Every parent prepares for birth. Few are prepared for after birth the weeks and months filled with profound emotional shifts, identity changes, silent grief, fierce love, and a longing for guidance that rarely arrives when the casseroles stop coming and the visitors fade away.
That vulnerable space the place where parents quietly ask, “Who am I now?” is where the Wellness Series by Lindy Summers and Marc Seffelaar enters with tenderness, science, and truth.
In recent years, postpartum wellness has finally emerged as a serious subject of study, yet millions of mothers still struggle alone. Research estimates that postpartum depression affects nearly 1 in 7 women across the United States, while countless others experience anxiety, identity loss, emotional disconnect, relationship strain, or profound spiritual questioning. Fathers, too, face unspoken pressures around competence, emotional availability, and redefining masculinity in caregiving roles.
Where does one turn for real answers not judgement, not clichés, but grounding wisdom?
Two authors decided to build an entire bridge there.
Why Postpartum Wellness Matters More Than Ever
In her bestselling works The Fourth Trimester, Graceful Journey, Where Love Settles In, and Self-Care for New Moms Dr. Lindy Summers, a naturopath and mother of five, breaks down everything new parents whisper behind closed doors.
Her work speaks to:
- Faith-anchored encouragement for survival and renewal
- Motherhood mental health
- Holistic healing
- Nurturing a newborn while remembering yourself
Her approach is equal parts clinical knowledge and lived compassion, reminding readers that self-care is survival — not selfishness.
Her co-author, Marc Seffelaar, brings another lens entirely. A father, trauma survivor, business leader, and wellness author, Marc delivers practical emotional scaffolding for fathers in transition. His book Dads in the Fourth Trimester gives new fathers what has long been missing someone speaking directly to them.
Where other parenting books stop at swaddling diagrams, this series moves deeper, asking:
What happens to the parents when everyone else moves on?
From Baby Care to Soul Care, A Holistic Approach
The Wellness Series positions postpartum healing as a family transformation, not simply infant care.
Across the titles, readers learn about:
- Emotional resilience
- Navigating identity loss
- Relationship repair
- Practical self-compassion
- Parenthood overwhelm and anxiety
- Spiritual grounding through transition
- Nutrition and naturopathic recovery
- Creating support systems
- Building rituals that bond families
Summers and Seffelaar don’t shy away from acknowledging grief mothers grieving their former autonomy, fathers grieving their pre-family sense of competence, couples grieving intimacy lost to exhaustion.
They also illuminate joy, the sacredness of new mornings, the strength built in small rituals, and the beauty of becoming someone new while raising someone new
Why This Series Stands Out
While hundreds of books focus on baby sleep, feeding, or behavior, this series asks a different and deeper question:
Who is holding space for the parents?
The answer these authors give is profound:
“You deserve someone to hold you the way you hold your baby.”
Summers brings naturopathic tools, maternal wisdom, and therapeutic insight rooted in years of guiding mothers through mental health challenges, body recovery, and embodied faith.
Seffelaar brings the unheard voice the father trying to be steady while overwhelmed, the partner wondering where he fits, the man silently asking for help without knowing how.
Together, they create literature that does not treat parents as accessories to babies but as humans becoming new versions of themselves.
Parenthood Doesn’t Just Grow Children It Grows Parents
The Wellness Series gently reframes the fourth trimester:
- Motherhood is a rebirth.
- Fatherhood is an identity evolution.
- The family unit is a living ecosystem requiring nurture, communication, and grace.
With guided reflections, affirmations, rituals, and research-backed tools, these books give families permission to slow down, ask better questions, and tend to invisible wounds as deliberately as diaper rash.
This is literature that becomes a companion the kind you dog-ear, mark with tears and coffee stains, and return to in the quiet hours when everyone else is asleep.
A Must-Read for Every New Parent, Grandparent, Caregiver or Birth Professional
If you are:
Expecting a baby
Navigating postpartum healing
A new dad trying to understand your role
Supporting a daughter, friend, or partner
A healthcare provider craving more empathetic language
This series reads like both a toolkit and a lifeline.
It shifts cultural narratives replacing unrealistic expectations with science, soul, and shared humanity.
Ready to Heal What Parenting Books Forgot to Teach?
Explore the full Wellness Series on Amazon and begin the journey toward whole-family wellness, emotional resilience, and sacred transformation.
Get the series here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F4PT6JC9
Connect with Dr. Lindy Summers and follow more of her work on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/55721527.Dr_Lindy_Summers
Parenthood may feel overwhelming but as Summers and Seffelaar remind us:
You are not alone. You are becoming.
