Into the Wilds of Motherhood

By Pip Findlay

Are you an expecting or new mum feeling anxious or overwhelmed, or perhaps even worried about 'losing yourself' in your entry into Motherhood? Unsure about what your postpartum days have instore for you?

This is for YOU.

If you're craving a trusted companion to comfort and guide you through your wildly, exhilarating journey of becoming a mother, then look no further than 'Into the Wilds of Motherhood.'

Written by Pip Findlay, a former Early Parenting Educator for New Zealand's largest Parenting Organization and the Founder of Wild Beginnings, this book provides valuable insights and support for new mothers as they transition into motherhood. While there is no shortage of information out there about how to care for your baby, this book focuses solely on YOUR experience as the new mother, providing insights and guidance for thriving in your new role and postpartum recovery.

Pip, & the team of professionals in the parenting field she has worked with, provide information that you won't find in traditional antenatal classes and parenting resources. She helps you to understand that what you are experiencing and feeling as a new mum is universal, and arms you with the knowledge to feel empowered in your motherhood. If you're feeling anxious or overwhelmed about becoming a mum, or perhaps you're a new mum struggling with the highs and lows of parenting, this book is for you. Don't miss out on the support and guidance that 'Into the Wilds of Motherhood: The Ultimate Survival Guide for New Mums' can provide you.

Pick up your copy today and begin your journey to thriving in your motherhood, and embracing all the Wild Beginnings that motherhood will throw at you!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pip Findlay
• Release date: Jan 5, 2025
• ISBN: 9781067040833

Pip Findlay

As a former Parenting Educator and the Founder of Wild Beginnings, Pip has worked with New Zealand's largest Parenting Education organisation and she has educated hundreds of new parents to help them smoothly transition into motherhood.  To help her navigate this new wild world of parenting, Pip sought out trusted parenting experts in both New Zealand and abroad to support her role as the primary caregiver and to help her understand what was happening to her mind and body. Through this support network she was able to rebuild herself during the postpartum period and was far better prepared when she became a mother of two being able to thrive in her motherhood and feel truly empowered.  Pip has distilled all the advice, guidance and support she received into helping new parents start their own journeys through her 'Being a Parent' and 'All About You' workshops, online courses, and book, 'Into the Wilds of Parenthood: The Ultimate Survival Guide for New Mums Entering the Wild World of Parenthood.'  To learn more from Pip, follow her on Insta or Facebook @wildbeginningsnz, or drop her a message at [e-mail]. 

Book preview

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Into The

Wilds Of

Motherhood

THE ULTIMATE SURVIVAL

GUIDE FOR NEW MUMS

You’ve got this, Mumma

PIP FINDLAY | WILD BEGINNINGS

​KIND WORDS FOR

Into the Wilds of Motherhood

It armed me with new-found knowledge and awareness about what to expect, and methods to deal with that, so I was able to replace my apprehension with confidence and felt empowered to begin the journey of Motherhood.

- Michelle W.

Even though bubba has not been born yet, I feel much more confident for the first few weeks... This is great support!

- Valeria

Having moved into the toddler mum stage I’m more focused on the other aspects of my life now but would have loved something like this when I was a new mum!

- Michelle K.

Thanks for giving new parents reassurance on their newborn path and not feeling alone along the way.

- Juliette

I’m a new parent, my daughter is 6 weeks old... I’m so pleased I found this, as so much of what I’ve been looking at is all about the baby and what she should be doing at each stage. It’s so nice to have something that’s more focused on what this new journey is like for parents.

- Trina

I’m so glad this book found me. Especially before I gave birth. This will be my new gift to all mums to be, I couldn’t recommend it more!

- Elena

​Copyright © Pip Findlay 2024

Colour version published 2024

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand.

Soft cover (colour version) ISBN 978-1-0670408-5-7

Hard Cover (colour version) ISBN 978-1-0670408-6-4

Kindle ISBN 978-1-0670408-2-6

epub ISBN 978-1-0670408-3-3

iBook ISBN978-1-0670408-4-0

Cover designed in New Zealand.

Design & layout by Fiverr designer Hamza Hazeem @hamzahazeem Printed in New Zealand by www.yourbooks.co.nz This book has been printed using sustainably managed stock.

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INTO THE WILDS

OF MOTHERHOOD

THE ULTIMATE SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR NEW MUMS

ENTERING THE WILD WORLD OF PARENTHOOD

P I P F I N D L A Y

Founder of Wild Beginnings

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Introduction

My Story

Contents

Value from this book

End Notes

Handy Resources

About the Author

Acknowledgements

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2

1

5

3 4

6

9

7 8 10

​Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Welcome to your Parenthood, your wild beginning 11

My Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Value from this book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Learn from the experts & trusted resources . . . . . . . . 23

ONE

Your Postpartum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

A recipe for Postpartum Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

The Five Pillars of Postpartum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

9 Ways to improve sleep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

A Mother’s Love Story on Sleep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

How to Build your Village . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Questions to ask for your Postpartum Visits . . . . . . . . 42

TWO

Hooray for Hormones! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Understanding your WILD Postpartum Hormones 46

Postpartum and perimenopause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

When will my period return?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Can I fall pregnant while breastfeeding? . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Postpartum depression (PPD) or

Postpartum Thyroiditis?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

​Introdu

The main hormonal player cs tion

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

15 Ways to raise your Oxytocin Levels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

THREE

Confronting unspoken experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Tackling the Taboo Topics of Parenthood. . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Parental Instinct is a Myth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

The story of the gorilla who learned how to

become a mum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

Love at first sight. Or not?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

15 Ways to Bond with your baby. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

FOUR

Your Matrescence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Entering your Matrescence in the

Fourth Trimester. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

The Motherhood Iceberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Underneath the surface - The Challenges . . . . . . . . . . 98

Above the surface - The Beauty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

FIVE

Self-care. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Windows of peace within the wildness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

​An Entrepreneurial Mumma’s Mantra & her Top 20 Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Create your f*cket and funday lists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

SIX

Nourishing your baby, your way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Your mental health matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Breastfeeding, Wendy’s Wise Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Creating a Feeding Station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

SEVEN

Postpartum Nutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Nourishment over perfection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

A Nutritionist’s Top Postpartum Nutrition Tips . . . . 150

Top Snack Suggestions for Postpartum Mums . . . . 155

Recipes to Rebuild Postpartum Mums. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .157

Amanda’s Hulk smoothie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Amanda’s Banana & Coconut Bread . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Pip’s Mumma’s Muesli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

EIGHT

Pelvic Health and Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Taking care of your Pelvic Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

​Your Postnatal Warrent Of Fitness (WOF) . . . . . . . . . . . .174

Safely returning to exercise in your postpartum . . .176

How to make a DIY padsicle for your vajazzicle . . . .178

Birth Recovery Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

NINE

A daily 12-week Plan to Thrive in

your Fourth Trimester . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

TEN

Other mummas’ wild stories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Emma’s story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Rebecca’s story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203

Annalise’s story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Trina’s story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

A Doula’s story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .