Kind lifer Kate recently shared her story about her first pregnancy and experience reading The Kind Mama, check it out:
We found out I was pregnant with our first child on the 31^st December 2013, 10 days after getting engaged, what better way to start off the new year! I was a big fan of Alicia’s book The Kind Life, so I got my hands on her new book The Kind Mama as soon as it came out and devoured it cover to cover in a day. The way Alicia sees pregnancy, childbirth and parenting resonates with me in many ways: her book is about being strongly connected to yourself as a woman and mother, to your baby, to your partner but also to the world around you by looking at how kinder parenting benefits our planet as well as our babies. 
Unlike many standard pregnancy books The Kind Mama is not just a dry endless list of what nasty physical symptoms to expect, instead it offered me down to earth information to help me prepare for the ups and downs of pregnancy, as well as inspiration and empowerment. This book is reflective of pregnancy and parenting as wondrous, unique and empowering experiences, without pretending that there won’t be challenges along the way. Oh and my partner loved that there are ‘Gentlemen only’ sections throughout the book so he can learn about what he can do to help prepare for our baby!
Here are two of the key messages I love most from The Kind Mama:
We are designed to do this! We need to believe in ourselves and our body’s ability to give birth.
The Kind Mama has helped me feel more empowered and prepared for giving birth and confirms my belief that as women we are incredibly resilient and that childbirth can be an immensely empowering experience. When I listen to people around me all I hear about are traumatic stories in which childbirth is intensely painful and terrifying and has to be passively endured – this is not how I want to see or experience birth and leads me to question how well adapted our state of the art health systems are in enabling healthy, natural births, and in supporting women to be well prepared. I know I can’t control how I will birth my baby, but I can make sure that when the day comes I fully trust my mind, my body and my instincts and have the knowledge I need to make informed decisions should I need medical interventions.
Ditch the endless baby shower wish list – our babies don’t need all that stuff, and neither does our planet!
I have found it overwhelming trying to figure out what I need to prepare for baby. I thought asking friends to share their lists of essential items would take away that headache but it actually did just the opposite. I ended up with endless lists of items I didn’t even know existed and found myself thinking – will I really need 3 types of thermometers? A baby thermometer, a room thermometer and a bath thermometer?! When I asked my mum and grandmother they laughed and said in unison, ‘Use your elbow to check the bath water and your common sense to check the room temperature!’ Now that’s the kind of practical and grounded tip I’m looking for, and Alicia’s book is packed full of them, reminding us that what our babies really need is us – our love, our time, and our milk, and that we don’t need to go and empty out the nearest baby store to keep our little ones happy and healthy. The Kind Mama has helped me in doing what I knew I wanted to do from the start but didn’t quite know how to – to sort out the real essentials from the load of unnecessary stuff that we are led to believe we need. I now have a list of items that is significantly less scary not just to us as future parents and our wallets but also to our planet.
So here I am, 25 weeks through my first pregnancy, it may not always be what I thought it would be, and I’m sure parenting won’t be either, but regardless it is a beautiful journey, an opportunity for me to learn to let go and settle into the knowledge that from now on everything will constantly be growing and evolving, and that if I just trust in myself and in life, then each stage and change can be full of learning and appreciation. This is a key message I take from The Kind Mama – to trust ourselves and enjoy the journey!
 Kate xx
Thank you Kate! I loved reading this and am so grateful for you sharing your experience.
If any of you kind lifers have a success story you’d like to share from The Kind Mama or The Kind Diet, please do!! I love reading your experiences. Post below and it may be featured on the blog!