Feng Shui Mommy ─ Creating Balance and Harmony Amidst the Chaos for Blissful Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood

Impending motherhood is a confused cocktail of heroic strength and terrifying vulnerability. Our culture has seized on the ?vulnerability” part of this experience and tends to reinforce a pregnant woman’s insecurities and sense that they’re out of their league or somehow ?at risk” simply by virtue of being pregnant. Instead of being encouraged to embrace this most natural time and trust their bodies, their intuition, and their own mind, they’re encouraged to seek guidance from the medical experts, who focus only on the physical aspects, or unsolicited advice from friends and family (even strangers) that is often ill-informed or just plain scary. But, what about the subtle (and not so subtle) shifts in emotions, spirit, and mental experience of being a new mother? Those are often left out of the conversation.

Feng Shui Mommy is all about helping the pregnant woman build her own, individual epic journey to motherhood. It’s about supporting her while she shores-up her mind-body-spirit alignment so she can best handle the cosmic kick in the uterus and juicy kiss on the soul she received when that sperm scored the sweet spot within her waiting egg. Adopting the principles and philosophy of Feng Shui, the Chinese philosophy of a connected inner and outer harmony, this book guides the reader to her balanced center and supports her in tapping into the primal energies brought forth by the birth experience. Bailey helps her cultivate a rock-steady, feminine, holistic sense of self, allowing her to explore the wonder of her pregnancy with the energy of true expectant joy, stepping into new motherhood with her vitality, health, and appetite for adventure intact.

Feng Shui Mommy is composed of four parts, each one addressing the three classical trimesters of pregnancy, and the fourth covering perhaps the most challenging part of this journey, the often unacknowledged ?4th Trimester”: the first three months of life with a new baby. The book mindfully addresses the mind-body-spirit continuum flowing through each of the four phases.

? Mind: Inviting clarity, simplicity, and beauty into her internal and external environments.
? Body: Focusing on achieving optimal health and comfortable birthing through mindful nutrition, sensual stimulation, quality rest, enjoyable exercise, and intentional bodywork.
? Spirit: Stepping into her highest and truest self while connecting with the support of her tribe. Learning to release fears through embracing the limitless unknowns, light, and darkness of the parenting journey.

Feng Shui mommies (And daddies! And babies!) are happy, healthy, and in harmony with the deep loving energy that connects us all.

Bailey Gaddis is a certified birthing doula, HypnoBirthing practitioner, and certified professional organizer. In addition to working with mothers to birth happy, healthy babies, Bailey is a regular contributor to Disney’s Babble, Pregnancy and Newborn, Huffington Post, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, Scary Mommy, YourTango, American Baby, Pregnancy and Newborn, Green Child, Fit Pregnancy, and Elephant Journal. She continuously finds inspiration for her writing via the stream of consciousness flowing out of her toddler’s mouth, and the insane shenanigans she witnesses during births (and at the park before nap time).

Her work includes childbirth preparation educator, birth doula, hypnotherapist, and egg donor and surrogacy coordinator. Recently, she joined with other birthing professionals to form the Ojai Valley Birth Collective, which offers comprehensive, holistic birthing support to mothers-to-be and their partners. Bailey also supports families that do not have the financial means to add nontraditional support to their birthing plan by volunteering at the Nan Tolbert Nurturing Center, where she serves as a Parent Care adviser, offering hands-on, in-home support to parents of new babies.

When she’s not supporting a woman in a squat and urging her to ?breath that baby down” she enjoys digging in the dirt with her son while attempting to avoid the clumps he occasionally flings at her hair and trying to figure out the context of his (usually) coherent babbling. She fancies herself a holistically hippie Taurean with an unfortunate proclivity for reality television, sugar, and tie-dye ? all at the same time.