Embrace the Scandinavian style of childrearing: practical, egalitarian, and free from outdated myths.
Expectant parents will be relieved to hear: Put away the vacuum—dust does not lead to allergy. Breastfeeding protects against allergies? Never has done, never will do. Stop boiling bottles and pacifiers—sterilizing is unnecessary in most industrial countries. Think you shouldn’t drink alcohol when breastfeeding? Plain moralism.
Paediatrician Cecilia Chrapkowska runs the country's most popular parenting blog and is a specialist on vaccinations. Dr. Agnes Wold has been named Sweden’s Woman of the Year for her tireless work in women’s health. Together they present cutting-edge research from around the world which can guide you to make better parenting choices. But unlike so many books, they focus on the parent just as much as the child. Drawing on Sweden’s famously generous parental leave and enlightened social policies, they demonstrate the importance of equal parenting and provide practical tools for parents everywhere to share responsibility equally.
From the progressive land in the North, this is the fact-based, feminist guide to parenting you have been waiting for.
“Agnes Wold has been a guiding hand when I’ve been pregnant and had small children. A more comforting hand than various parenting bibles, a more allowing hand than the leaflets from the maternity care and the child health centers. She gives the parent more room to be a human being, and less bad conscience…What parents need is advice based on science and level-headed tips. And some encouragement.”
Sydsvenskan
“These are things (the sterilizing especially) I could have done with knowing all those times I was staring, eye a-twitch, while willing a kettle to boil at 3am as an infant mewled in my ear.”
Anna Whitehouse, Grazia
View all reviews
“Doctors Chrapkowska and Wold do much to dispel the common misconceptions around child-rearing by providing a commonsense, scientific approach. Even if you’re not involved in the parenting business, there’s much to be gleaned from a Swedish take on this crucial undertaking.”
Dan Shaw, Happy Mag
“Here, the two physicians have examined and summarised everything new parents need to know … From pregnancy and birth, to feeding and sleeping, to vaccines and illnesses, Parenthood the Swedish Way addresses all aspects of parenting and infant health in an empathetic and realistic way. New parents will appreciate this straightforward and thoroughly researched resource that picks apart outdated advice and debunks myths about parenthood.”
Melissa Norstedt, Booklist