And the Birth is Just The Beginning...

She didn’t know that the birth was ONLY the beginning.

This picture was taken a couple of hours after Jazz was born at home back in 2008, you can see she’s still just wrapped in an old towel and I look high from all the oxytocin. 

Exhausted, euphoric, shocked and amazed all in the same moment. With no idea what an epic journey was ahead of me.

I found the first few months of Motherhood both blissful and very challenging. I adored my little baby but found her constant demands frazzling. I found my new great big wide emotions frightening. No one had warned me that I’d feel SO MUCH!!! She breastfed every 1-3 hours through the night for about six months, which is perfectly normal but the sleep deprivation made me delirious, paranoid and sometimes furious. I JUST WANTED TO SLEEP.

None of my friends or sister had children then - some of them still don’t, and my Mother was a few hours away. I’m sure it’s the same story for many many other New mothers all across the western world living in bubbles in the City.

But we aren’t designed to mother in isolation. It causes anxiety and depression. NEW MOTHERS NEED MOTHERING. You need a community close by for daily love, reassurance and company. A friend to say that everything IS OKAY... this is the normal rhythm of things, time will pass and everything will settle. Someone to hold you with compassion. 

If you’re expecting your first baby build your community now.

Attend groups and classes and courses and drop ins..... and whatever you enjoy so that you have a solid tribe of women who are sharing the same moment with you.

Surround yourself with Mothers and Mothers To Be in Pregnancy, let your Mother, Sister, Friend come and stay with you when your partner goes back to work.

Don’t be alone. We are meant to do this together.