Motherhood can be exciting, thrilling, frightening, exhausting and rewarding all at the same time. This sourcebook for new mothers begins and ends with the premise that the better you take care of yourself during your baby's first years, the better caregiver and mother you can be. It presents 52 essays, one per week, about the different ways mothers can learn to take time for themselves. Step by step, Lisa Groen Braner shows us that infant-care and self-care are two sides of the same miraculous process.

In Menopause, Sisterhood, and Tennis, Wilson-Fried offers the powerful story of one woman's tangled journey through menopause. Based upon her own experience, and steeped in the rich Southern humour of her mother and grandmother, this guide to surviving 'the change' unveils the mystery of menopause, laying bare the physiological, psychological, and emotional transformations menopause brings to women's lives.

This is a book you will want to keep close by. It is a comforting reference resource for natural, drug-free alternatives to know about and consider for healthy everyday supplementation or when traditional medicine is not finding answers.

TRACK YOUR CYCLE and become aware of how you experience your Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn GET TO KNOW YOUR HORMONES and find out and how you can use them to improve your career, relationships and health MANAGE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH and improve your body literacy by checking in on yourself and identifying what you need From feeling introspective in the first week of your cycle to decisive in the last, learn to recognise the effects of your hormones and harness their powers for good. Best-selling author and women's health practitioner Maisie Hill breaks down her cycle strategy into 48 cards to help us make sense of the experiences and emotions that come with our cycles. Each card reveals how to access that season's superpowers, sidestep the dangers and choose the ultimate self-care strategy to get your cycle working for you. The menstrual cycle is under-appreciated but, with the help of these cards, you'll see that it is the most unused and underrated tool for improving our lives.

This ground-breaking book challenges us to re-think ourselves as techno-sapiens-a new species we are creating as we continually co-evolve ourselves with our technologies. While some of its chapters are imaginary, they are all empirically grounded in ethnography and richly theorized from diverse disciplines. The authors go far beyond a techno-optimism vs. techno-pessimism stance, stretching our thinking about birthing techno-sapiens to consider not only how our cyborgian reproductive lives are constrained and/or enabled by technology but are also about emotions and spirit. The world of reproductive health care and particularly that of genetic engineering is developing exponentially, and current challenges are vastly different from those of a decade ago. The book is provocative, intended to generate debate, ideas, and future research and to influence ethical policy and practice in human techno-reproduction. It will be of interest across the social sciences and humanities, for reproductive scholars, bioethicists, techno-scientists, and those involved in the development and delivery of maternity services.

This ground-breaking book challenges us to re-think ourselves as techno-sapiens-a new species we are creating as we continually co-evolve ourselves with our technologies. While some of its chapters are imaginary, they are all empirically grounded in ethnography and richly theorized from diverse disciplines. The authors go far beyond a techno-optimism vs. techno-pessimism stance, stretching our thinking about birthing techno-sapiens to consider not only how our cyborgian reproductive lives are constrained and/or enabled by technology but are also about emotions and spirit. The world of reproductive health care and particularly that of genetic engineering is developing exponentially, and current challenges are vastly different from those of a decade ago. The book is provocative, intended to generate debate, ideas, and future research and to influence ethical policy and practice in human techno-reproduction. It will be of interest across the social sciences and humanities, for reproductive scholars, bioethicists, techno-scientists, and those involved in the development and delivery of maternity services.

This unique workbook is full of in-depth information, moving personal stories and insightful writing exercises to help people understand and resolve their food, weight and body image issues. Its sensitive insights teach readers how to be at peace with their bodies. Individuals and groups, world-wide, are using The Don't Diet, Live-It Workbook as a healing guide and now you can too!

This book presents the contemporary history and dynamics of Mexican midwifery - professional, (post)modern or autonomous, traditional and Indigenous - as profoundly political and embedded in differing societal stratifications. By situated politics, the authors refer to various networks, spaces and territories, which are also constructed by the midwives. By politically situated, the authors refer to various intersections, unsettled relations and contexts in which Mexican midwives are positioned. Examining Mexican midwiferies in depth, the volume sharpens the focus on the worlds in which midwives are profoundly immersed as agents in generating and participating in movements, alliances, health professions, communities, homes, territories and knowledges. The chapters provide a complex panorama of midwives in Mexico with an array of insights into their professional and political autonomy, (post)coloniality, body-territoriality, the challenges of defining midwifery, and above all, into the ways in which contemporary Mexican midwiferies relate to a complex set of human rights. The book will be of interest to a range of scholars from anthropology, sociology, politics, global health, gender studies, development studies, and Latin American studies, as well as to midwives and other professionals involved in childbirth policy and practice.

This book addresses the politics of global health and social justice issues around birth, focusing on dynamic communities that have chosen to speak truth to power by reforming dysfunctional health care systems or creating new ones outside the box. The chapters present models of childbirth at extreme ends of a spectrum-from the conflict zones and disaster areas of Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine, and Indonesia, to high-risk tertiary care settings in China, Canada, Australia, and Turkey. Debunking notions about best care, the volume illustrates how human rights in health care are on a collision course with global capitalism and offers a number of specific solutions to this ever-increasing problem. This volume will be a valuable resource for scholars and students in anthropology, sociology, health, and midwifery, as well as for practitioners, policy makers, and organizations focused on birth or on social activism in any arena.

For women who want the medical knowledge of Masters and Johnson and the passion of 50 Shades of Grey, Ultimate Intimacy helps them take back control of their sex life. As a board certified OBGYN and medical director of VSPOT Medispa and ViVa Rejuvenation Center, Carolyn DeLucia, MD FACOG has been working tirelessly to spread the word about the new treatments available to patients and other doctors worldwide. She wants to help women have the best intimate relationships possible, bringing the magic back to their sex life. In Ultimate Intimacy, women will: Learn about what is normal and what is not to give them better insight into their body. Understand the simple and complex procedures that can address a wide range of intimate health issues. Know how to choose the right treatment for themselves, so they can bring the best options to their doctor. Become more empowered, confident, and able to enjoy their inner goddess!

The twenty-first century has seen LGBTQ+ rights emerge at the forefront of public discourse and national politics in ways that would once have been hard to imagine. This book offers a unique and layered account of the complex dynamics in the modern moment of social change, drawing together critical, social and cultural theory as well as empirical research, which includes interviews and multi-platform media analyses. This original new study puts forward a much-needed analysis of twenty-first century television and lesbian visibility. Books addressing the representation of lesbians have tended to focus on film; analysis of queer characters on television has usually focused on representations of gay males. Other recent books have attempted to address lesbian, gay and trans representation together, with the result that none are examined in sufficient detail - here, the exclusive focus on lesbian representation allows a fuller discussion. Until now, much of the research on lesbian and gay representation has tended to employ only textual analysis. The combination of audience research with analysis in this book brings a new angle to the debates, as does the critical review of the tropes of lesbian representation. The earlier stereotypes of pathological monsters and predators are discussed alongside the more recent trends of 'lesbian chic' and 'lesbianism as a phase'.

No Family History presents compelling evidence of environmental links to breast cancer, ranging from everyday cosmetics to industrial waste. Sabrina McCormick weaves the story of one survivor with no family history into a powerful exploration of the big business of breast cancer. A growing number of experts argue that we should increase focus on prevention--reducing environmental exposures that have contributed to the sharp increase of breast cancer rates. But the dollars continue to pour into the search for a cure, and the companies that profit, including some pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies, may in fact contribute to the environmental causes of breast cancer. No Family History shows how profits drive our public focus on the cure rather than prevention, and suggests new ways to reduce breast cancer rates in the future.

'If you're a woman over 40, ever going to be a woman over 40 or you've ever met a woman over 40 you should read this book' JANE FALLON 'I NEED this book. We ALL need this book! If menopause happened to men, there would be CELEBRATIONS and parties every time one of them completed their change.' MARIAN KEYES 'A compelling voice within [the menopause] movement' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Funny, frank and empowering... a vital book for any woman who is at the beginning of her radicalisation journey, looking at her life and finally piecing together the personal and the political.' THE OBSERVER 'Sam Baker is rewriting the narrative around menopause' WOMAN & HOME 'A rollicking read' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'I loved it.. blazingly hopeful and beautifully written. This book is meant to be mainlined.' LISA TADDEO 'This gem is a guide to navigating your 40s and 50s and just generally being yourself. ... joyful, positive, and goes to ALL the places. Highly recommended.' JOJO MOYES The essential manifesto for any woman staring the second half of their lives in the face and wondering, WTF is going on? * Invisible to society now you're past child-bearing age? * Tired of being disregarded, overlooked and underestimated? * Wondering what the hell is happening to your body, mind and internal thermostat? Women over forty are the most ignored demographic in society. And yet this is the time when you are likely to have the most freedom, power, confidence and self knowledge than ever before. Some serious life has been lived: there have been great loves, heartbreaks, births, marriages, careers, betrayals, bereavements and survival. So what now? What happens when the narrative given to you by society - husband, babies, house - runs out and you become storyless? Including chapters on menopause, sex, culture, work, rage and freedom, writer and journalist Sam Baker shares her experiences of life post 40 and shows how women to create their own story. This needn't herald the era of loose clothing and hair dye; or hot flashes and bad sleep (though there is that too). It's time women north of 40 took a leaf out of the millennial handbook and reinvented things our way. Sam hosts a podcast of the same name, now with over 50 thousand downloads. Harness your energy, opinions and power and create a liberating new narrative for the second half of life. 'I am so glad The Shift exists. Sam's writing is a wonderful generous mixture of no-bullsh*t and a comforting hug. I'll be passing this book on to many women I know and love.' EMMA GANNON 'brilliant - powerful, brimming with integrity, inspiring, the politics of anger and what it means when we refuse to be invisible. Every woman (whatever her age) should buy, borrow, lend a copy' KATE MOSSE 'This is such a painfully beautiful look at the menopause in all its complexity. As honest as it is insightful, this is the first book I've read about later womanhood that exchanges shame and fear for truth and celebration... does for 40-something women what the honest parenting movement did for mothers.' ANNA WHITEHOUSE, founder, Mother Pukka 'great pace and feisty content. It will be a great help to women to see their lives mirrored and not feel like they are going mad... bold and funny.' CARYN FRANKLIN '[Sam] tackles the menopause with her customary wit and wisdom' i PAPER 'Honest and witter account of life post-40. Makes for essential reading at any age.' - KATE WILLS, FABULOUS MAGAZINE 'Insightful, thoughtful, inspirational - impressive work.' - VICTORIA DERBYSHIRE

In this follow-up to the million-copy bestseller Mindfulness: Finding Peace in a Frantic World, Professor Mark Williams and Dr Danny Penman reunite to show readers how to use the hidden foundations of mindfulness to rediscover calm and reclaim your life in our chaotic world.

Use the hidden foundations of mindfulness to rediscover calm and reclaim your life in our chaotic world.

There are moments in life that decide your fate. They ripple into the future and dictate how you experience the world in the moments that follow; either positive and uplifting, dark and chaotic, or flat and dull.

What if you could recognise these moments before they seized control of your life? What if you could use them to set sail for a better future? What if all moments, big and small, could be harnessed this way?

In Deeper Mindfulness, Oxford Professor Mark Williams and Dr Danny Penman reunite to present a new eight-week guided meditation programme that takes mindfulness to the next level. Deeper Mindfulness reveals how the latest advances in neuroscience, combined with millennia old wisdom, can be used to transform your life. These discoveries open the doors to a deeper layer of mindfulness known as the 'feeling tone'. This sets the 'background colour' that tinges your entire experience of life. It is also the tipping point from which you can reclaim your life in an increasingly stressful and chaotic world.

Proven effective at treating anxiety, stress and depression, the practices in Deeper Mindfulness offer a new and more fruitful direction for both novice and experienced meditators. It also allows the rest of us to approach life with renewed strength, vigour and equanimity.

'This book feels like your best friend talking to you over drinks - if your best friend is a shit-talking, patriarchy-smashing, intersectionally feminist professor of the history of reproductive medicine and also an endocrinologist with a side hustle as a comedian.' - Dr Emily Nagoski, NYT bestselling author of Come As You Are What to Expect When You're Not Expected to Expect Anything Anymore Perimenopause and menopause experiences are as unique as all of us who move through them. While there's no one-size-fits-all, Heather Corinna tells you what can happen and what you can do to take care of yourself, all the while busting pernicious myths, offering real self-care tips - the kind that won't break the bank or your soul - and running the gamut from hot flashes to hormone therapy. With practical, clear information and support, inclusive of those with disabilities, queer, transgender, nonbinary and other gender-diverse people, people of colour, working class and others who have long been left out of the discussion, What Fresh Hell Is This? is the cooling pillow and empathetic best friend to help you through the fire.

Numerous contemporary artists, particularly female artists, have chosen to examine the idealization of the female body. In this crucial book, Emily L. Newman focuses on a number of key themes including obesity, anorexia, bulimia, dieting, self-harm, and female body image. Many artists utilize their own bodies in their work, and in the act of trying to critique the diet industry, they also often become complicit, as they strive to lose weight themselves. Making art and engaging eating disorder communities (in real life and online) often work to perpetuate the illnesses of themselves or others. A core group of artists has worked to show bodies that are outside the norm, paralleling the rise of fat activism in the 1990s and 2000s. Interwoven throughout this inclusive study are related interdisciplinary concerns including sociology, popular culture, and feminism.

Though cinema arrived in Spain and Portugal at the end of the nineteenth century, national and industrial problems as well as the dictatorships of Salazar and Caetano (in Portugal) and Franco (in Spain) meant Iberian cinemas were isolated from European cultural trends. Strict censorship in both countries limited the themes and artistic practices adopted, while a specific cinematographic language, in many cases full of metaphors and symbolism, sought alternatives to the imposed official discourse and preconceived definitions of supposed national identities. By contrast, the arrival of democracy from the 1970s onwards widened not just the panorama of film production and criticism, but also opened the film industry to women's participation in areas historically assigned to men. Focusing on Portuguese and Spanish cinema, this collection brings together research about women and their status in relation to Iberian filmic culture. The volume contributes to ongoing debates about the position of women in the cinemas of Portugal and Spain from interdisciplinary and feminist perspectives as well as new accounts of film history. It also aims to promote comparisons between Iberian cinemas and visual culture, a topic that is almost unexplored in academia, despite the similar histories of the two countries, particularly throughout the twentieth century.

Endometriosis is the condition in which the lining of the womb grows on other organs outside of the uterus, frequently causing intolerable pain. In some cases it may lead to problems conceiving or infertility. However, there is relief for this condition as Dian Shepperson Mills illustrates in this book.Endometriosis is a detailed, insightful look at a disease which affects approximately one in ten women worldwide. Drawing upon years of research, Dian Mills and Michael Vernon show how the right diet can provide the key to optimum health in overcoming endometriosis.This book contains:An explanation of how endometriosis affects the body and advice on how to cope with it.An account of the key role played by nutritious and healthy food.Information on foods that are harmful and foods with healing qualities.Delicious recipes and practical menu suggestions.

"I can be a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a woman without having periods." This book explores two of the oldest and most important symbols of all time: menstruation and secondary amenorrhea. Women of menstruating age commonly experience secondary amenorrhea - a cessation of periods - but most people have never heard of the term, nor do they realise what it represents. Danielle Redland's curiosity as to why this is posits that menstrual conditions need to be decoded, not just simply treated. Surveying menstruation and Secondary Amenorrhea (SA) principally from a psychoanalytic perspective, with sociocultural, historical, political and religious angles also examined, Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Women, Menstruation and Secondary Amenorrhea draws secondary amenorrhea out of the shadows of its menstruating counterpart, and explores how narratives of womanhood and statehood dominate. Chapters on blood ideology and war amenorrhea, on Freud's treatment of Emma Eckstein and on the psycho-mythology of Pygmalion, present the reader with visions beyond patriarchy towards more thoughtful ideas on the feminine, challenging assumptions about gender, identity and what is deemed "good" for women. Rich in clinical examples, the book locates menses and their cessation at the heart of personal experience and examines psychosomatic phenomena, the link between psyche and body and the value of interpretation. From the author's own analysis to a variety of cases linked to hysteria, anorexia, stress, trauma, abuse, helplessness and hopelessness, individual stories and narratives are sensitively recovered and carefully revealed. This refreshing example of multi-layered research and psychoanalytic enquiry by a new, female writer will be of great interest to psychologists, psychotherapists, healthcare and social work professionals and readers of gender studies, history, politics and literature.

LONGLISTED FOR A PEN/FAULKNER AWARD, 2020 A dazzling tribute to the resilience and determination of a remarkable community of women In the sprawling Bangalore slum of Heaven, five girls - Muslim, Christian and Hindu; gay and straight - form an unbreakable bond. These are girls who refuse to be silenced, no matter how much their city would like to forget they exist. But now Heaven is threatened by government bulldozers, and the friends must come together to protect the close-knit, vibrant community they call home. Sparkling with passion and courage and laced with humour, this is the story of five unforgettable young women and their fierce determination, not only to survive, but to triumph.

The Journey of Becoming a Mother Among Women in Northern Thailand is the first book-length study of childbearing and motherhood in Thailand. Informed by both anthropology and women's studies, Pranee Liamputtong draws sharp distinctions between the practices of the East and those of the West. Covering virtually every aspect of childbirth and upbringing, this book also examines how women try to adapt to changes - social, economical, and political - that affect their motherhood and reproduction.This very personal and accessible book is an excellent intercultural study of women and health, useful to undergraduate as well as graduate students of Women's Studies, Public Health, and Anthropology.

The Journey of Becoming a Mother Among Women in Northern Thailand is the first book-length study of childbearing and motherhood in Thailand. Informed by both anthropology and women's studies, Pranee Liamputtong draws sharp distinctions between the practices of the East and those of the West. Covering virtually every aspect of childbirth and upbringing, this book also examines how women try to adapt to changes - social, economical, and political - that affect their motherhood and reproduction.This very personal and accessible book is an excellent intercultural study of women and health, useful to undergraduate as well as graduate students of Women's Studies, Public Health, and Anthropology.

Why do so many women have trouble getting effective and compassionate medical treatment? Diagnosis Female examines this widespread problem, with a focus on misdiagnosis and gender bias. The book zeroes in on specialties where women are more likely to encounter particularly troubling roadblocks: cardiology, neurology, chronic diseases and obstetrics/gynecology. All too often, when doctors can’t figure out what is going on, women receive a diagnosis from the “all in her head” column -- this pattern is even worse for women of color, who face significant challenges in medical settings. Throughout the work, Emily Dwass profiles women whose stories illustrate how the medical community often dismisses their claims, disregards their symptoms, or simply doesn’t know that male symptoms and female symptoms can vary from issues to issue. Time and again, women state that their voices did not matter, or worse, their concerns were greeted with skepticism or simply ignored when they sought help. The results can be devastating and long-lasting. Examining the bias inherent in the system, Dwass offers measures women can take to protect their health and receive better care. She offers advice, too, for the medical community in addressing the problem, so that outcomes can improve all around. If you’re a woman, and you seek medical care, this book is a must-read. Your health depends upon it.