The Complete Guide to Postpartum: A mother-focused companion for life after birth

by Sophie Walker, Jodi Wilson

The book every new mother or pregnant woman needs – the ultimate expert-endorsed companion to life post-birth.

Is it supposed to be this hard? It's a question all new mothers ask.

The moment after birthing your baby, you enter postpartum. It's the blurriest of transitions – there's joy and awe but also intense physical recovery, fluctuating hormones, a brain that can't find the right words, and so much to learn. It's beautiful and it's hard.

The Complete Guide to Postpartum is your comforting and enlightening companion to navigating this entirely new life, from the earliest moments post-birth to many years later.

This illustrated guide
- Your postpartum preparation checklist
- The fourth trimester
- Mental health
- Hormones
- The pelvic floor
- Postpartum with your partner
- Feeding
- Sleep
- Taking care of yourself and boosting your confidence
- Trusted postpartum resources

Full of expert advice, mothers' stories and evidence-based information, this invaluable guide, with handy ribbon marker so you can easily dip in and dip out when you have time and headspace to read, will support you into motherhood with confidence and reassurance.

Genres: Nonfiction, Parenting

796 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 1, 2025

About the author

Writer, mother, marathoner, campaigner. I've worked for a major news agency for nearly 20 years, reporting business, politics and trade from Paris to Washington to London via Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. A couple of years ago my daughter was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and I wrote about it as a means to cope and make sense of what we were experiencing, while starting a gruelling marathon training programme as a means of raising money and awareness. My blog, Grace Under Pressure, took off as other parents and Aspies (and runners!) found my thoughts and frustrations often mirroring their own, and Little, Brown (Piatkus) published the book in October 2012. I am now an ambassador for the National Autistic Society and will run my third marathon, in New York, in November 2015. I am also working on a novel.

Reviews

[Alice MacDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of great information in a very easy to digest book.

[Molly Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great! A lot to take in but good to refer back to specific parts. I think the key message on every topic was reach out for support! Don’t suffer in silence if something doesn’t feel right

[Josie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, especially postpartum (more than when I started reading it pregnant). 5 gold stars for gentle and non judgemental information!

[Emma Walder · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a publishing landscape saturated with books on pregnancy and childbirth, The Complete Guide to Postpartum arrives as a long overdue response to the pressing need for comprehensive, mother focused support after birth. While birth stories dominate antenatal conversations, the postpartum period often raw, overwhelming, and deeply transformative remains comparatively neglected. This book sets out to correct that imbalance, and largely succeeds in doing so with sensitivity, depth, and clarity. A must read for both mothers and fathers.

[Alicia Grasby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a good overview of what to expect postpartum and how to take care of your healing body while also taking care of new life. It covers lots of topics, some in more detail than others, and will be useful to come back to at different points postpartum.

However there were two aspects I think could be improved.
1. The structure, at times, was confusing. The book is largely broken into immediate birth recovery, the first 6 weeks and the first year. But some information in the first six weeks would've been better off in birth recovery.
2. At times the author's bias shows through, which isn't inherently a bad thing but I do think an editor should've picked up on things before print. For example, the discussions of traditional birth recovery (such as confinement) have little to no mention of whether these are evidence based, however the section on sleep training has constant mentions that there is little to no evidence supporting these actions.

[Mardi Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This should be read by health care providers. I’m finding it a little intense- others might find it thorough, but not all outcomes will apply to you. I like the compassionate and validating themes in the book. Because it’s so thorough I wish the chapters had a small summary or quick list at the beginning so you could decide if the chapter is going to apply to you or whether you might like to come back to it.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

An in depth look at normal challenges postpartum and the realities of birthing, recovery, mental health, sleeping and breastfeeding- the only thing similar to their first book is that it is heavily skewed to vaginal births and has little information on c section births

[Katie Mclaren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall I thought it was good. I found it a bit harder to get through than 'The Complete Australian Guide to Pregnancy and Birth'. I felt that the message that was reiterated again and again was related to reaching out for support, but I agree that this is an important one.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful but not as good as their other book!