Cribsheet follows on the heels of Oster’s first book, 2013’s Expecting Better, a guide to pregnancy and childbirth that became a runaway bestseller. The work’s popularity stemmed, in large part, from Oster’s approach: A economist in her “day job,” she uses her research skills to unpack huge volumes of data, in the process puncturing overinflated fears and questioning burdensome recommendations that lead to small or uncertain benefits. This approach was a welcome corrective to the overwhelming information environment many US parents found themselves in at that time. In a 2019 Washington Post review of Cribsheet, writer Jenny Rogers captures the sense of relief that many readers of Expecting Better experienced: “That sort of context is often missing from the Internet and our parenting messaging boards, where everything from swaddling to potty-training timing is presented as a matter of life or death” (Rogers, Jenny. “Parents Are Drowning in Advice.” The Washington Post, 2019). Cribsheet picks up where Expecting Better left off, aiming to equip new parents to navigate the flood of often contradictory and hyperbolic advice they’re likely to find on the Internet.

Oster’s emphasis on data-driven decision-making is tailored for a cultural moment in which parents have access to more information than ever before but often struggle to evaluate that information or to choose among competing viewpoints.