A Happy, Healthy Mom: Your Guide to Less Stress, Better Teamwork, and More Joy on the Journey

The demands of motherhood can quietly deplete your body and mind. This science-based, reassuring guide will help you restore your energy, balance, and well-being, so you can be the Mom you want to be.

As a mother, you are carrying more than ever: work, home, constant demands, chronic sleep loss, and the invisible mental load of keeping everything running. Taking care of your needs often feels impossible.

From Rick Hanson, PhD, clinical psychologist; Jan Hanson, LAc, nutrition specialist; and Ricki Pollycove, MD, gynecologist-obstetrician, A Happy, Healthy Mom offers a compassionate roadmap to help moms get the rest, nutrition, help, and comfort they need. This comprehensive guide addresses the full range of physical, psychological, and relationship challenges that can peak in the demanding early years from infancy through elementary school.

Inside, you'll learn how to:

• Tune into your own body and needs with zero judgement or self-blame
• Solve common hormonal, mood, or gastrointestinal problems
• Protect yourself from stress and stop irritability before it starts
• Restore important minerals drained by pregnancy and breastfeeding
• Increase teamwork and emotional intimacy with your partner
• Return to a normal sleep cycle after your child is sleeping through the night
• Eat healthy meals that take only minutes to prepare
• Request the right medical tests at the right time

Motherhood is inherently demanding and stressful, and the physical, mental, and relationship consequences can overshadow the deeply rewarding experiences of motherhood. Featuring stories from real mothers, this book will ensure that you thrive—not just survive—while taking care of your little one.

Rick Hanson, PhD, is a psychologist, senior fellow at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and New York Times bestselling author. Altogether, his seven books have been published in 33 languages and include Making Great Relationships, Neurodharma, Resilient, Hardwiring Happiness, Just One Thing, Buddha’s Brain, and Mother Nurture, with over a million copies sold in English alone. He’s the founder of the Global Compassion Coalition and the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, as well as the cohost of the Being Well podcast, which has been downloaded over 25 million times. He offers free newsletters, and his online programs have scholarships available for those with financial needs. He’s lectured at NASA, Google, Oxford, and Harvard. An expert on positive neuroplasticity, his work has been featured on CBS, NPR, the BBC, and other major media. He began meditating in 1974 and has taught in meditation centers worldwide. He and his wife live in northern California and have two adult children. He loves the wilderness and taking a break from emails.

Jan Hanson, MS, LAc, is a licensed acupuncturist and integrative health practitioner with more than four decades of experience in nutritional medicine, functional testing, and holistic approaches to wellbeing. Building on early training in biochemistry, she is one of the early pioneers in bringing evidence-informed nutritional medicine into mainstream complementary care. Jan has taught widely, offering practical guidance on topics such as digestive health, allergies, and women’s wellness.

Known for her clear, compassionate teaching style, she has supported individuals and families in improving their health through accessible, step-by-step methods. She lives in northern California with her husband, psychologist and author Rick Hanson, and enjoys time with their two adult children.

Ricki Pollycove, MD, MS, is a nationally recognized expert in OB-GYN, caring for women through all stages of their lives. She is passionate about helping to optimize health and inspire self-care despite multiple demands in a complex world. She is a mother and grandmother, having delivered babies while also raising her own daughter from age 3 as a single mom.

In active clinical practice for over 40 years, she authored The Pocket Guide to Bioidentical Hormones and has appeared on national TV, radio, podcasts, and YouTube videos on fertility, motherhood, nutrition, hormones and mood, breast cancer, perimenopause, and healthy aging. She has authored scientific papers on testosterone, female sexual dysfunction, osteoporosis, and every aspect of menopause. Dr. Pollycove continues to provide medical education to doctors and clinicians worldwide.

Renee Brna is a clinical therapist-in-training in the marriage and family therapy program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her work focuses on parental wellbeing, burnout, and mindfulness-informed approaches to supporting families. She brings experience in crisis counseling, community programming, early childhood education, and psychological research. A mother of two, she first turned to the original edition of A Happy, Healthy Mom during her own early parenting years and later contributed new writing and updated research to this revision. Before entering clinical training, Renee worked professionally as a Broadway and television performer.