Becoming a mother is likely one of the most profound transitions you'll experience in your lifetime. This guide is both a zestful manifesto grounded in realness and a practical handbook, designed to help you navigate new motherhood with a more seasoned MO.
What is Matleisure? Well, as you've probably guessed, it's a portmanteau of two words (maternity and leisure), which blend to create a new combined meaning. Simply put, Matleisure is about tapping into as much joy as possible during this finite and sometimes jarring life event, especially for first timers.
Yes, newborn cuddles are the greatest thing on earth, but there's nothing that can quite prepare you for the Charlie Foxtrot a tiny new human will bring into your world and the inevitable reverberating wave of visceral ups and downs that impact every aspect of life as you know it.
So why not run towards the light, armed with some new perspective on how you can make your own maternity leave experience not only survivable but as delightful as possible?
Becoming a mother is likely one of the most profound transitions you'll experience in your lifetime. This guide is both a zestful manifesto grounded in realness and a practical handbook, designed to help you navigate new motherhood with a more seasoned MO.
What is Matleisure? Well, as you've probably guessed, it's a portmanteau of two words (maternity and leisure), which blend to create a new combined meaning. Simply put, Matleisure is about tapping into as much joy as possible during this finite and sometimes jarring life event, especially for first timers.
Yes, newborn cuddles are the greatest thing on earth, but there's nothing that can quite prepare you for the Charlie Foxtrot a tiny new human will bring into your world and the inevitable reverberating wave of visceral ups and downs that impact every aspect of life as you know it.
So why not run towards the light, armed with some new perspective on how you can make your own maternity leave experience not only survivable but as delightful as possible?
This book is designed to be a reference, a type of survival handbook to help you make the most of your maternity leave. There’s no one correct way to absorb the content in the pages that follow. You can read the book cover to cover in one go or you can opt to read the specific sections that are of most interest to you based on your needs. It’s up to you! I’ve organized the topics and advice to make it easy to find again if you need to refer to it later when it’s most useful. I have included all the tools that I have relied on to navigate the many bumps along the way. Some I had to put effort into, some were intuitive, and others I just stumbled on by chance.
One thing I know beyond a doubt is that life with a new baby is marked by this wonderfully turbulent and intensely chaotic time that is often scary, and during certain phases, incredibly hard. You will experience a whole range of new feelings. It’s impossible to know how to do all the new things required and get it right every time.
You may never remember those first few weeks after the birth of your baby because you were in survival mode, and that’s okay. There will be plenty of memories and special moments that you’ll experience when you’ve come back to life.
Try to be as present as you can. Or else, it could feel like you’re living in an endless loop of feeds, burps, and naps. Because you’ll experience so many new things, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle and forget how truly amazing it is that you’re alive (I’m being serious). It’s important to be in the moment and take it all in, breathe, and not always be thinking five hundred steps into the future.
Don’t try to be a hero. Go easy on yourself when things don’t go as planned, and don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. Always trust your instincts. Balance your own needs with the needs of your baby. Know that in the future, when you look back at your experience as a new mom, you’ll be proud of yourself and what you have accomplished.
If you have a partner, I strongly encourage you to read or discuss each chapter together. I can guarantee that your bond as a co-parent will be tested. This book can be used as a neutral source to introduce ideas that can be talked through. No matter what kind of relationship you have with your partner, thinking about the new aspects of parenthood that will be covered in this book and keeping clear lines of communication open will undoubtedly be of great benefit to both of you. Actually, I’ll go one step further and include a message directed at your partner below. Please have them read it!
Oh hello, you! You may not be the one physically giving birth or away from work yourself, and therefore not everything in this book will apply to you specifically. However, there’s still a great deal of practical advice that you can apply during the maternity leave of your partner. You might also benefit from reading the advice as a way of thinking about the challenges that a new mother encounters during maternity leave, which can make the individual experiences feel shared between you and your partner. Trust me when I say that you’ll be thrust into situations that go beyond your wildest imagination, and it’ll be useful to have some guidance on how to weather them with more ease and support.
Excerpt From
Matleisure
Emily Malloy
This material may be protected by copyright.
As authors of self help guides go, Emily Malloy has pretty much everything you need to make a good book, great. A Canadian advertising professional with fifteen years of experience, bachelor in economics under her belt and a mother of two. Malloy uses her experience in the latter category to pen her recent publication, Matleisure: Maternity Leave Survival Guide & The Art of Enjoying It (hereafter Matleisure).
Matleisure covers a wide range of topics for expectant mothers, from monetary finances to the importance of building a community and nutrition nourishment. The book's tone of voice is informal in approach yet informative, with Malloy providing plenty of hints and tips throughout from her own personal experiences of going through maternity leave. There are even some handy recommendations in a bonus section at the end, including several recipes that are both healthy and easy to make (recipes you do not need to be pregnant to enjoy!) The formatting of the book is also complimentary, with chapters kept to a reasonable length and the font adjusted to an appropriate size for easy reading.
Even if the arrival of a child is the bringer of ultimate highs and bottomless lows, Malloy's guidance helps steer parents through the fog and out the other side. Matleisure demystifies many of the false expectations and ideals of parental life, encouraging parents to embrace and enjoy this time in their lives. For some topics where an intermediary may be required, Malloy helpfully provides contact information of third party charities and services (some of these are tailored toward American and Canadian audiences, however for the most part Matleisure has universal appeal).
Matleisure is a very easy-going read and one that is highly commendable. When it comes to navigating the world of maternity leave, this book does it all.
AEB Reviews