There is such a thing as an ideal or perfect pregnancy that women should strive for.

REALITY: Research is revealing that pregnancy is not a generically ideal experience to which one must aspire (and, inevitably, fall short of), but instead a highly personal and particular shaping of the fetus for the specific world into which it will be welcomed. The mix of influences the encounters in the womb are as individual and idiosyncratic as the pregnant woman herself -- and that's the way nature intended it.