Economist claims 'terrible studies' feed conventional pregnancy wisdom

Pregnant women are bombarded with lots of dos and don'ts, and Oster says many rules are not backed by evidence. - 123rf

Emily Oster has been crusading for years against what she calls the onslaught of bad advice directed at new parents, chastising everyone from grandmothers to charlatans to health authorities in her first book about pregnancy. And there’s more to come in her second book about early childhood.

“There are still many terrible studies being done,” said the 38-year-old professor of economics at Brown University, United States.