Prayers for New Moms

You are probably reading this one-handed.

Most books written for new mothers seem to imagine a woman with a cup of tea and a free afternoon. That woman does not exist. This one was written for someone holding a baby, or waiting for one to wake, or lying down at last with three hours ahead of her and no ability to fall asleep.

It is built to be opened at the worst moment and to be useful in about ninety seconds.

There are sixty prayers here, following the first year — the hospital, the drive home, the fourth trimester, the return to work or the decision to stay, the weaning, the birthday. But it is not meant to be read in order, and there is a page at the front that says so.

Instead there is a list called Find What You Need Tonight. It is three in the morning. Something is wrong, or nothing is wrong and you are crying anyway. You find the thing that is happening to you on the list, and you turn to that prayer.

When you cannot stop crying. When the baby will not stop crying. When you are angry, and it frightens you. When you feel nothing yet. When feeding is not going the way you hoped. When you miss who you were. When you resent your partner for sleeping. When nothing is wrong and it is still hard.

Each prayer has a verse, printed in full so you never have to go looking. The prayer itself, written to be read aloud, or silently, or borrowed for one night and given back in the morning. And a few plain lines at the end — not a lesson, just something solid to put your hand on.

Eight more at the back are one line long, for the nights when even a page is too much.

This book will not tell you this is the best time of your life, or that you should be grateful, or that you should pray harder. And it does not pretend that prayer is a treatment for an illness: postpartum depression and anxiety are common, real, and treatable, and this book says so plainly and prints the numbers to call.

You are allowed to be having a hard time.

A gift for a baby shower, a hospital bag, or a friend three weeks in who is not answering her phone.