Most new moth­ers bring their infants to the doc­tor but ignore any dis­tress­ing feel­ings or sen­sa­tions they might them­selves have — that sense of being ​“rat­tled” at many moments through­out the day and night. Dr. Nicole Pen­sak is here to reas­sure us that being ​“rat­tled” is nor­mal; and not at all sur­pris­ing. After all, seis­mic changes in iden­ti­ty and emo­tion have occurred. Research shows that a woman’s brain shifts in real, bio­log­i­cal ways very quick­ly after giv­ing birth. Many women become hyper­vig­i­lant, for good rea­son: the brain is telling her to stay alert because she has a human to keep alive and safe. While these brain­pow­er boosts can cause anx­ious feel­ings, they can also help to man­age the dis­tress and har­ness the advan­tages of the post­par­tum brain. In fact, this is a time of neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, when the brain is more recep­tive to pos­i­tive rein­force­ment. Dr. Pen­sak pro­vides prac­ti­cal and emo­tion­al sup­port, help­ing to relieve the anx­i­ety and pres­sure for per­fec­tion in moth­er­hood and paving the way for a bet­ter begin­ning for fam­i­lies and babies. She dis­cuss­es men­tal health treat­ment and the upside of ther­a­py dur­ing this chang­ing time, and offers acces­si­ble sci­en­tif­ic infor­ma­tion, relat­able anec­dotes, and strate­gies for self-care. The result is a reas­sur­ing and prac­ti­cal hand­book that new moth­ers and their fam­i­lies will refer to time and again.