New Moms, New Families: Priceless Gifts of Wisdom and Practical Advice from Mama Experts for the Fourth Trimester and First Year Postpartum: New Moms, New Families, #1

By Gloria Ng

HAND IN HAND, TOGETHER WE CAN

First-time moms strive to carry babies to term and experience easy labor. Few are prepared for the immediate challenges after delivery, the "fourth trimester." Thus, this unique and holistic collection of alternative tips and practical advice for Moms by Moms was born.

Deepen your breath with essential oils and clean air. Warm your tummy with nourishing foods. Feel your center and strengthen your core with intuition. Share and rediscover with your baby the joy of nature and language. Learn to ask questions, settle anxieties, and employ strategies when you suspect developmental delays. Equip yourself with a postpartum depression-busting wellness plan as well as a process to become sensational in the face of being a single mom. Plan ahead with finances and luck cycles. Most importantly, awaken refreshed from great “mountain” feng shui. Let these amazing mama entrepreneurs and professionals from diverse fields of expertise hold your hand, save you time, change your life and give you more sleep!

FOR MOMS BY MOMS ABOUT MOMS

For the first time, new mothers can expect to find a book that is entirely devoted to smoothing out the rapid transition after delivery when creating a new family. This book, unlike many others, is focused on helping the new mom navigate all areas of care that a new arrival necessitates.

The chapters in this book emerge as five sections:

~ Mama Care, especially for the first six weeks after delivery (with yummy postpartum recipes from Traditional Chinese Medicine traditions)

~ Self Care, to give new moms permission to care for themselves (including essential oils and cultivating one's Mother Intuition)

~ Baby Care, to make motherhood easier for mama (e.g., cloth diapering made easy)

~ Home Care, for peaceful havens (indoors and out)

~ Family Care, for easing into parenthood with a significant other (including financial planning and adventures in multilingualism)

 

You asked for it. You have it. The sequel to the New Moms, New Families book is now out!

BIRTH FORMATIONS: What Multiple Home Births Teach About Living, Laboring, and Mothering in the Now

When asked by mamas of one and mamas of two how she does it, Ng delivers her nuts-and-bolts approach on how to actualize the New Age concept of living in the present moment before conception, during pregnancy, throughout delivery and in the midst of postpartum motherhood for the busy woman who desires to do and have it all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gloria Ng
• Release date: Apr 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781502220752

Gloria Ng

Multi-published, #1 Amazon bestselling author Gloria Ng is an Oakland-based mother of three who writes on Owl Time. Her work has appeared in anthologies, including YELL-Oh Girls! Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity, and Growing Up Asian American. (HarperCollins, 2001) Seeing the lack of bilingual books to read to her children, she created the Mama Gloria Chinese-English Bilingual Books series. If you listen well, you'll hear her hooting in the middle of the night. For forthcoming book updates, sign up for her newsletter: http://eepurl.com/fSDdD If you enjoyed this book, please help others find it by recommending this book to friends or family or posting a review on the site from which you purchased it. Gloria enjoys hearing from readers, writers, and reviewers. Contact or Interact with Gloria Online: Facebook: www.facebook.com/FengShuiGal Facebook Author page: www.facebook.com/GloriaFanPage Twitter: @fengshuigal Blog/Website: http://www.GloriaNg.com/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/fSDdD Patreon: http://patreon.com/GloriaNg

Book preview

Praise for New Moms, New Families

I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to convince a man to read this book but for women who are about to give birth or have just given birth, this book is a must read. It’ll save you a lot of pain.

~ Vivek Rajan Vivek, Author of A Great Sage and A Rascal Named Doku

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...quite multicultural and includes...entries dealing with very non-traditional approaches that were once outside the mainstream. All in all, an eclectic and often enjoyable read that new mothers or mothers-to-be may find helpful.

~ Rebecca Hazell, Author of Women Writers

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There are a lot of practical tips and easy to implement action plans to smooth out this emotional time in early motherhood...and the intimate experiences these women share alongside their advice is inspiring and touching.

~ C. H. Lowe, Author of Someplace North of Here

New Moms, New Families

Priceless Gifts of Wisdom and Practical Advice from Mama Experts for the Fourth Trimester and First Year Postpartum

Edited by Gloria Ng

Copyright © 2012 Gloria Ng. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission, in writing, from the publisher.

All product names are copyrights and trademarks of their respective owners. The contributing authors retain the copyright to their entry.

Publisher: Egret Springs, LLC

P.O. Box 391

Oakland, CA 94604

ISBN-13: 978-1-470037-26-0

ISBN-10: 1-470037-26-2

LCCN: 2012906290

Printed in the United States of America

Cover design by Gloria Ng

Cover Photo Credit: Gloria Ng

This book is designed for entertainment and motivational purposes. It is distributed with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in the dispensation of legal, psychological, or any other professional advice. The content of each entry is the expression and opinion of its author and does not necessarily reflect the beliefs, practices, or viewpoints of the publisher, its parent company, or its affiliates. The publisher's choice to include any material within is not intended to express or imply any warranties or guarantees of any kind. Neither the publisher nor the authors shall be held liable to any person or entity for any incidental or consequential damages caused directly or indirectly.

DEDICATION

Dedicated to my mentor, Daisaku Ikeda, and his wife, Kaneko Ikeda,

who both taught me about accumulating the treasures of the heart and building up the life force required to open the gateway to a new era.

In Loving Memory of Jennifer Rudow

You reminded me of my dream and my unique contributions to humanity at a time when I struggled to believe and to endure.

Last but not least—

To Each and Every Mother, including my own.

Your heartbeat gives us our own heartbeat. You birth humanity and humankind with your bottomless courage, creativity and perseverance that moves not only you and your family (and communities) forward but this whole entire universe.

Thank you!

Gloria

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special Thanks to Eileen Kennedy, fellow contributing author and co-conceiver of this book project. Your vision, teamwork, and encouragement kept me chugging along.

Thank you to fellow contributing author Michelle McIntyre, for it was you who first believed in us and took the leap of faith with us.

Thank you to each and every contributing author, including those who considered and those who actually showed up on the pages of this book. Without you, this book project would not have existed.

Most Special Thanks to Community Midwife Kristen Graser for writing the foreword to this book. Only a mama midwife like you who has seen motherhood on both sides of pregnancy and postpartum can understand life as a mother both professionally and personally.

Thank YOU, the Reader, for adding this book to your collection of wisdom and practical advice for the motherhood years. We wrote this book for you, to create value in your life and save you years of guesswork and growing pains.

CONTENTS

Praise

Title Page

Copyright Page

Foreword

Editor's Note

Dedication

Acknowledgements

I.  Mama Care: Help You Need the First 6 Weeks (and Beyond)

坐月子： The Sitting Month  Portia Lee

My Mama Care Traditions  Sandy Wu

Postpartum Depression Wellness Plan  Marlette Marasigan

II.  Self Care: Allow Yourself to Care for Yourself

Cultivating the Mother Intuition  Bingo Marasigan

Healing with Essential Oils  Peggy Nederlof

A Single Mom Sensation  Dea Mendoza

III.  Baby Care: Make Motherhood Easier for You

Breastfeeding—Profession Made Personal  Katie DaMota

Cloth Diapering Made Easy  Gloria Ng

Helping the Exceptional Child  Susanna Murray Highsmith

IV.  Home Care: Safe and Peaceful Havens, Indoors and Out

Exploring Natural Landscapes  Jenn Sepulveda

Creating a Healthy Nursery  Michelle McIntyre

Go Up the Mountain  Eileen Kennedy

V.  Family Care: Plan Ahead Now for a Rewarding Future

Smart Financial Moves  Louise Wen

Saju [사주]—Empowering Children's Futures  Sasha YungJu Lee

Family Adventures in Multilingualism  Anna Melman

Congratulations

About the Editor

Also by Gloria Ng

FOREWORD

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The fourth trimester is often used to describe the time from birth to three months, where the newborn adjusts to the world outside of the womb. During gestation, Baby bathes in the warmth of the salty waters, hears the constant and rhythmic beat of Mother’s heart, receives consistent and adequate nutrition supplied by the placenta, and experiences minimal stimulation and disturbance. The gestating baby is never alone and knows nothing of the world we inhabit - the world filled with light, sound, silence, disruption, and the need to communicate a variety of needs for comfort and survival. Once outside, newborns experience an entirely new set of circumstances to negotiate. It is their parent’s love and nurturance that helps them begin their journey.

There are a plethora of parenting modalities that offer suggestions on how to help baby have a gentle transition to extra-uterine life. Some philosophies focus on the mother-baby attachment and advocate that baby be provided with plenty of skin-to-skin contact, on-demand breastfeeding, and a place to sleep in the bed with parents. Others focus on ways to soothe a tired or overstimulated baby so their needs for comfort are more readily met. Some resources offer parents advice on how they can soothe themselves so they are better equipped to soothe their baby.

While the emphasis of the fourth trimester is often placed on baby’s needs, it is also a time when parents learn to become parents. In a short amount of time they learn to share their attention and love with another human being and find new ways to balance the demands of parenthood. It is a time of intense emotional and physical adjustment for mothers. Not only does the mother need to recover from childbirth, but she must also meet the demands of breastfeeding, integrate her birth experience, build strength to meet the physical demand of motherhood, and adjust to her changing relationship to the world. Fathers and partners also must make adjustments to care for the needs of the mother and newborn and negotiate the growing needs of their family.

My own introduction to motherhood solidified just how influential the first months of mothering can be. Our daughter was born at home surrounded by an incredible team of family, friends, and midwives. She emerged just before dawn through the warm waters of the birth tub into my arms looking directly at her father, who was by my side. I was in awe at the intense transformation that had just occurred. Moments after seeing her, my perineum still stinging, placenta attached, and daughter skin-to-skin in my arms, I began to inspect her like a mother bear inspects her young. I began to take in the miracle of what had just occurred. I could hardly believe that this was my daughter, I could hardly believe the amount of work it took to give birth to her, and I could hardly believe that so many other women were doing the same thing around the world at that very moment.

The postpartum experience was not easy for me. I lost enough blood to need a transfusion, requiring that I go to the hospital. I was weak, tired, and emotional. My nipples were extremely sore, and breastfeeding was more painful than I expected. A week after the birth I was re-hospitalized with mastitis, a breast infection that my depleted body could not fight without the aid of antibiotics. In short, I was more vulnerable than I had ever felt in my adult life. I cried a lot. Yes, there was enjoyment and love, and awe, but there were also tears, feelings of inadequacy, and frustration.

Through it all we had the constant help of my sister, who was staying with us. We had friends bringing over meals every day. Four years later, I still remember those meals as beautiful, unique expressions of love that fed my body and spirit while I rebuilt myself. I can still remember who brought what, and how delicious it was to sit and enjoy the meal while the baby slept or while the food-bearing visitor held and met our baby.

Each child shapes our identity. Through them we learn, grow, adapt to