Body, Soul, and Baby: A Doctor’s Guide to the Complete Pregnancy Experience, from Preconception to Postpartum

Tracy W. Gaudet, M.D., is Executive Director of the Duke Center for Integrative Medicine at the Duke University School of Medicine. The author of the highly acclaimed Consciously Female, Dr. Gaudet is a practicing, board-certified ob-gyn and the founding executive director of Dr. Andrew Weil s Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. She lives with her son Ryan in Durham, North Carolina.

Paula Spencer is a freelance writer whose eight books include The V Book and Momfidence!: An Oreo Never Killed Anybody and Other Secrets of Happier Parenting. Author of the Momfidence! column in Woman s Day, she is also a contributing editor to Parenting and Baby Talk. She lives with her husband and four children in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

In a culture that rarely sees pregnancy as a journey to self-discovery, Body, Soul, and Baby offers a fresh perspective on this transformative life experience by showing women how to tune in to the cues offered by their bodies and souls as well as by the babies growing within them for a healthier pregnancy, a more fulfilling birth experience, and a deeper bond with their baby.

Drawing on the best of both complementary and conventional Western medicine, Dr. Gaudet has written a groundbreaking guide that shows you how to become an active participant in your pregnancy. By working with the natural processes of pregnancy, you can discover how to:

Pick up important signals from within about what you need, what your body needs, and what is right for both you and your baby
Tune in to cues that can alert you to early signs of problems
Use the mind-body connection to reduce stress, explore this remarkable life change, and bond with your baby
Nurture your whole self, including your evolving sexual and sensual needs
Make informed and conscious choices that reflect both your personal feelings and the latest
medical information
Collaborate with your doctor or midwife, and build a supportive health-care team

Empowering, inspiring, and respectful of the wisdom of the female body and spirit, this invaluable book also includes advice on eating right and staying active, and natural and alternative approaches to pain relief. Whether you re already pregnant or preparing to be, the time to start listening to your inner wisdom is now, and the guide to doing it is here.

An experienced physician explains how to combine the best of conventional and complementary medicine with the inner wisdom possessed by every woman to make pregnancy a more rewarding emotional, spiritual, and physical experience and helps women make the personal choices that are right for them.