Product Overview
“Life After Birth may be currently classified as the most authoritative document (“the bible”?) about the fourth trimester”.
-Michel Odent, MD
“There is an abundance of information and advice about pregnancy that abruptly stops with birth. This is leaving many parents in the postpartum period - a time of intense needs, life upheaval, joy yes, but also confusion and overwhelm - feeling lost and alone at a time they’re likely to need direction and support the most. Combining ancient wisdom with modern psychology and science, Life Afer Birth is a wonderfully informative and comprehensive guide, covering important “need to knows” of the physical, mental, emotional and early relational shifts of those crucial first weeks of family. It’s a book that has been sorely missing from the literature. And is needed. Because it’s how couples start to navigate the normal twists and turns of the postpartum period that sets the stage for how the next few years will unfold for their family.”
-Elly Taylor, Author and Founder of Becoming Us
“This is a remarkable and stunningly comprehensive book, a book every woman (and man) should read whether they are beginning or continuing their parenting journey…It not only anticipates basic parenting concerns likely to occur during the first crucial months after birth, it includes almost every physical, emotional, mental, and social issue parents might face when they welcome a new baby into their lives.
The scope of Life After Birth is truly remarkable. Of particular import is her use of many subtle energy techniques and protocols which are part of energy medicine as it is taught today. Dr. Speier’s inclusion of them here adds greatly to the thoroughness of this book. In fact, so comprehensive is Life After Birth that I believe it is destined to become one of the most relevant parenting handbooks of our time. An absolute must read!”
-Dr. Vicki Matthews, Naturopathic Physician
"Diane's book is a refreshing and wide-ranging look at the all-important, and vastly underrated fourth trimester. I hope it's widely read by parents-to-be well before they encounter the challenges that have been culturally overlooked for so long."
-John W. Travis, MD, MPH, co-author, Wellness Workbook
"Diane Speier has written a book I wish had been available when I had my three children many years ago. This is a book whose time has come; actually, has been overdue! I consider her knowledge, her experience, and her research presented with clarity, skill, and compassion as essential information for every woman expecting a baby. I feel privileged to write this foreword. I have known Dr. Speier for about 35 years and have admired her superb programs dealing with the needs of women during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. She has the expertise of not only having lived the experience of parenting herself but has created hundreds of programs for other mothers and families, and researched this period of life for her PhD, developing a deep understanding. This book has incorporated a whole new level of information made palatable, easily taken in, digested, and available to new birthing families."
-Phyllis Klaus LMFT, LMSW
Having a baby is a game changer. The mix of emotions is intense – life is exciting and frightening, exhilarating and exhausting, blissful and stressful. Knowing what to expect and how to handle the changes relieves feelings of anxiety and apprehension, so you can feel confident and competent as you optimize your time during the fourth trimester. Although the transition to parenthood will transform your lives, as individuals and as a couple, there’s a real gap in practical information on how to successfully steer through the early days and weeks of the postpartum period.
This book addresses the gap with up to date holistic knowledge and resources for empowering the whole family, with a purposeful emphasis on the mother’s wellbeing. The important topics that are covered include:
•The fourth trimester
•Hormones
•Breastfeeding
•Bonding and attachment
•The partner relationship
•Maternity leave /going back to work
•Father’s/partner’s lived experience
Life After Birth: A Parent’s Holistic Guide for Thriving in the Fourth Trimester is the first book to apply energy medicine to the postpartum period, with techniques that make it a perfect strategy for managing the energy lows of the fourth trimester. These techniques become powerful self-care strategies for handling the intense day to day responsibilities of newborn parenting.
Dr. Diane S. Speier has been a birth and postpartum professional for 40 years in both the U.S. and UK, starting as a certified childbirth educator and doula in 1978. She received her PhD in Women’s Studies at The University of Manchester, UK, in 2002, using her case notes as a birth professional to research women’s experience of childbirth. Diane is a practicing holistic psychotherapist and hypnotherapist, specializing in perinatal psychology, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, and recovering from birth trauma. Diane is the mother of four children, and the grandmother of three grandchildren (and step-mother and step-grandmother), and lives in the North West of England.
Authors: Dr. Diane S. Speier
Copyright: 2019
Pages: 317
ISBN: 978-1-946665-22-5
