Everyone talks about pregnancy and new babies and birth, but so little time is spent talking about or preparing for postpartum — when the real work begins.
Psychologist, educator, and mother Gabrielle Mauren, PhD, and psychiatrist, educator, and mother Michelle Wiersgalla, MD, saw the need for more postpartum-centric resources play out again and again among parents in “Centering Pregnancy” sessions in their local health care system. So they decided to write a book. The newly released Myself Again: The PARENTS Postpartum Survival Guide (Praeclarus Press) is a go-to postpartum guide for new parents. This compact book offers science-backed and proven bite-sized information to help parents through this critical and challenging stage in life.
This book is for you if:
- You’re pregnant
- You have a new baby – anywhere in the first year after birth
- You’ve said or thought, “I just don’t feel like myself”
- You have a new baby and feel overwhelmed
- You feel overly anxious
- Your partner seems “off”
- You want to be prepared for well being during postpartum
The book shares parents’ first-hand stories and the topics include postpartum basics, “baby blues,” postpartum depression, anxiety, postpartum issues in partners, dealing with trauma, and treatment options. The book also includes helpful resources like a postpartum plan, support groups information, and recommended apps.
The prominent guiding tool in the book, detailed in the first chapter, is referred to as The PARENTS Method:
Practice patience
Activities for yourself
Rest and sleep
Exercise or movement
Nutrition
Time with others
Support network
The PARENTS method is a unique tool created by the authors that gives straightforward, practical strategies in self-care and emotion management, so that you can get back to feeling like yourself again.
And don’t worry about having to slog through a whole book to get useful information — the book is created for parents who likely only have a few minutes available at a time. The table of contents helps you get to the information you need right away.
