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Over the years of working as a NICU Family Support Specialist, I spent a lot of time meeting with mom's and families who were in the hospital in the family birthing unit on high risk pregnancy bedrest. During my visits with them, I regularly heard them share feelings of stress, fear, anxiety and isolation. Those feelings were typically escalated when the family had children at home; children that needed their mom and all of a sudden had a LOT of questions about why she wasn't at home. Providing psychosocial support to families experiencing pregnancy bedrest was a very rewarding part of my work, and I have created a safe on-line community to bring families together so help reduce the fear, stress anxiety and isolation that many of them feel. (visit our Families page to learn more). But one area that was always a struggle was helping families navigate how to manage life with other children at home. I desperately wished I could give them a tangible tool that would help them explain to the young children in their family what was going on and help them better grasp the reason why mom had to be in the hospital. There just wasn't a good product out there to use though.  That is until the book "Stuck in Bed: the pregnancy bed rest picture book for kids.... and mom" came along! This book, authored by Jennifer Degl and Angela Davids is all about pregnancy bedrest written from a child'd perspective. The main child in the book asks questions to their mom who answers questions with optimism and hope, while highlighting that while things will be different for a while, there are still fun activities the two of them can do together. What I love about this book is that it also provides great reassurance and survival tips for mom! It truly is a resource that benefits both mom and child, and really any family member that reads the book. It helps the reader look at bedrest in a more positive light. The book has brought such comfort to so many families since I have been able to provide this as a resource to them, and I have loved watching the discussions it has started between moms and their children. This book would be a GREAT resource for any hospital to have available to give antepartum patients that have children, or it would make a perfect gift for any mom that is placed on bedrest during her pregnancy that already has children. We can't recommend this book enough! Purchase your copy here.
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