Heidi Murkoff is the author of the world's best-selling pregnancy and parenting series, What to Expect, that began with What to Expect When You're Expecting. She is also the creator of WhatToExpect.com and founder of the What to Expect Foundation. Time magazine named Heidi one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World for 2011. In 2005, she was inducted into the Books For A Better Life Hall of Fame. Heidi Murkoff conceived the idea for What to Expect When You're Expecting during her first pregnancy, when she couldn't find answers to her questions in the books she¿d turned to for advice. The The New York Times bestseller is now in its fourth edition, with more than 17 million copies in print. According to USA Today, What to Expect When You're Expecting is read by 93 percent of women who read a pregnancy book. USA Today also named What to Expect When You're Expecting one of the most influential books of the last 25 years. The sequel, What to Expect: The First Year, has sold over 10 million copies and is in its 2nd edition. Other titles in the series include What to Eat When You're Expecting, What to Expect Before You're Expecting (a complete preconception plan), and the newest member of the What to Expect series: What to Expect: the Second Year, the must-have guide for parents of toddlers. The What to Expect books have sold more than 34 million copies in the U.S. alone and are published in more than 30 languages. Murkoff's What to Expect Kids picture book series for preschoolers include What to Expect When Mommy's Having a Baby, What to Expect When the New Baby Comes Home, What to Expect When You Use the Potty, and What to Expect at Preschool. In 2005, Murkoff expanded the What to Expect (WTE) brand online with www.whattoexpect.com as a companion to the books. In 2009, WTE went mobile with the WTE Pregnancy Tracker (a popular pregnancy app), the WTE Fertility Tracker, the WTE Baby Name Finder, and the WTE First Year Tracker.
Arlene Eisenberg, 1934-2001 Arlene Eisenberg was born June 8, 1934 in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, daughter to the Head of the Sanitation Department. She is best known for her instructional books on pregnancy and the early years of childhood, "What to Expect When You're Expecting", as well as the"What to Expect Foundation", an organization which prints lower literacy manuals for disadvantaged women. At the tender age of 18 she dropped out of Queens College, opting for babies and marriage to Howard Eisenberg, a press agent for Eddie Fisher, instead of a higher education. The two wrote articles together for many magazines until their children were grown. At this point, Eisenberg began to collaborate on question and answer type pregnancy books with her adult daughters. Together, the three women wrote "What to Expect When You're Expecting", the follow ups "What to Expect the First Year", "What to Expect the Toddler Years" and "What to Eat when You're Expecting", which were hungrily sought out by pregnant women. It was a series that answered all serious and silly questions and made an expectant mother all the more comfortable. Through these books, Eisenberg became a mother to the multitudes, explaining to all women that they didn't have to be perfect mothers. Arlene Eisenberg died at the age of 66 of breast cancer.