• Throughout time and around the world, new mothers have followed special protocols of eating warming foods, retreating at home, and resting in the weeks after giving birth in order to recover fully, prevent depletion and anxiety, and ensure a strong start to life with their child. Today these traditions are a lost art, yet are needed more than ever.

  • In a sea of books focused on caring for the baby, The First Forty Days: The Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother shifts the focus. Inspired by global traditions of postpartum care, it shares 60 recipes to replenish the mother after birth and guides her through the changes in her body, psyche, relationships, and home.

  • Crafting this book with Heng Ou and Marisa Belger was a true collective effort. We three mothers circled up around a common goal: to empower women to seek the care and nurturing they deserve after bringing a baby into the world. A fourth friend, photographer Jenny Nelson, captured the spirit of the book with her lens.

Latest From The Blog

It’s here! Awakening Fertility
It’s here! Awakening Fertility
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The sequel–or some would say prequel–to The First Forty Days is born! Four years after that book arrived, establishing an important niche in postpartum care for mothers and selling, frankly, like hotcakes, its sibling has arrived. Awakening Fertility: The Essential Art of Preparing for Pregnancy brings the same spirit of loving guidance—stemming from ancestral traditions merged with... Read More

Red Table Talk
Red Table Talk
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Deep at work on a book that captures the wisdom, the laughter and tears, and the real talk of Ms Jada Pinkett Smith’s super popular Facebook show Red Table Talk for Dial Press. What a treasure chest of genuine, open-hearted and courageous sharing! I’m falling in love with this show and with Jada’s personal spirit and light–and... Read More

NYT Bestseller!
NYT Bestseller!
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So thrilled that Grit & Grace, my project with musical legend Tim McGraw, debuted at the number two slot on the New York Times Best seller list. This book was so much fun to work on, brought together such a superb team of genuinely awesome folks (with Tim at the heart of it) and contains some seriously... Read More

Meghan & F40D
Meghan & F40D
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UK tabloid The Sun may not always be the most reputable source, but in this case we’ll take it! The Duchess of Sussex has (apparently) called our postpartum book “her bible.” We’re thrilled she can help spread the message of dedicated maternal care wider! The article claims, “She was recommended this book, read it, and then sent... Read More

About Amely

Passionate about wellness and personal transformation, Amely is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller, Clean: The Revolutionary Program to Restore Your Body’s Natural Ability to Heal Itself, which has sold over half a million copies worldwide. She has written health and lifestyle books with well-known figures as Tim McGraw, Mariel Hemingway, Dr. Frank Lipman and Nora Gedgaudas and co-launched The First Forty Days franchise devoted to maternal care. Her books have been published by Harper One, Harper Wave, Rodale, Simon & Schuster and others.

A one-time writer for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, Amely also helps some of the world's best-known brands and organizations deliver their messages through copywriting, press material, custom publishing and web copy. Clients include TOM FORD and TOM FORD BEAUTY, Beautycounter, Nike, and the Sustainable Apparel Coalition. Her journalism and personal essays have appeared in magazines such as W.

Amely’s mission is to work with the visionaries at the front edge of the shift in health, sustainability and consciousness. Complementing her writing career, she is a teacher of Vedic Meditation and a Master Teacher of Radiance Healing and Meditation. Amely lives with her husband and daughter in California's Eastern Sierra.