Essential 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.

In Motherhood, Marchiano draws from a deep well of Jungian analysis and symbolic research to present a collection of fairytales, myths, and fables that evoke the spiritual arc of raising a child from infancy through adulthood. Divided into three major segments similar to the stages of a hero's initiatory journey, (Descent, Sojourn, and Return), Motherhood charts how events like pregnancy, the calamities of childhood, and the empty-nest experience are all parts of an odyssey to which every mother receives an invitation.

In A Simpler Motherhood, Emily's on a mission to remove stress from the lives of moms and busy families seeking less stuff and more joy in their daily life.

In Essential Labor, Garbes explores assumptions about care, work, and deservedness, offering a deeply personal and rigorously reported look at what mothering is, and can be. A first-generation Filipino-American, Garbes shares the perspective of her family's complicated relationship to care work, placing mothering in a global context—the invisible economic engine that has been historically demanded of women of color.

Popular parenting blogger Rebecca Eanes shares her hard-won wisdom for overcoming limiting thought patterns and recognizing emotional triggers, as well as advice for connecting with kids at each stage, from infancy to adolescence. This heartfelt, insightful advice comes not from an "expert," but from a learning, evolving parent.

There is so much noise surrounding pregnancy and birth. There are countless books teeming with information—what test does what, the "rights" and "wrongs" of eating, and "safe" or "risky" lifestyle choices—but few that hold a woman through the experience, acting as an elder sister, a matriarch, or a circle of women might hold her—with compassion, nonjudgment, and, most of all, wisdom. To the authors of Nine Golden Months, this is exactly what's needed now, in an era of high-speed living, endless demands, and more than a little anxiety and fear.

Do you think setting and achieving your goals stops when you have kids? Do you hear an inner voice telling you there's more you can do, but you feel like you can't do it because you have kids to take care of every day? Don't worry, the truth is...you can still make it. In 7 Essential Strategies of an Effective Go-Getter Mom, you'll discover how having a child can influence your success, so you'd better embrace venturing into a business while being a mother; the natural qualities of mothers that make them great entrepreneurs; and much more.

In Motherhood, Sheila Heti asks what is gained and what is lost when a woman becomes a mother, treating the most consequential decision of early adulthood with candor, originality, and humor. In her late 30s, when her friends are asking when they will become mothers, the narrator of Heti’s intimate and urgent audiobook considers whether she will do so at all. In a narrative spanning several years, casting among the influence of her peers, partner, and her duties to her forebearers, she struggles to make a wise and moral choice.

The work-family conflict that mothers experience today is a national crisis. Women struggle to balance breadwinning with the bulk of parenting, and stress is constant. Social policies don't help. Of all Western industrialized countries, the US ranks dead last for supportive work-family policies: No federal paid parental leave. The highest gender wage gap. No minimum standard for vacation and sick days. Can American women look to European policies for solutions?

Awakening Fertility is a loving guide to accompany you along the road to whatever is next for you - whether it be a child or a deeper understanding of what it means to be a woman and the power that lies in your heart and in your womb. Including 25 healing recipes, Awakening Fertility is a source of connection, nourishment, and guidance to those desiring to become mothers. As opposed to the countless other books on "trying to conceive," Awakening Fertility looks at this time before motherhood as a chance for discovery and growth.

The intersection of motherhood and creative life is explored in these writings on mothering that turn the spotlight from the child to the mother herself. Here, in memoirs, testimonials, diaries, essays, and fiction, mothers describe firsthand the changes brought to their lives by pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering.

It’s 2am but your baby thinks it’s party time; their ‘routine’ seems to change with the wind, and you would do anything to get a good night’s sleep. We know how you feel! You might be prepared and listening to this before baby arrives, or as they snooze beside you in those early new-born days, knowing that forewarned is forearmed. Or your eyebags may tell their own bedtime story. Either way, if your baby is not sleeping, you have not done anything wrong. Your baby is not broken (although you might feel broken from lack of sleep), and you are not a bad parent.

Your journey into parenthood has already begun. This book is a roadmap that tells you where you are, how long it takes to reach the finish line, and what happens in between. It helps to eliminate the anxieties that will inevitably accompany you into this brave new world.

Written by a mother and health researcher who suffered through her own baby's colic, The Essential Crying Baby Book will provide key tips and tricks, provide emotional support through your baby's crying, and share valuable information on the causes and treatments for excessive fussiness and crying. You will no longer feel alone in your struggle and will gain the perspective and strength necessary to cope with your fussy baby and thrive in parenthood!

Following on from the success of Your Baby, Your Birth, renowned birth and parenting Coach Hollie de Cruz applies her much-loved approach to the first year of motherhood. This empowering and thought-provoking book will guide you through the ever-changing landscape of your baby's first year, month by month, and will help you feel assured that you know your baby best.

Dr Sara Kayat is a GP and mum of two – as a medical professional overwhelmed by the information (and often lack of information!) available to new parents, she wanted to write the book that she wish she’d had when she was starting her family. The chapters cover everything from pre-pregnancy nutrition, early pregnancy symptoms and FAQs, to what all the medical jargon at your scans really means, when to worry and when not to worry, what to expect, what is normal, and when to seek further help – Sara has it all covered.

What if Augustine's Confessions had been written not by a man, but by a mother? How might her tales of desire, temptation, and transformation differ from his? In this memoir, Natalie Carnes describes giving birth to a daughter and beginning a story of conversion strikingly unlike Augustine's - even as his journey becomes a surprising companion to her own. The challenges Carnes recounts will be familiar to many parents. She wonders what and how much she should ask her daughter to suffer in resisting racism, patriarchy, and injustice.

In the first six weeks after her son was born, Jamila Rizvi felt isolated, exhausted and frustrated - as if the world she knew had disappeared forever. Then her salvation came in the form of a letter. A dear friend - who had been there herself - wrote to tell her that she would get through this. That she was seen and supported. That she was not alone. Now Jamila wants to pay it forward to other new mothers.

Brushstrokes in Time, written by Sylvia Vetta, is a memoir of fictional Chinese artist, Little Winter, written for her American daughter. It takes the story of Communist China beyond the death of Mao and for the first time in fiction shows the birth of the radical art movement, The Stars, in 1979. Her haunting love story connects us to this time of hope for freedom of expression in China, and to a man frustrated by "being kept in small shoes".

Being a parent is one of life's greatest challenges. For many years it was believed that continually berating and punishing their children was the best choice to educate them. Only in the last few years has the practice of positive disciplines been established. With this essential guide you will learn how to connect with your child and how to raise happy and disciplined children.