New Motherhood

The first 40 days after the birth of a child offer an essential and fleeting period of rest and recovery for the new mother. Based on author Heng Ou's own postpartum experience with zuo yuezi, a set period of “confinement”, in which a woman remains at home focusing on healing and bonding with her baby, The First Forty Days revives the lost art of caring for the mother after birth.

Becoming a mother is a joyful rite of passage, but it can also be overwhelming - physically and emotionally. How can you calm the worries, quiet the guilt, and be present with yourself and your kids? Psychologist and mom Ilyse Dobrow DiMarco specializes in the myriad issues that women with young children struggle with. In this compassionate guide, she shares science-based strategies to help you cope with common challenges and make peace with your transformed identity.

This is a practical, relatable, and humorous guide to surviving the difficult, awkward, and rewarding job of being a breastfeeding, working mother. Drawing on the war stories, hacks, and humor of working moms and on her own stories from her demanding job and travel in developing countries, she gives women moral support for dealing with the stress and guilt that come with juggling working and breastfeeding. As she tells the listener in her witty, inspiring manifesto, "Your worth as a mother is not measured in ounces."

Motherhood is demanding (to say the least), but when all of your mental and physical energy is directed towards a tiny human, you are neglecting yourself. And when you are neglected, you don’t have the energy or strength to take care of your completely dependent newborn. But you’re probably thinking how can I possibly put my needs above those of my baby? The truth of the matter is, your baby needs you to be at your best, and this is achieved through self-care. Self-care has many misconceptions, and due to the prefix, it’s all too often associated with selfishness.

In this updated and expanded version of Isa Gucciardi’s acclaimed Return to the Great Mother, the listener is invited to rediscover the transformative feminine power at the heart of childbirth. Mothers, their partners, and birth professionals will learn how to tap into this ancient wellspring of power to create a birthing experience that is deeply intuitive and empowering.

Chrissie is eight and she has a secret: she has just killed a boy. The feeling made her belly fizz like soda pop. Her playmates are tearful and their mothers are terrified, keeping them locked indoors. But Chrissie rules the roost - she's the best at wall-walking, she knows how to get free candy, and now she has a feeling of power that she never gets at home, where food is scarce and attention scarcer.

After the birth of her baby triggers a manic maelstrom, Dyane Harwood struggles to survive the bewildering highs and crippling lows of her brain's turmoil. Birth of a New Brain vividly depicts her postpartum bipolar disorder, an unusual type of bipolar disorder and postpartum mood and anxiety disorder. During her childhood, Harwood grew up close to her father, a brilliant violinist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic who had bipolar disorder. She learned how bipolar disorder could ravage a family, but she never suspected that she'd become mentally ill - until her baby was born.

Most new mothers bring their infants to the doctor but ignore any distressing feelings or sensations they might themselves have—that sense of being "rattled" at many moments throughout the day and night. In Rattled, Dr. Nicole Pensak shares her own experiences and those of her patients to help new mothers feel informed, validated, and guided through matrescence. After giving birth, a woman often feels like a completely different person. It may sound dramatic, but the rollercoaster of physical and psychological changes affects the brain and body in a similar way that adolescence changes us.

As someone who used to put themselves last - doing everything she thought was "right" for her children and family, but not really listening to what her body and her spirit was begging for - Amy understands firsthand the overwhelm and complex range of emotions that mothers face. Amy’s background as a journalist set her on the path to uncover all that she could about the latest research on matrescence, the transition a woman undergoes when she becomes a mother. She now shares what she’s learned in the hope that it will help you navigate this stage of your life.

Taking good care of yourself in the first three months of your new baby’s life—the fourth trimester—brings crucial benefits for you, for your baby, and for your partner and family. With this important book, you now have the resources to have an ideal fourth trimester experience. Cynthia Gabriel, a doula and the author of the best-selling book Natural Hospital Birth, delivers all the information, guidance, and encouragement you need as a new mother to take care of your body, mind, and spirit during the vital months of the fourth trimester.

Is bedtime a constant struggle with your toddler? Do they have trouble falling asleep or often wake in the middle of the night? Are you exhausted from sleepless nights of your own trying to keep up with them? Get back to basics with this guide to toddler bedtime troubles and how to solve them. Using child psychology and gentle, science-backed parenting techniques, this audiobook will provide you with everything necessary to teach your child how to sleep on their own.

This book shows us the results of focusing on our children's strengths rather than always trying to correct their weaknesses. Most parents struggle with this shift because they suffer from a negativity bias, thanks to evolutionary development, giving them "strengths blindness". By showing us how to throw the "strengths switch", Lea Waters demonstrates how not only can we help our children build resilience, optimism, and achievement but we can also help inoculate them against today's pandemic of depression and anxiety.

The Little Book of Calm for New Mums will share advice and support on issues that new mothers face, from A for Anger, to I for Insomnia, providing an empowering pep talk for those days when new mothers need it most. Psychotherapist and mother of three Anna Mathur will support listeners through the roller coaster of feelings that come with being a new mum and provide expert advice based on her own professional and personal experiences.

Rachael Elmore has been there and knows on a personal and professional level how hard the early days and months of motherhood can be. In A Mom Is Born she takes her expertise as a licensed and clinical counselor and pairs it with her deeply personal story of overcoming postpartum depression after the birth of her first son. She comes alongside listeners with practical tools—such as the New Mom Wellness Plan and a postpartum progress checklist—to help find the balance between taking care of their new baby and taking care of themselves.

You’re excited to be a new mom…but you have no idea what to expect. You know it’s going to be a magical experience, but you’re feeling both exhilarated and scared. You’ve been looking forward to this moment for as long as you can remember, but now that it's drawing nearer, you’re getting nervous. Maybe you’ve looked through countless websites on motherhood but your research is becoming more overwhelming than helpful. Don’t worry: You are not alone!

I love being a Spice Girl, but what I am proudest of is being a mum. Even though I had all the real-life girl power of the actual Spice Girls on speed-dial, my incredible partner and my mum, I had so many worries and questions I couldn't always ask out loud. What I really, really wanted was one easy-to-digest, honest book that would give me support without judgment - that might even make me chuckle occasionally.

Whether you want practical guidance for an unassisted birth or simply want to deepen your understanding of natural birth in general, this book is the how-to manual you've been waiting for. Introducing the idea of a Brave New Birth—any birth where the mother and baby are free to birth by instinct and are given the privacy and safety necessary for the body and baby to birth themselves, without interference, intervention, or being watched/measured/observed.

If you are struggling to cope with the anxieties of being a new mother, this is the book you need!

Six months after the birth of her son, Emma Jane Unsworth finds herself in the eye of a storm. Nothing - from pregnancy to birth and beyond - has gone as she expected. A birth plan? It might as well have been a rough draft! Furious and exhausted, her life is the complete opposite of what it used to be. She's swapped all night benders for a grazed labia and Whac-a-Moling haemorrhoids. How did she end up here? In this brave and hilarious account of postnatal depression, Emma tells her story of despair and recovery.

Martha and Becky Blackwater are more than sisters - they're each other's lifelines. When Martha finds herself struggling to balance early motherhood and her growing business, Becky steps in to babysit her niece, Layla, without a second thought, bringing the two women closer than ever. But then the unthinkable happens, and Becky is charged with murder. Nine months later, Becky is on trial and maintains her innocence - and so does Martha. Martha sets out to uncover exactly what happened that night and how things could have gone so wrong.