Cover Image: The Mama Natural Week-by-Week Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth

The Mama Natural Week-by-Week Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth

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Member Reviews

Informative book - I would highly recommend to anyone pregnant or planning to conceive!

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Are you looking for a natural, healthy, happy, stress-free guide to pregnancy and birth? The Mama Natural’s Week-by-Week Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth is a fun, fact-filled guide to pregnancy, childbirth, baby care, breastfeeding, and more. This book is full of resources to guide you and your family through a natural approach to pregnancy, nutrition, and parenting.

The Fun Approach to Natural Pregnancy

Popular YouTube star and mommy blogger Genevieve Howland (Mama Natural) presents a fun approach to a natural pregnancy and attachment-based, positive parenting. Howland offers the readers a week-by-week detailed reference perfect for mothers, expectant mothers, and women who wish to conceive. She discusses pregnancy and birth as a natural and normal state, not as a scary, risky, medical condition.

The book focuses on the latest research and on nutrition, screening, birthing courses, birth teams, birthing plans, and how to set yourself up for a intervention-free labor and delivery. Howland creates an inspiring, informative resource for women. She expertly guides new mothers on breastfeeding after birth, setting up for success, and advice on breastfeeding positioning. She addresses common questions and concerns.

What We Like About This Book

This is an accessible, well written, funny, week-by-week guide to a natural pregnancy, birth, and beyond. The overall emphasis of the book is how to empower yourself to move through your pregnancy naturally, and create a healthy, happy, and stress-free plan.

The book is full of inspiration from an experienced mother and has the added benefit of having insight from medical professionals as well. One of our favorite sections was the weekly advice and tips for a healthy pregnancy and the "nom of the week" recipe section.

The illustrations in the book are beautifully laid out in a whimsical and sweet format. Whether you are a mom of many or a new mom to be, this book is a needed resource and can help take you from conception to postpartum.


https://breakingmuscle.com/reviews/the-mama-natural-guide-for-pregnancy-and-childbirth

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I have read quite a few books on pregnancy and childbirth as I am expecting my first baby and I can honestly say that this book is one of the best that I have read and its certainly one that I would recommend. It was easy to follow and read and full of interesting facts and things you really do need to know. 5 stars from a new mum to be!

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I’m not a fan of the ”natural birth” movement. Having been someone who required a vacuum-assisted delivery, I get a lot of judgment from that crowd. Add in that because of some of my other health conditions I need an epidural, I’m toast. But, because I believe I don’t own the monopoly on good ideas and think sometimes you can get good ideas when you look at things from a different perspective, I decided to check this out. Between, the vacuum-assist bashing early on to the placenta truffles (one recipe I will never make) and the vaginal “seeding” of babies born from caesarean, this book was a big NO for me. I wouldn’t recommend it because it’s very biased, feels very judgmental and frankly espouses some really wacky ideas.

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My first run-in with Mama Natural took place on Pinterest. We’ll call it an e-meeting of sorts. I’m always pinning useful information for later and Mama Natural has LOTS of it!

Prior to reviewing this book, I completed the Mama Natural Birth Course as part of my Doula Certification work and it is also– AMAZING

I received an e-copy of the book to review and I LOVED IT:

First and foremost, I love rich color and an easy to read text— this book had all of that.
Secondly, It has great illustrations— and not just the typical diagrams you would
expect to see in a pregnancy planning book. There are illustrations of the author and her spouse, example mothers, some of the diagrams you would expect, and even illustrations of sample meals that one might try to prepare to switch up their weekly routine. I would also like to highlight here that the images are drawn illustrations– not just photographs (though I’m not opposed to photos)– that gave it a really personal touch to me. If you read a good number of these books, you become accstomed to seeing certain photos and images and this was a nice change of pace.
It includes a week-by-week guide to pregnancy and childbirth from a natural perspective. I shared a bit of my personal testimony of wanting to eliminate as many commercial medications and medical interventions as possible in one of my older posts. It is important to me that I seek out knowledge to prepare myself for a natural pregnancy and to support my friends and family who are currently having babies and who desire to do so naturally. KNOWLEDGE is POWER!
Her week-by-week tips include some of the most practical and helpful information I’ve seen. It was like having all of the best Pinterst Pins in one place! There are recipes, affirmations, and useful tips — like how to use your existing wardrobe throughout pregnancy and when/how to decide if any items are worth adding to your collection.
The book doesn’t stop at the week-by-week tips and advice for during pregnancy, it also includes labor and post partum and one part that I thought was very important was that pregnancy loss was included. As someone who is both a trained Social Worker and Doula, I understand that loss and post partum symptoms are often two big “elephants in the room.” Many are uncomfortable with discussing with them and if a mother experiences either (or both) she can be left feeling isolated and with no recourse. One of the greatest way to overcome the stigma is to talk about these issues— these births matter and mothers who experience post partum symptoms (baby blues, depression, etc.) are not alone and are STILL good mothers!
I’ll stop there, before I get all the way up on my soapbox. Long story short, I really love this book. My advanced copy didn’t include all of the pages and when I went to check amazon this morning the book is already SOLD OUT!!!

I’m going to purchase a Kindle copy for my personal use and will definitely be buying others to give away as gifts– it’s just THAT awesome!

I highly recommend that you add it to your collection if you’re in the market for this type of book. It could also make a great gift for soon-to-be or future mothers in your life.

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Wow! This was an amazing book and a wonderful resource. No, I'm not pregnant nor do I have kids. However, I do want to have kids at some point in the near (-ish) future and was curious about doing things natural. I had learned about episiotomies and enemas, old-school ways of convenience for doctors in the hospital, in a psychology course in undergrad. If the birthing process wasn't already mysterious and slightly scary already, that was downright terrifying. For years I had considered refraining from the whole thing (childbirth) because I would be giving up my body autonomy in the process.

I appreciate that this book withholds shaming parents on making choices that are best from them. Parenting can also be scary because everyone has their own opinions about what is right and are so quick to judge when it doesn't work for someone else. I liked that Genevieve was upfront about everything throughout the pregnancy and childbirth process. Knowing what to expect before you go through the process - what you may have to make decisions about and what is necessary and unnecessary - are key.

Thank you to Genevieve for writing such an empowering book for women about pregnancy! It is definitely a book I will buy to have as a resource when I do end up having kids.

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This is a really well organized, easy-to-use guide for expecting women and their partners. This guide is definitely geared to natural options, but the information is very well-rounded and there is something in here for every birthing woman. I especially liked the section on doulas, but then I am a little biased ;)

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