Books for mums
Are you a mum who needs to know you are not alone in your feelings of fear and amazement about this motherhood journey you are on?
Sometimes we don't talk enough about the real behind-the-scenes part of entering motherhood. The immense stretching and growth that happens in such a short time, the complex feelings that surface, the grief that happens when things don't go to plan, and more.
I am a mother to three children, and an ex-NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) and SCBU (Special Care Baby Unit) parent. All of my babies were born preemie and required hospital stays. Afterwards, I had three children under four; with all of them in nappies at one stage. I am so thankful for all the joy they bring to me and to our family, but there sure are hard days and seasons involved!
I am so passionate about prioritising maternal mental health and encouraging all mums, especially those at the very start of a crucial and beautiful journey.
I share some of my experience in an honest and uplifting way in my book How to love with a healing heart. My other book, Hot Coffee, Cool Head focuses on getting comfortable in your mama skin, choosing the life you have, and being content in the day-to-day fun and chaos of raising little ones ... written from the trenches and you won't find anything in there that hasn't personally been helpful to me!
If you are a new mum, a preemie mum, or know of a mum who needs to know she is not alone, I am happy to gift you a book! Request a book here.
If you don't want a book but would like to help sponsor a book for someone else, please consider 'buying me a coffee' or sponsoring a book.
Read more about my books here.
A giving experience to remember
When I first published How to love with a healing heart in 2020, I was half-hearted and hesitant about promoting it. Part of me felt embarrassed about it not being the 'perfect love story' (or amazing mystery novel!) I would have preferred to stamp my name on. I also thought, "It's just me, my story ... who cares?"
Yet I felt a little niggle—dare I say, God ... whispering ... "I care."
"And there are many other people with clumsy and sad and good and wonderful things about their lives, who will be encouraged by this book."
In late 2021 I had a brainwave about contributing copies of my book to Care for Families for their 2022 Mothers' Day packs, and wrote to them to ask if I could do this. I came to know about them because they organised these wonderful care packages for us and other families like us, when we were at hospital with our first baby. It was Christmas Day and I couldn't believe that she wasn't going to be home with us on this day. But when my husband and I opened our gift box at home, I was overcome with gratitude and wonder. There were beautiful things in there for Mum and Baby and notes from other people who had been in the same boat as us. I remember thinking, one day I want to help Care for Families out, and reach out to other parents going through this hard season of being in hospital when they'd quite likely rather be at home getting into the groove of having a newborn around.
In early 2022 I was so pleased to hear from Chercara who included in her lovely message "Yes please, we would love to put copies in our packs so encouraging and have thoroughly enjoyed reading it myself"! Her note made my day!!
At this time I was pregnant with my third baby, and the possibility of her coming early was hanging in the air. I thought of all the mums to preemie babies who would be up at all hours of the night experiencing separation anxiety, or pumping milk for their babies. I remembered how I had appreciated books and videos when I was up at those random hours in the newborn seasons ... how I had loved tuning in to experiences of other mums ... to know they were also going through hard and beautiful things.
I was keen to donate as many books as I can to Care for Families, so I cast the net wider with a fundraising campaign.
Friends and friends-of-friends kindly pitched in and together we raised enough to donate 85 copies of How to love with a healing heart.
I have also given away copies to mums I know and donated copies to little libraries, including in places such as cafes and the Neonatal Trust (now Little Miracles Trust) in Auckland.
If you are a mum going through some hardship or challenge please know you are not alone. Reach out and/or feel free to request a book. 🙂
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