If you want to publish it on a wide scale (as in selling into bookshops etc), the best bet is to work out your target audience and then contact a publisher who prints/distributes in that genre. eg - Hay House publish self help books, Scholastic publish children's books. You're best going with a small publisher I think, because the bigger ones need an agent representing you, and then an agent doesn't usually take on anyone who's not published. It's a vicious circle.

You can self-publish and do the hard yards yourself. But that means a fair amount of money spent with no guarantee of sales. Bookshops may take the book, but only on a sale-or-return basis - what they don't sell, they give back to you. Lots of legwork because you need to go into the bookshops yourself (they generally won't stock something unless they see it) and often very little result.

You can get it printed yourself and get it distributed through a publishing house who represent self-printed authors. Places like Dennis Jones do this, or they have names of publishers who do it. But again, it's money you need to spend up front.

The other thing I'm aware of is that a while ago Penguin was allowing authors to send through their work at certain times of year, without an agent. There was something on their FB page about it, where they opened it up for anyone to have a shot. They do all the work for you, print, publish and distribute. So that might be an avenue worth taking.

If it was me, I'd probably work out exactly what you want to achieve. Who's hands do you want the book to go into? It it for parents in hospitals going through the same thing? Or more on a mass market scale? If it's mass market, then I'd call a couple of smaller publishers (because they tend to be more willing to talk to you than the big ones) and see what advice they give you. Good luck!