Published by Harvest House Publishers on May 6, 2025
Genres: Healthcare, Non-Fiction, Christian Life, Parenting
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Everything You Need to Know About Life Post-Birth
While many mothers can be caught off guard by the demands of the fourth trimester, registered nurse and childbirth educator Rachel Taylor is here to guide you every step of the way in this physical, emotional, and spiritual roadmap for the postpartum season.
Rachel—a mother of three and an RN with more than 15 years specializing in mother-baby nursing—has helped thousands of mothers navigate their postpartum lives with compassion, wisdom, and evidence-based care. In After Baby Comes, you will learn how to
expect and manage post-birth pain and bodily change with tips for easing recovery
invigorate your health with nourishing recipes and postpartum nutritional insights
ditch comparison and embrace the unique process of your own mothering journey
experience God’s nearness through guided reflections and reminders of his presence
self-advocate in your relationships via healthy communication scripts and boundariesGod has wondrously prepared you for this difficult and beautiful calling. Aided by this safe, judgement-free guide, you will be empowered to overcome the challenges, heal more effectively, and nurture habits of presence and love that will serve you for a lifetime.
This guide to postpartum recovery is full of information and encouragement. The author, Rachel Taylor, draws on her expertise as a postpartum nurse, and she also includes insights from other healthcare professionals, answering common questions about different issues. This book will help expectant mothers prepare for the fourth trimester, and it will also be a great reference guide for new mothers who have already given birth. The table of contents clearly outlines which topics are addressed where, and someone can dip into whatever part is currently relevant to them. You do not have to read the entire book cover-to-cover to benefit from it.
After Baby Comes sets realistic expectations for physical recovery, and shares advice for dealing with different childbirth experiences and physical challenges. The book also addresses breastfeeding, postpartum nutrition (with recipes!), emotional regulation, mental health struggles, faith, and common relationship struggles that arise with family and friends. I appreciated how thorough the section about mental health was, since it addressed struggles like postpartum anxiety and OCD, instead of just addressing postpartum depression. There is also an extra section in the back includes advice for dealing with specific challenges, such as struggling to bond with your baby
This book covers a variety of topics in a well-organized, concise way, and the author’s compassionate, caring voice makes this especially helpful. She reflects on the challenges of postpartum life in a very holistic way, addressing every aspect of a mother’s well-being, and she shares vulnerable stories from her own life to illustrate different concepts. She shares lots of encouragement, assuring mothers that their struggles are normal, and that there are many strategies available for dealing with different challenges. Taylor also presents a range of options for healthcare, recommending helpful practices from both traditional and alternative medicine.
I only have a few critiques. One is that even though this book is from a Christian publisher, the single section about faith is very short. The light touch makes this book more accessible to general audiences, but Christian readers may feel disappointed that there isn’t more of a faith perspective throughout the book. Also, the author primarily writes from the assumption that her readers are in healthy marriages with supportive husbands. She gives great advice for dealing with relationship challenges in that context, but I wish that she had also included specific encouragement for mothers who are struggling in disappointing or harmful marriages, or who don’t have a partner at all.
After Baby Comes: Physical, Spiritual, and Emotional Recovery for Postpartum Moms is a thorough, insightful guide to a topic that often gets overlooked. The author’s expertise, calm confidence, and encouragement can empower mothers during this challenging transition period, and even if someone has already had other children before, this book can still better prepare them for going through postpartum struggles again, with more information and preparation. This is a great resource that will help a lot of people, and it will make a great gift for expectant moms.