Parenthood the Swedish Way: a science-based guide to pregnancy, birth, and infancy

Embrace the Scandinavian style of childrearing: practical, egalitarian, and free from outdated myths.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.

Dr Cecilia Chrapkowska is a board-certified specialist in paediatrics. She works at Astrid Lindgren’s Children’s Hospital at Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, and regularly appears as a child-health expert in national Swedish magazines and newspapers, and on radio and television.

Dr Agnes Wold, PhD, is a professor and senior consultant in bacteriology at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg. She first became internationally renowned for her seminal paper published in Nature in 1997 on nepotism and sexism in peer-review practices, and has been a columnist for Sweden’s largest newspaper and for the political magazine Fokus.

Stuart Tudball is an experienced translator of Swedish, with works including the Eyewitness Travel Guide: Sweden and The Nordic Guide to Living 10 Years Longer.

Chris Wayment has been translating professionally since 1998, with works including Dos and Don’ts ― Conflict Resolution at Work and the official guidebook for Skansen open-air museum.