor had informed the vestry that he was gay. Should that impact whether they called him as their regular priest? How did they guard issues of confidentiality once the vestry knew but the congregation did not? How to tell the congregation? What about feelings of distrust and betrayal? Should the church wrap the different but related matter of gay marriages in with the possible call of the pastor? How might the denominational officials respond, if at all?

You'll have to read this fine memoir to learn about Gallagher's call to church and the church's call to their pastor. In the end she likens herself to a friend who was listening to an unctuous priest ask, "what do you really want for Christmas this year?" Her friend responded, "What I wanted to do was to stand up and call out, 'I would like to really believe in the resurrection.'" Her remark reminded me of the words of the eminent church historian Jaroslav Pelikan, who near the end of his life said, "If Jesus rose from the dead, nothing else matters. If Jesus did not raise from the dead, nothing else matters." In practicing resurrection we thus inaugurate a tiny bit of God's eschatological future into our lives today.

Gallagher's fans, and their numbers are considerable, will want to note the release of her first novel, Changing Light, in early 2007.

I bought this book totally on the recommendations of all the previous Amazon reviewers. Nora G. is a very gifted and insightful author. I love the way that she is master weaver with her insights and honesty.

I am at the other end of her theological spectrum and disagree with all most all of her conclusions and positions. I find it amazing that in her spiritual "Christian" journey she rarely refers to scripture. So many of her insights bring clarity to the scripture and other points they disagree.

I will not keep this book and have no people I know interested in reading the copy I just read and will send it to anyone free" no postage fees.

tim@twright.co.uk

Nora Gallagher tells a wonderful story about the everyday as well as the "big" events of life. Through a year of searching for answers and asking the needed questions, she goes beyond the usual metaphors to look at how to deal with the death of her brother, how to reconnect to her husband and most significantly, how to make an decision about which road to take next in her life. Readers - don't be put off by the religious words and subtext of this powerful book! It is not a book about going to church, but rather about the value of people, prayer, introspection, respect and bravery in all our lives. Relish its beautiful language and poetic flow. It is well worth your time to live in the world created by Ms. Gallagher!

this book was a great source of information for those who are pregnant and also for those who work in the field of obstetrics

Benson does an excellent job of "wiping the slate clean" of old myths that have been passed down for generations, and he also addresses many common questions and concerns regarding routine testing and procedures. Pregnancy myths is written in an informative style that captured my interest on every topic of the birthing process. This book uncovers the truth about pregnancy and gives reassurance with scientific fact that risk and complications are the minority to the vast numbers of pregnancies today.

I found "Pregnancy Myths" to be a highly informative, concisely written source on many questions I had as an expectant mother, and many others I had not thought to ask.

I just had the opportunity to read "Pregnancy Myths" by Dr. Michael Benson. I found the book to be very comprehensive -- yet easy to read and understand. His book is an excellent resource, which addresses a variety of pregnancy-related questions and myths -- from conception through birth. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to all those considering pregnancy as well as those in the midst of the experience.

As a prenatal educator, I found Br. Benson's book to provide a clear explanation for many of the "old wives' tales" surrounding pregnancy. His explanations are based on scientific fact without being difficult to understand. As an OB staff educator I recommend Dr. Benson's book as a resource for nurses with limited experience in answering a family's questions about pregnancy, labor, delivery and postpartum.