MOM OVER: The New Mom’s Guide to Getting it Back Together
MOM OVER: The New Mom’s Guide to Getting it Back Together is the kind of book every woman who is, or planning to be, a mother should read. I’ve long believed that having a baby really changes everything, but this book showed me how true this is.
Dana Wood wrote a book that is easy to read. Her manner of writing pulls you in, pretty much like friends talking together. The book is divided into easily digested parts, so that readers can jump to the section they most want to read. Others, like myself will find reading it in one sitting the way to go. The sections are:
- Getting it together mentally
- Getting it together physically
- Getting it together emotionally and spiritually
Each section is further broken down into short chapters. The information covers such help topics as recognizing and dealing with postpartum depression, asking for and accepting help and taking care of yourself. She emphasizes the need for medical check-ups not just for the new addition to the family but for mommy as well. Too often mothers tend to pay more attention to baby and children and not to themselves. The sharing of personal experiences, good and not so good in a humorous manner worked well.
Many readers will find themselves marking special sections to return to again and again. Others will nod their heads in agreement with some of the true and tried messages imparted. Sometimes it is good to get a reinforcement of some of what we already know as mothers. Our children need us around to help them through the growing process and taking care of ourselves mentally, emotionally, and physically is the best way to ensure this.
My Thoughts on This Book
As a writer, all round bibliophile, and information junkie, I especially loved the dig deeper appendix of helpful books, websites and DVDs. I wish I had a book like this when I had my son. It would have helped me deal better with some issues. Thankfully, a lot of the information is still useful today, six years after I became a mom. I love her take on getting enough sleep which I still lack as do so many other moms. As such, whenever I try to burn the mid-night oil too many days for the week, I remember that as Wood noted, “…The main job of sleep is to repair us…”
This is good book to give as a gift to any new mom regardless of her age.
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MOM OVER: The New Mom’s Guide to Getting it Back Together
What’s Responsible For The Parent-Child Bond?
Every parent has felt that special and unique feeling of indescribable joy when gazing or holding her/his newborn for the first time.
And scientists have a word for it – oxytocin.
Oxytocin is what makes us parents. That is what scientists are telling us. Over the years, science tried to explain human feelings and emotions in terms of biochemistry. Oxytocin, for example, has been identified as the “feel good” hormone released during social bonding between people, especially those with close relationships such as spouses and partners. Oxytocin is also involved in motherhood, released in high amounts during birth and breastfeeding. Oxytocin facilitates the mommy-baby bonding especially in the first few hours after delivery.
So That Explains Mom – What About Dad?
In a study of 160 first-time parents, researchers report that first-time daddies do have high levels of oxytocin, too – levels which could be as high as those measured in mommies.
Of course Daddies do not breast feed, thus do not perform parental activities that usually trigger the release of oxytocin. So where do the hormones come from? The researcher believe that there other aspects of parenthood that stimulate oxytocin release in fathers. The mechanisms are unclear but the evidence is clear: fathers do bond with their babies and oxytocin is witness to this.
How Mommy and Daddy’s Oxytocin Releases Differ
The researchers also report that oxytocin levels may vary depending on parenting styles and specific patent-baby interaction. Mommies who are more affectionate, e.g. who love touching and gazing at their newborns (more than the usual, that is) are super-rich in oxytocin. Daddies’ oxytocin levels respond to more stimulatory contact such as those that encourage exploration or direction of a baby’s attention to a certain object. These differences, they say, can be explained in differences in the mail female brain.
Okay, so scientists tell us being a parent is simply the brain releasing the neurochemical oxytocin. For me, it feels more like love pouring out of my heart.
Go here to read the rest:
What’s Responsible For The Parent-Child Bond?
Book Review: Brain Rules for Baby
If I was witty enough to compose a clever song about neurons, the cerebral cortex, and monoamine oxidase A then I would sing a little ditty about how much I loved this book. Since I’m not that witty I will just settle on telling you what a pleasure it was to devour this book.
The book is Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five by Dr. John Medina. I’ve read a lot of different books about raising happy kids, but this is the first book I’ve read that not only backs everything up with scientific research but also explains all of the scientific concepts in ways that sleep-deprived parents can grasp.
Dr. Medina doesn’t just tell pregnant women to eat a healthy, balanced diet; he tells pregnant women why they should do so based on the scientific research surrounding the eventual health and happiness of the babies they’re carrying. The great thing is that he tells it in a way that is easily understood. The book seems to follow a pattern when a concept is introduced:
- State the concept.
- State the scientific research behind the concept.
- Explain the science behind the concept and research in terms that are easy to understand.
Even if you start out reading the section about an unborn baby’s ability to taste cringing at the term gustatorial sensations you’ll quickly understand what the author is talking about as he goes into the details and sums up exactly what you need to know about how the food you eat tastes to the baby you’re carrying (Hint: they like sweet stuff).
I Admit I May be a Little Biased
I get a little giddy when I get to study brain function. If you detest science you may not like this book as much as I did, but I warn you that if you avoid reading it because you’re afraid it will remind you of your high school science book then you will be missing out on a lot of great information. He debunks some myths (No, your unborn baby does not want to listen to music blaring in the first trimester) and offers some science-based advice (Predictable variables after having a baby can harm your marriage if not attended to, therefore lessening the odds of a happy baby) that you may not be able to find elsewhere all in one book.
Did I just use “predictable variables” in a sentence? I feel smarter already!
Read this book
It will give you a ton of great baby advice and best of all, if your mother-in-law disagrees with something you’re doing while pregnant or after you’ve had the baby, you can cite the science behind it and maybe she’ll stop ordering you around…unless, of course, she’s a developmental molecular biologist and she gets excited and wants to swap scientific research with you. If that’s the case, then you’re on your own.
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Book Review: Brain Rules for Baby