How can you best help a new mama? I surveyed a bunch of mamas and the answer is here.

From the moment you start trying to conceive (and, actually for some months before that) you should focus on taking excellent care of your body. You want your tiny tenant to thrive, so you should do everything in your power to get their home to be in the best possible shape for the nine or ten months that they're in there.

Aside from the usual need for hydration, there are a couple of factors that make it even more important during pregnancy. 

Oxytocin is kind of awesome.

I gotta warn you, I'm about to get kind of nerdy in this blog post. I find this stuff fascinating, and I love getting into the nitty-gritty of it all.

If you're not into that, that's alright. I realize this article won't be everyone's cup of tea…

My goal was to breastfeed at least a year, but beyond that, I didn't really have much of a plan.

Breastfeeding is supremely convenient. I used the magic of the boob for everything. Baby's hungry? Boob. Baby's teething or uncomfortable? Boob. Baby needs to go to sleep? Boob. Baby wakes up in the middle of the night? Boob

Once you've had a baby you enter two stages, simultaneously. The first is the newborn stage. It's beautiful, magical and a bit surreal. The second is postpartum. For me, this was uncomfortable, kinda gross and all too real.

wonder - noun

a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

For fifteen years, I committed myself to my career. I usually worked seventy to eighty hours a week. Typically, I was commuting ten or more hours a week.