I know you are a busy woman right now, you are either growing a baby, just birthed one, or you are chasing around after little humans.
So I'm going to make this super quick.
These are THE 3 books you need to read for each stage of motherhood.
Pregnancy
Babies are not pizzas, by Rebecca Dekker
One in three births is traumatic.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Rebecca planned to give birth at the hospital affiliated with her university, where she was an award-winning nurse researcher finishing her doctoral degree. But hospital practices and policies that were more than twenty years out of date left her with complications that seemed preventable. Worst for Rebecca, her healthy baby was whisked off to a nursery right away. She spent the first few hours after birth begging to see her own baby!
A few years later and pregnant again, Rebecca put her research skills to work and examined the hard evidence on what went wrong with her first childbirth experience.
She discovered shocking truths that not only impact millions of families every year, but would change the entire course of her life.
Embark on a journey with Rebecca as she exposes the stark realities of institutional care during childbirth and reveals inspirational solutions for parents and professionals alike."
Postpartum
The Discontented Little Baby Book, by Dr Pamela Douglas
A fully updated edition of this essential guide for new parents with unsettled babies.
Did you know there are things that you can do to help your baby cry and fuss less? Did you know that many parents' nights are unnecessarily disrupted? Are you longing for a deeper connection with your little one?
The first months after a baby's arrival can be exhausting and attempts at quick fixes are often part of the problem. But a number of obstacles are accidentally put in the way of a healthy night's sleep, and much can be done to help your baby cry less.
The Discontented Little Baby Book gives you practical and evidence-based strategies for helping you and your baby get more in sync. Dr Pamela Douglas offers a path that protects your baby's brain development so that your little one can reach his or her full potential. She also offers simple strategies to help you enjoy your baby and live with vitality while facing the challenges of this extraordinary time of life.
With real-life stories, advice on dealing with feelings of anxiety and depression, and answers to your questions about reflux, allergies and tongue-tie, The Discontented Little Baby Book is a compassionate revolution in baby care.
Back to Work
The Fifth Trimester: The Working Mom's Guide to Style, Sanity, and Success After Baby, by Lauren Smith Brody
"Packed with honest, funny, and comforting advice—“a book you MUST read if you are returning to work after the birth of a child…. I loved it and you will too.” —New York Times bestselling author Lois P. Frankel, Ph.D.
The first three trimesters (and the fourth—those blurry newborn days) are for the baby, but the Fifth Trimester is when the working mom is born. A funny, tells-it-like-it-is guide for new mothers coping with the demands of returning to the real world after giving birth, The Fifth Trimester contains advice from 800 moms, including:
The boss-approved way to ask for flextime (and more money!)
How to know if it’s more than “just the baby blues”
How to pump breastmilk on an airplane (or, if you must, in a bathroom)
What military science knows about working through sleep deprivation
Your new sixty-second get-out-of-the-house beauty routine
How to turn your commute into a mini–therapy session
Your daycare tour or nanny interview, totally decoded"
Don't have time to read a book and be super woman. I get it!
So here are the podcast versions...
Podcasts
You can get real life evidence based advice on how to birth your baby and more from Rebecca Dekker at The Evidence Based Podcast
In the Evidence Based Birth® podcast, they cover the research evidence on hot topics about pregnancy and childbirth! Their mission is to help build the evidence based knowledge, skills, and power to protect families' ability to give birth with empowerment. The work they do has a huge impact on parents who are searching for accurate information to empower their prenatal, birth, and postpartum experiences!
Dr Pamela Douglas' advice is practical, easy to implement and quite frankly amazing. Hear more about her approach and her clinic in Perth here.
Now more than ever we need evidence-based, biologically aligned strategies for protecting a baby's rapidly developing brain, gut and immune system. Featuring information, strategies from Neuroprotective Developmental Care (www.possumsonline.com), and wide-ranging conversations with parents, clinicians, and other experts, 2020 Baby re-thinks early life care for these exceptional, transformative times.
How do you handle the demands of the real world while also coping with the tiny human you just birthed?
From executive editor at Glamour magazine to author of The Fifth Trimester — all about the birth of the working mom — and mentor for working mothers everywhere, Lauren Brody has learned her worth, and can help you find yours.
On this episode of SheVentures, learn how U.S. maternity leave sucks, how you as a new mom can navigate the working world, and how as a business owner you can make it easier for your postpartum employees.
I'm signing off quickly today, as I too am a busy working mum. So, I hope this article is useful, empowering and hopefully so good it's sharable ... ping it to a friend and let them know that they are not alone.
I'm here if you have any questions, you can always arrange a FREE chat with me, or email me at kathy@empowa.sg.
As always, sending my best best wishes
Kathy -x-
In a nutshell
"I HELP NEW MUMS"
It's my job, it's my passion
