Now this new, updated edition of the groundbreaking work by Robert A. Bradley, M.D., has all the information you need to approach a natural childbirth safely, confidently, and wisely. From the reasons to choose the Bradley Method to the steps you will take as your birth day approaches—and after the birth of your baby—this book is designed to help couples share completely in the birthing experience. •Build better, deeper, and more trusting communication skills with your partner in preparation for a drug-free childbirth•Learn the physical, emotional, and mental relaxation techniques essential to a natural childbirth•Discover how you and your doctor can work together toward your natural delivery •Monitor your weight, nutrition, and your overall well-being during pregnancy•Use natural prevention methods for the most common pregnancy problems•Get the most out of the bonding experience you will share with your baby and your partnerWith its time-tested wisdom, medical soundness, and reassuring first-person accounts of natural childbirth, this book is the “gold standard” of childbirth books. The Bradley Method is an essential guide for anyone considering childbirth without unnecessary medications or medical intervention and to share fully in your child’s arrival into the world.

    Strawberry ice cream. Making faces at monkeys in the zoo. Dog dishes that say "Good Dog." Carolers singing around a Norwegian spruce. Sun burning off the morning fog. Cabanas. It's the little things that make life worth living, and they can be found by the dozens in this obsessive, quirky, and utterly captivating compendium with over 950,000 copies in print. A pure, unadulterated listing, it offers not a single explanation, aside, or footnote, but reading it is as irresistible as eating popcorn. Randomly selected and catalogued over the course of twenty years-and illustrated with joyous and jewel-like precision by the gifted artist Pierre Le-Tan-14,000 THINGS is Barbara Ann Kipfer's perfect antidote to the all-too-frequently-mentioned things we should be unhappy about.It's a celebration of almost everything that's ever made us smile. And that itself is reason number 14,001.

    Maybe they’re experiencing a leap in brain development, after which new skills are mastered, discoveries are made, and perceptions evolve. Fussy behavior might signal that great progress is underway!Better yet, these phases occur on similar schedules for most babies—as explained and mapped out in this book—so parents can anticipate the “stormy weeks” that precede the “sunny weeks.” Based on decades of research, this fully revised sixth edition covers the first 20 months of a baby’s life and includes: The top 10 things to know and remember about a leap Fun games to support brain development Fill-in-the-blank checklists to help better understand personality and behavior traits Science-based explanations about sleep Fresh insight and recent commentary from new parents who’ve used The Wonder Weeks Anchor moments to keep new parents sane, especially when they are exhausted and discouraged With 2 million+ books sold, and 4 million+ downloads of the corresponding app, The Wonder Weeks has struck a chord. Join the phenomenon that has been embraced by celebrities, social media influencers, and parents worldwide.

    The benefits of breastfeeding will last a lifetime, for both you and your baby. Here is everything new mothers need to know about breastfeeding. From preparing for the first feeding to adjusting to home, family, and work life as a nursing mother, this comprehensive resource covers: • Preparing for breastfeeding before your baby is born• Breastfeeding benefits for mothers and babies, including the most recent neurological, psychological, and immunological research showing why breastfeeding enhances your infant’s immune system and protects against many common illnesses • Establishing a nursing routine and what to do when you return to work• The father’s role and creating a postpartum support network • Handling special situations, from C-sections to premature births• Breastfeeding beyond infancy• Weaning your baby• Solutions to common breastfeeding challenges• And much moreMothers everywhere will find this book an indispensable guide to one of life’s most important decisions.

    Without meaning to, we constantly color-code children, segregating them by gender based on their presumed interests. Our social dependence on these norms has far-reaching effects, such as leading girls to dislike math or increasing aggression in boys. In this practical guide, developmental psychologist (and mother of two) Christia Spears Brown uses science-based research to show how over-dependence on gender can limit kids, making it harder for them to develop into unique individuals. With a humorous, fresh, and accessible perspective, Parenting Beyond Pink & Blue addresses all the issues that contemporary parents should consider—from gender-segregated birthday parties and schools to sports, sexualization, and emotional intelligence. This guide empowers parents to help kids break out of pink and blue boxes to become their authentic selves.

    It's a message that stressed-out parents are craving to hear: Letting tots learn through play is not only okay-it's better than drilling academics!Drawing on overwhelming scientific evidence from their own studies and the collective research results of child development experts, and addressing the key areas of development-math, reading, verbal communication, science, self-awareness, and social skills-the authors explain the process of learning from a child's point of view. They then offer parents 40 age-appropriate games for creative play. These simple, fun--yet powerful exercises work as well or better than expensive high-tech gadgets to teach a child what his ever-active, playful mind is craving to learn.

    It’s also about the powerful transformation we go through on the journey to becoming “mama.” We created The Motherly Guide to Becoming Mama to coach and inspire you each step of the way. This is the pregnancy book we wish we’d had when we first became mothers—a mama-centered guide that doesn’t just focus on your baby’s needs, but honors and coaches you through this profound life change.Here’s the most important thing to remember: you are a phenom, and you are going to rock this.And you don’t have to do this alone. At your highest highs and your lowest lows, there is a village of professionals and peers to traverse this path with you.This book won’t bog you down with demands, give you more to be worried about, or tell you what to do. It’s impossible to know exactly what to expect during your pregnancy—after all, you are your own amazing woman with unique dreams, experiences, and needs. Instead, we’ve filled this illustrated guide with the best knowledge, wisdom, and support we have to offer, including:• Getting pregnant—planning, conception, fertility challenges, and finding the right care provider and birth strategy for you • Pregnancy month by month—how to understand, nourish, and support your own body and your baby’s health throughout your pregnancy• Giving birth—everything you need to feel empowered and prepared through the four stages of labor • The “fourth trimester”—helping you heal, process your experience, and thrive in the super-important and often ignored postpartum period • Tests and complications—no scare tactics, no intimidation; just good, well-researched information about the ways you can best prevent and prepare for challenges• Partners, friends, and family—our best tips for your whole support team• The many faces of mama—adoption, surrogacy, fostering, and the beautiful variety of motherhood experiences• Answers to the most common questions mamas have about finances, maternity leave, baby gear, relationships with family, nutrition, fitness, and much more Whether this is your first baby or your fourth, whether you’re still deciding about pregnancy or have an unplanned baby on the way, becoming mama involves your body, mind, emotions, lifestyle, relationships, schedule, spirituality, worldview—and most of all, your heart.This is an unprecedented time to embark on the journey of motherhood. You are part of a new generation of women elevating empowerment in all its forms. The Motherly Guide to Becoming Mama was made for you—a loving and supportive embrace of your unique motherhood journey in all its power, complexity, and beauty.

    Offered are ways for mothers to reconnect with their inner selves and become calmer and happier—with the recognition that a happier mother will be a better parent. This realistic look at motherhood acknowledges the sorrows as well as the joys of mothering and offers real and achievable coping strategies for mothers to renew their lives on a deep level.

    Selected by the New York Times as one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 YearsThe experience of motherhood is an experience in contradiction. It is commonplace and it is impossible to imagine. It is prosaic and it is mysterious. It is at once banal, bizarre, compelling, tedious, comic, and catastrophic. To become a mother is to become the chief actor in a drama of human existence to which no one turns up. It is the process by which an ordinary life is transformed unseen into a story of strange and powerful passions, of love and servitude, of confinement and compassion.In a book that is touching, hilarious, provocative, and profoundly insightful, novelist Rachel Cusk attempts to tell something of an old story set in a new era of sexual equality. Cusk's account of a year of modern motherhood becomes many stories: a farewell to freedom, sleep, and time; a lesson in humility and hard work; a journey to the roots of love; a meditation on madness and mortality; and most of all a sentimental education in babies, books, toddler groups, bad advice, crying, breastfeeding, and never being alone."Funny and smart and refreshingly akin to a war diary--sort of Apocalypse Baby Now...A Life's Work is wholly original and unabashedly true."--The New York Times Book Review

     With all the whining, complaining, begging, and negotiating, parenting can seem more like a chore than a pleasure. Dr. Catherine Pearlman, syndicated columnist and one of America's leading parenting experts, has a simple yet revolutionary solution: Ignore It! Dr. Pearlman's four-step process returns the joy to child rearing. Combining highly effective strategies with time-tested approaches, she teaches parents when to selectively look the other way to withdraw reinforcement for undesirable behaviors. Too often we find ourselves bargaining, debating, arguing and pleading with kids. Instead of improved behavior parents are ensuring that the behavior will not only continue but often get worse. When children receive no attention or reward for misbehavior, they realize their ways of acting are ineffective and cease doing it. Using proven strategies supported by research, this book shows parents how to: - Avoid engaging in a power struggle - Stop using attention as a reward for misbehavior - Use effective behavior modification techniques to diminish and often eliminate problem behaviors Overflowing with wisdom, tips, scenarios, frequently asked questions, and a lot of encouragement, Ignore It! is the parenting program that promises to return bliss to the lives of exasperated parents.

    While empathizing with the parental hopes and, especially, fears that lead to overhelping, Lythcott-Haims offers practical alternative strategies that underline the importance of allowing children to make their own mistakes and develop the resilience, resourcefulness, and inner determination necessary for success.Relevant to parents of toddlers as well as of twentysomethings-and of special value to parents of teens-this book is a rallying cry for those who wish to ensure that the next generation can take charge of their own lives with competence and confidence."Julie Lythcott-Haims is a national treasure. . . . A must-read for every parent who senses that there is a healthier and saner way to raise our children." -Madeline Levine, author of the New York Times bestsellers The Price of Privilege and Teach Your Children Well"For parents who want to foster hearty self-reliance instead of hollow self-esteem, How to Raise an Adult is the right book at the right time." -Daniel H. Pink, author of the New York Times bestsellers Drive and A Whole New Mind

    Are you obsessed about your baby's sleep? Do you feel "weak" because you can't leave him to cry himself to sleep? Do you need to relax more and enjoy being a parent? Parenting expert Pinky McKay offers a natural, intuitive approach to solving your little ones' sleep problems and gives practical tips on how to understand your baby's tired cues, create a safe sleeping environment, gently settle babies and toddlers, and feed infants to encourage sleep. Sleeping Like A Baby is a must read for stress-free, guilt-free parenting, and offers down-to-earth and heartening advice on helping babies (and their parents!) to sleep better.

      From the moment a mother holds her newborn son, his eyes tell her that she is his world. But often, as he grows up, the boy who needs her simultaneously pushes her away. Calling upon thirty years of experience as a pediatrician, Meg Meeker, M.D., a highly sought after national speaker, assistant professor of clinical medicine, and mother of four, shares the secrets that every mother needs to know in order to strengthen—or rebuild—her relationship with her son.   Boys today face unique challenges and pressures, and the burden on mothers to guide their boys through them can feel overwhelming. This empowering book offers a road map to help mothers find the strength and confidence to raise extraordinary sons by providing encouragement, education, and practical advice about   • the need for mothers to exercise courage and be bolder and more confident about advising and directing their boys • the crucial role mothers play in expressing love to sons in healthy ways so they learn to respect and appreciate women as they grow up • the importance of teaching sons about the values of hard work, community service, and a well-developed inner life • the natural traps mothers of boys often fall into—and how to avoid them • the need for a mother to heal her own wounds with the men in her life so she can raise her son without baggage and limitations • the best ways to survive the moments when the going gets tough and a mom’s natural ways of communicating—talking, analyzing, exploring—only fuel the fire   When a mother holds her baby boy for the first time, she also instinctively knows something else: If she does her job right and raises her son with self-esteem, support, and wisdom, he will become the man she knows he was meant to be.Praise for Strong Mothers, Strong Sons   “Solid, practical advice for women on how to properly nurture their sons.” —Kirkus Reviews  Praise for Meg Meeker, M.D.  Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters   “Dr. Meeker’s conclusions are timely, relevant, and often deeply moving. No one interested in what girls experience growing up in our culture today—and the impact that parents, especially fathers, have on the experience—can afford to miss reading this book.”—Armand M. Nicholi, Jr., M.D., professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School   “Reassuring and challenging . . . a helpful road map for concerned fathers [that] tackles difficult issues.” —National Review   Boys Should Be Boys   “If you want to raise a boy you’ll be proud of, read Boys Should Be Boys.”—Dave Ramsey, author of The Total Money Makeover   “Filled with inspirational vignettes, Boys Should Be Boys empowers parents to stay involved and protect their sons’ innocence. It’s a wonderfully written and eye-opening book—a must-read.”—Neil Bernstein, Ph.D., author of There When He Needs You   The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers   “Offers practical ways to help you let go of ‘mom guilt’ in order to become a happier, healthier woman.” —Parent & Child   “Just about any mom, or dad, can find useful wisdom in this book.”—Associated Press

    Top experts in the field offer encyclopedic coverage of the topics relating to pregnancy and birth, from fertility and family planning to nutrition and exercise to lifestyle changes, planning for the future, and more. In all, this comprehensive guide covers more than 300 topics of interest to expecting mothers and their partners.The Pregnancy Encyclopedia is the only book that uses an engaging Q&A style with accompanying full-color photographs, illustrations, and infographics to help you understand what's going on with your baby, your partner, and yourself.Reviews:"This is an excellent addition to public and consumer-health library collections." - Booklist (Starred Review)

    Cohen points out, play is children’s way of exploring the world, communicating deep feelings, getting close to those they care about, working through stressful situations, and simply blowing off steam. That’s why “playful parenting” is so important and so successful in building strong, close bonds between parents and children. Through play we join our kids in their world–and help them to• Express and understand complex emotions• Break through shyness, anger, and fear• Empower themselves and respect diversity• Play their way through sibling rivalry • Cooperate without power strugglesFrom eliciting a giggle during baby’s first game of peekaboo to cracking jokes with a teenager while hanging out at the mall, Playful Parenting is a complete guide to using play to raise confident children. Written with love and humor, brimming with good advice and revealing anecdotes, and grounded in the latest research, this book will make you laugh even as it makes you wise in the ways of being an effective, enthusiastic parent.