Life Without Baby: Surviving and Thriving When Motherhood Doesn't Happen

"What if I never get to be a mother?"

When this doubt first takes hold, it can knock you completely off your feet. You feel cheated, frustrated, and no longer sure of your place in society, your family, or your circle of friends. Now…imagine you could spend time with someone who really understands how you feel, who lets you express all the things that once seemed whiny, self-indulgent, or just plain crazy, and who confides that she once felt that way too.

Life Without Baby founder, Lisa Manterfield, once stood where you are and not only survived, but thrived. Now she shares what she learned from her own experiences and from the women of the community she created. She'll help you:

- Know when it's time to cut your losses and let go of your dream


- Give yourself permission to grieve the loss that few others can truly understand


- Learn some emotional aikido moves to handle social challenges, such as baby showers, Mother's Day, and the dreaded "Do you have kids?" question


- Rediscover your passion and find joy again, without enduring a complete life makeover


- Get pragmatic about aging without children and building a new kind of family

Based on her small-group workshops and popular ebook series, this book offers a combination of hard-won lessons, gentle queries, and real-world suggestions. Manterfield is a comforting and supportive companion who will guide you gently down your own path to making peace with being childfree-not-by-choice and thriving in a new happily ever after.

Praise for Life Without Baby

"Page by page, Lisa holds your hand with gentle, unflinching support, openly sharing her story with you, and giving you permission, guidance, and gentle queries that help in your journey of healing." 
~ Tracey Cleantis, author of The Next Happy: Let Go of the Life You Planned and Find a New Way Forward

"I wish Manterfield's book had been available a decade ago. It would have been a valuable lifeline, a tremendous support at a time there was nothing available for women lost in a maze of fertility treatment promises and murky what ifs." 
~ Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos, author of Silent Sorority

"A comforting book, full of practical help for women who wanted to have children and are trying to move past the overwhelming panic and grief that comes with realizing it's not going to happen. I wish I'd had a book like this when I was 40." 
~ Sue Fagalde Lick, author of Childless by Marriage

"If you're newly coming to terms with this, or if you've been living this life for a decade or more, or if you have a friend or family member you want to help, you will find belonging, food for thought, and further hope for a future, wonderful life without baby." 
~ Linda Rooney, Founder of No Kidding in NZ