75% of new mothers struggle with anxiety.
SEVENTY FIVE.
It’s time to stop pretending that this is a phenomenon and start treating mothers with Love and Care.
Truth: you might have a beautiful birth story and still have trauma from it.
Truth: you might have had a perfect pregnancy and still feel off.
Truth: you might have a wonderful relationship with your new baby and still have crippling fear.
If we assume behind those eyes that she is “ok,” we are greatly under serving her and the family she is in.
For me, I was afraid to tell people of my crippling anxiety, and I didn’t really have a word for it. I didn’t know I was in the pits of extreme mental issues, and I was afraid to tell people because I didn’t want anyone to think I wasn’t happy to be a new mother.
What I didn’t understand was that I could be a good mother and a happy mother and still struggle with mental health.
And I feel like if anyone had told me that and given me the tools to get through it, I would have been a better mother to my young children. Instead, I struggled, without vocabulary to describe what the struggle was, for years. It started with mental health issues of young adulthood, became paralyzing anxiety and depression postpartum, multiplied by having multiple tiny people in my house, and wasn’t broken until I did a lot of digging on my own.
If mothers have the language and the tools, imagine the healthier, happier homes we could create.
New mother protocol should include:
– actual postpartum medical care
– physical therapy
– mental and emotional therapies
– help with the new baby and existing family
It’s not too much to ask. It’s essential.