Reading is one of my favorite suggestions for new mamas. The first forty days after birth is often spent at home, resting and healing. This can mean a lot of downtime as you rest and as your new baby sleeps upwards to 18 hours a day. If you breastfeed, add sitting and feeding your baby close to 13 times a day. I often find that moms spend these times scrolling on social media. While there is a time for this, it can also become a slippery slope of comparison. While new moms are often painted as glowing and whimsical, that is absolutely not how they feel. It can be so easy to compare our weak, tired, and wounded bodies to those on social media who are in a completely different stage than us. This can exacerbate feelings of fear, weakness, and failure. Here is a list of books to put on your nightstand to pick up during these downtimes to help you feel seen and not alone.
The Birth of a Mother
When you become pregnant and birth a child, you become a different person. You are a mother now and you feel different because you are different. This book is so helpful to put into words all the things new moms often feel but don’t know how to express it.
Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts
This book is so important! Postpartum (and parenthood in general) can come with scary and repetitive thoughts. This book is an easy, simple read that helps normalize these thoughts. It discusses when these thoughts are normal and natural as well as when they cross the line of distress where it would be good to get extra support around.
Mama Bare: The Birth of a Mother
This book is filled with quick reflections from other mothers. The experiences range from all different topics but it is another book that helps mothers feel seen. Postpartum, especially at night, can feel like a lonely experience. This book allows you to connect with other women’s stories and helps you feel seen.
The Postnatal Depletion Cure
This book is helpful to pick up after the first couple weeks. This book gives you a better understanding of the journey your body just went through in pregnancy and birth and helps guide you to replenishing the lost nutrients, fluids, blood and energy.
A Novel to Get Lost In
Whether it is an audio book for nighttime feeds or a paperback for daytime feeds, having a novel to get lost in can be so helpful. New moms can feel so many emotions and feel so much pressure in those first forty days. Having a novel that you can get to know characters and get lost in a story can be helpful to be reminded of the outside world as you take some time for yourself, your baby, and your family. A few novels I read during postpartum included A Man Called Ove, Wild Game, and It Ends With Us.