A guide to consciously exploring and honoring the spiritual and emotional journey of becoming a parent • Provides tools and meditations to engage the sacred wisdom-keeper within and create personal shamanic medicine to support you and your family • Discusses the shamanic perspective on miscarriage, fertility issues, postpartum stress, blended families, and adoption as a form of birthing through the heart • Provides shamanic teachings and techniques for conception, each trimester of pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period The journey into parenthood transforms us, whether our children are biological, adopted, in spirit, or not yet conceived. As we give birth through heart or body, we not only shape-shift into mothers and fathers, but also gain access to the deep inner well of spiritual wisdom that opens with initiation into parenthood. In this guide to consciously exploring the shamanic journey of pregnancy and parenthood, Anna Cariad-Barrett offers techniques and ceremonies to honor the transformation of becoming a parent and engage the sacred wisdom-keeper within. She provides tools and meditations to create personal shamanic medicine to support you and your family on this journey as well as connect with the wisdom of nature, expand your intuition, and explore altered states of consciousness. Restoring honor to the shadow side of parenthood, the author discusses the shamanic perspective on miscarriage, fertility, sexuality, postpartum stress and depression, blended families, and adoption as a form of birthing through the heart. She explains how to heal any deep psychic wounds from your birth family and transform negative beliefs you may hold about parenthood. She provides chapters on each trimester of pregnancy, offering specific teachings and techniques appropriate to each stage as well as conception, birth, and the postpartum period. Whether you are preparing to welcome your first child or seeking spiritual support for the multidimensional experience of being a parent, the author shows how to reclaim and reconnect all the experiences of parenthood and how, through this rite of passage, we give birth to our most authentic selves.

Follow the Hero’s Journey from Pregnancy to Motherhood Filled with unique insights into the spiritual nature of pregnancy, this compassionate guide takes you, the expectant mother, and your loved ones along a “hero’s journey” of discovery. Each trimester correlates to a stage of the epic journey where emotional, spiritual, and physical connections heighten your awareness of yourself and your unborn child. Through these stages, the mundane and everyday are elevated to the sublime and transformative. With their extensive training and experience in allopathic wellness and integrative medicine, Shawn A. Tassone and Kathryn M. Landherr have created a book full of guided meditations, journaling exercises, and spiritual traditions from a variety of cultures. Spiritual Pregnancy also includes yoga postures created by popular doula and pregnant-fit yoga instructor Jennifer (Wolfe) More for specific times throughout pregnancy. Praise: "Spiritual Pregnancy presents birth as the spiritual initiation it truly is. I highly recommend this deeply moving book."—Christiane Northrup, MD, New York Times bestselling author of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause “. . . the information shared by the authors will show future mothers how to unify the two lives within them during pregnancy.”—Bernie Siegel, MD, author of Love, Medicine and Miracles “Spiritual Pregnancy is the best guide I know on developing, nourishing, and sustaining [the mother-infant bond].”—Larry Dossey, MD, author of Healing Words “Expert integrative obstetricians, [the authors] guide you through the traditions of the ancients, and illuminate the vibrant path to your own heroine’s journey.” —Victoria Maizes, MD, Executive Director of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine “From the practical to the profound, I'm confident you will find what you are looking for within this book's pages. I highly recommend it.”—Tieraona Low Dog, MD, Fellowship Director at University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine “Spiritual Pregnancy does an incredible job at marrying the physical and the spiritual . . . It will be a great resource to anyone having a baby and it makes me proud to be an ob-gyn.” — Jeniffer Ashton, MD, leading medical correspondent for ABC and ob-gyn physician

Let your pregnancy be the joyous, exciting and spiritual journey it was always meant to be...While having a baby is a time of great happiness, it can also be the most bewildering experience for those involved. Luckily, this book provides the perfect antidote to all your pregnancy and baby concerns. Right from deciding whether to have a baby to choosing the best hospital for the d-day (deliveryday!), Spiritual Pregnancy shows you how to make the most of your pregnancy so that you come through those nine months not only relaxed, but also confident and prepared. This unique volume shows you the best ways to handle the dilemmas that accompany having a baby, while preparing you for the incredible job that lies ahead – becoming a parent. Allow Gopika Kapoor to share with you the learning from her own journey as a mother of twins and the spiritual insights that guided her. Her pragmatic and reassuring voice not only tells you how to deal with surprise pregnancies, crazy hormones, overbearing relatives and tired sex lives, but also gives great advice on baby showers, alternative birthing methods, post-baby body image, and how to stay energized and positive through it all. Since parental bonds first form while the baby is still in the womb, Spiritual Pregnancy is your guide to making the most of this very special time with your child.

One's role models in life are often found in the unexpected. The person who is our confidant and hero, or role model, may well be a teacher, parent, sibling, or friend who is appreciated too late. For me, my role model was my brother, Andy, who died too soon, at the age of twentyone. Unexpected? Yes. Andy's story and my own as it unfolds will tell the tale of two brothers who were each others' best friend. We had a childhood filled with love, joy, laughter, and sadness. Unfortunately for me, I was so busy being my "brother's keeper" that I never realized the phenomenal human being my brother, Andy, had become. It took Andy's death for me to realize the "role model" I had lost. Death stole my chance ever to say thank you while Andy was alive. This memoir shares the emotions of a brother's love. Each of my life's accomplishments has in some way been shaped by my brother's life and the way he lived it. Born with a cloud over his head, Andy struggled to learn and to fit in. Born with a rainbow in his heart, Andy would love and be loved in a way that I finally came to understand too late. This memoir is my gift of gratitude to my hero and role model. May it inspire those who read it to express their appreciation to those people who have made them into who they are today. In my case, it is my brother, who I loved more than I ever knew. A Brother's Love is Andy's story and mine; it is a love story for all ages. Author's note: Please visit www.abrothersloverun.org for more information on Andy's Charities and my upcoming charity run!

Written by two birth doulas and intuitive healers, this book tells the metaphorical story of a fictional goddess who must walk through 7 Gates of Transformation in order to become a Mother. At the final gate, she must surrender to the ultimate sacrifice—spiritual death—so she can be reborn into motherhood. Each gate perfectly illustrates the 7 emotional, psychological, and often subconscious sacrifices that every laboring woman experiences, whether willingly or not. This book is a guide to help pregnant women understand birth as a divine journey and master how to walk through each gate with empowered sacrifice, purpose, and zeal through tools, rituals, and integrative practices.

Written for mothers seeking to fulfill their soul’s work while simultaneously raising future generations, Sacred Motherhood offers women on the path of motherhood a guide back to themselves. It will help you embrace the reality that this is your spiritual life—every moment of every day, whether you are at the grocery store, changing diapers, arguing with your partner, snuggling with your baby, or dyeing your teenager’s hair pink. Greet the moments when you fall down as awakening opportunities, every bit as holy and powerful as the moments you can drop in and bliss out. Spanning the sacred and the mundane, Sacred Motherhood is both a guide and a journal, enticing you to pause momentarily to reflect and write, and then return to your mothering tasks armed with a fresh perspective, renewed vision, practical tips, and creative ideas for enriching family life. For fifty-two weeks—a year of sacred motherhood—the chapters illuminate subjects that are likely to arise as the mothering journey unfolds, and present thoughtful prompts and helpful reminders relating to you, your soul, and your child.

“The dynamic spark that is responsible for creating each new human being cannot be reduced to a mass of cells and biochemical processes. There is a deeper mystery at play that women who are struggling with fertility can tap into.” This book explains how to use the tools of spirituality and psychology to relax the endocrine system, change your perspective, and get pregnant. Everyone is fertile; however, our common standards for measuring fertility are faulty. Today, our currently accepted narratives around fertility offer much in the way of diagnosis, but little in the way of customized care and consideration of a woman's entire mind, body, and spirit. The dynamic spark responsible for creating each new human being cannot be reduced to a mass of cells and biochemical processes. There is a deeper mystery at play, one that women struggling with fertility can tap into. In this ground-breaking book, holistic fertility doctor Dr. Julie Von shows women a new way to approach fertility so that the entire experience of becoming pregnant is energetically uplifting. She shares tools and techniques that help nourish and build women's receptive energy to connect to the spiritual and unseen aspects of creating life. Dr. Von helps readers understand that principles of cosmic timing can be applied to all processes having to do with fertility and child-rearing, from freezing eggs, to conceiving, to choosing to adopt. With close to 20 years of clinical experience, Dr. Von has witnessed firsthand the power of the spiritual within fertility to balance the hormonal system and promote a healthy pregnancy.