A small gifty package with beautful black-and-white illustrations by Iris Gottlieb, this is the ultimate babyshower gift for your best friend, sister, or daughter. Practical, reassuring, and beautifully written, A is for Advice provides a brief and compelling reflection on pregnancy, birth, and the early postpartum period for expectant mothers of all kinds--whether you prefer a water birth at home or a scheduled C-section in a hospital, whether you believe in painkillers or an all-natural labor, breast milk or formula, this book speaks to you and your pregancy. Written in the approachable and friendly tone of a best-friend blogger but informed by the insight of a Registered Midwife, A is for Advice seeks to comfort and inspire, providing realistic and soothing advice at a time when most women desperately seek out information. Through 26 lesson/letters of the alphabet (C is for Control; F is for Fear; W is for Water), A is for Advice offers practical and emotional insights into the often overwhelming transition to motherhood. Using a combination of humor, story-telling, research distillation, and personal reflection, A is for Advice speaks to concerns common to all women as they approach birth and motherhood. Eschewing the “birth wars” for a women-centered, feminist perspective, A is for Advice does not argue for any one type of birth experience, but rather empowers each woman to be her own advocate. If the book could be summed up in one line it would be, simply, “be gentle with yourself.” Read it cover-to-cover or in the short bursts available to an expecting mom (each letter stands alone), this book offers a compelling call for well-informed, judgment-free, and forgiving birthing and mothering.

Written by a nurse, this holistic guide for pregnancy and the postpartum experience provides foundational knowledge and intuitive wisdom to help new mothers support the optimal health of their baby and their own bodies. Get the answers to the big questions about pregnancy: • What kinds of foods should you eat and how do you prepare your body for labor and birth? • How does movement impact pelvic health and the baby's position in the womb? • How does the endocrine system and your brain change throughout pregnancy? • How does the microbiome influence your and your baby's health? Packed with practical information and helpful infographics, Amy J. Hammer helps you create the optimal environment for growing a baby and navigating the major transitions in a pregnancy—including nurturing pelvic floor health, the fetal and parental microbiome, and the science behind the stages of pregnancy from conception to postpartum. By providing vital and often ignored information about reproductive science, movement, and nourishment, this book empowers parents to make informed and personal choices about their pregnancy, birth, and beyond.

The bestselling author of The Kind Diet offers practical solutions for a healthier, more vibrant approach to new motherhood When did making babies get to be so hard? Infertility is on the rise globally, affecting as many as one in six couples. But instead of looking at diet and lifestyle as key factors, doctors are racing to pump their patients full of expensive and invasive fertility treatments. Once pregnant, women just accept that carrying a baby will be the gassy, swollen, irritable, sleepless nightmare that has become the new normal. Once their babies are born, they assume it will be just as challenging—from breastfeeding woes to screaming fits and constant trips to the doctor. It doesn’t have to be that way. In The Kind Mama, Alicia Silverstone shows that if we kick nasty foods that fight our bodies and replace them with nutrient-rocking “clean” foods that heal and nourish, we can create a more positive baby-making experience, from conception through the third trimester (and beyond). By encouraging basic diet and lifestyle modifications and drawing on wisdom from medical experts, friends, and her own experience, Silverstone has created a one-stop guide that empowers women to take charge of their fertility and pregnancy, and helps them to embark on a healthier, more vibrant path to parenthood.

It's frustrating and a nuisance--and it can be a major obstacle to experiencing the joy of pregnancy. But morning sickness doesn't always strike in the morning, and for many women it doesn't even strike--it's an ever-present part of their pregnancy, with symptoms ranging from mild nausea and exhaustion to crippling depression and physical illness. We all know the standard suggestions--crackers and tea, Jell-O and ginger ale--but when they don't seem like enough, what can women really do to manage their symptoms and recover the happiness their pregnancy should bring? As debilitating as morning sickness is, we don't hear much about it. But finally, just when it seems as though there's nothing out there, women have somewhere to turn. Elizabeth Kaledin's The Morning Sickness Companion is a book by and for women suffering morning sickness. Morning sickness is a reality of pregnancy--many women are affected--and this book is dedicated to them. It fills a major void in pregnancy literature, providing a brief history of morning sickness, all the latest scientific thinking, research on its emotional toll, and lots of reassuring tips and advice from other women about what they ate, how sick they really were, sources of relief, and how to survive, since the fact is it is nearly inevitable. Engaging, warm, often funny, and always informative, The Morning Sickness Companion offers women who are suffering the wisdom and comfort they really need.

Prize-winning writer Stanger-Ross has created a secret underground New York sisterhood where women of every shape and creed can come to share their milestones, laughter, loves, and losses, against a backdrop of discount lingerie.

Words and recipes for the new mother. For many first-time mothers expectations about their new life come from idealised images on TV, in magazines or online. It's a far cry from what it actually involves: lack of sleep, time and control - and total dependency on you by another. Becoming a mother brings extraordinary physical and emotional changes to a woman's life, but it also taps into deep instincts. Heidi Sze's message is to surrender to the changes, reject the guilt and accept the imperfect reality of this new life. Adjusting expectations and being true to your unique needs will bring a comfort, joy and peace that slavishly following rules, imposing unreachable standards and accumulating rooms of gadgets are unlikely to do. As women go through this profound transition, it is crucial that they identify their support needs and trust their intuition. This book will help women do just that. Many people know Heidi from her blog Apples Under My Bed and Instagram account @heidiapples. Her beautiful words and special focus here on nourishment - with special new-life recipes - will help mothers - and fathers - nurture with reassurance the new life in their hands.

Now in a new trade paperback edition, Dr. Spock's groundbreaking classic looks to the future and addresses the challenges today's parents face.