Life After Birth: A Parent's Holistic Guide for Thriving in the Fourth Trimester

“Life After Birth may be currently classified as the most authoritative document (“the bible”?) about the fourth trimester”- Michel Odent, MD

"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.

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.

This book addresses the information 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

-The Dynamics of Hormones & the Stress Response

-Breastfeeding

-Bonding & Attachment

-Nurturing the Partner Relationship

-What’s Next? Maternity leave /going back to work

-Father’s/Partner’s Lived Experience

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 is dedicated to helping new mothers move through the postpartum period, offering groups, workshops and classes for mothers and babies for 20 years. Her PhD in Women’s Studies (University of Manchester, UK, 2002) was a feminist exploration of 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.