Did you go through unexpected changes in the days and months after childbirth? You are not alone! Altered states, mysterious moods, psychic connections -- all these and more may take us by storm. We may be unprepared for their intensity.
IN THE NEWBORN YEAR, by Elisabeth Hallett, is a treasury of intimate true stories that reveal the power of "newborn time" to open and change us. This book is a valuable resource for people approaching childbirth, for their partners and caregivers, and for those seeking to add a depth of understanding to their own experience.
You are invited to read the Introduction, which will also take you to a sample of Part I. A little farther down this page, you'll find comments from readers and reviewers.
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What Readers Say About this Book. . .
"What an absolutely fantastic book. . . It is well written, from the heart, and comprehensive, and I found myself in there, identifying with things I too had experienced but never shared with anyone." -- Katryn LaVanture
"Great respect is given to states of ecstasy, vivid dreaming, vision, bonding, detachment, depression, and elation. Another silence in parental shape-shifting has been broken." -- Mothering Magazine
"Within the pages of IN THE NEWBORN YEAR are stories of parents falling in love with their children. The book is packed with pain and joy, anguish and excitement, amazement and acceptance, love and fear, and most notably, change, growth and expansion. We experience the ecstasy of birth, the wrenching grief of goodbyes and again the peace of understanding. I don't think any parent could read this book and not feel a connection with some aspect of the experiences shared in it. In our all too linear society, the honor which this book places on these intense experiences can provide much needed affirmation for new parents. . . The creation of this book is a cause for celebration." -- Sari Gallegos in The Library Letter
"Let me thank you for writing such a thought provoking and memory stirring book. I have just finished IN THE NEWBORN YEAR and I can't seem to stop thinking about it. . ." -- K.M.
"It's so wonderful, captivating, stimulating, reassuring, easy to read, full and ohh so giving. I don't want to put it down. I sit with yellow marker, highlighting more passages than I've ever done before. My pages have a yellow glow from all the profound passages I wish to return to." -- Rosalie Denenfeld, M.A.
"IN THE NEWBORN YEAR is a treasury of women's postpartum experiences, carefully connected with insightful commentary and open-ended questions for further thought. This sensitive study is a must for anyone interested in learning more about postpartum depression, and shows clearly that the postpartum period is actually a time of tremendous change, when women are open to great creative and liberating power. We have so much to gain by learning more about these possibilities." -- Andrea Georgiou (letter to Mothering Magazine)
"I have loaned my copy to a dear friend and her response to reading it was a big Ah ha! Someone had finally written down many of the experiences she felt with her son. She hadn't told anyone about them until reading IN THE NEWBORN YEAR." -- Susan S.
"The last fifteen years have seen a tremendous growth in the literature of childbirth written for the general public, but few of these books have dealt with the changes of consciousness and sensory perception that often come along with new motherhood. While there have been some books covering postpartum depression, the inner world of new mothers is mostly unexplored territory and what we have seen of it has been mostly negative. Positive stories and observations tend to be ignored or trivialized by the dominant culture. Elisabeth Hallett has given us a fascinating book of observations and stories from women who have taken the trouble to find the language to express the changes in them brought by motherhood. The result has the potential to educate all women -- not just those who become mothers." -- Ina May Gaskin, in The Birth Gazette