Postpartum emotional support
You’re a new mom, and you’re overwhelmed. Taking care of a baby while your hormones are off-kilter, and you’re getting less sleep, is a lot to manage. But you can do it, and we’re here to help.
Presented by
WHAT'S COVERED IN THIS GUIDE
- Welcome to motherhood
- The journey of becoming a mother
- Self-care matters
- Common mood changes
- Making sense of the baby blues
- Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs)
- Wellness toolkit
- Getting help
Welcome to motherhood
This transition is exhilarating, exhausting, confusing, amazing, and overwhelming. Just about every feeling in the book is fair game. No matter where you are in the postpartum timeline, you could probably use a little emotional support. After all, you just had a baby, and your entire life has been turned upside down. Your body just went through a major life event, and now you have this tiny human (or maybe humans!) to take care of.
You may have assumed a new identity: mother. Or perhaps you’re fitting a newborn into an existing family structure with an older child (or children). Regardless of your situation, chances are you’re feeling pulled in even more directions than you thought possible.
Although every mom’s journey is unique, moms share many similar experiences. You’re not alone—and although it might not feel normal, what you’re experiencing is common.
This emotional-support guide is designed to help you understand some common mood changes you might be experiencing and navigate your transition to motherhood. You’ll also learn how to spot the baby blues, or tell if you might be dealing with a perinatal mood or anxiety disorder (PMAD). Wherever you are in this journey, you’ll find the tools you need to support your emotional well-being.
The journey of becoming a mother
No matter how many guides you read, the transition to motherhood is not something you can learn about in a book. Becoming a mother is a process with a learning curve.
Childbirth doesn’t magically transform you into the best mom you can be. Motherhood is a journey filled with milestones and stages. The early, unfamiliar days can be especially challenging. You’re basically taking on a new job with a steep and ceaseless learning curve. You learn as you go—and just as the newest beautiful, surprising, or hilarious thing happens with your baby, your job may change altogether.
“Motherhood is a lifestyle change, and change can be scary. Change can also be beautiful and empowering. Try to sit back and enjoy the moment,” says Chris Raines, a perinatal psychiatric nurse practitioner in Durham, N.C.
Becoming a mother: The feelings
Motherhood inspires a full spectrum of emotions, especially during the early postpartum days. You might feel overwhelmed and taken aback by the intensity or unpredictability of your feelings. It’s OK—you’ve never done this before. Your hormones are also rebalancing to pre-pregnancy levels, which can contribute to mood swings and unexpected emotions like anxiety and guilt.
If you’re experiencing new or more volatile feelings, or you just generally feel off at times, don’t sweat it. This is common and expected. Welcome to motherhood. It’s a new job—one that’s tough but awesome.
Household changes
Whether you’ve just had your first, second, or seventh child, it’s a new experience. And if you’ve had multiples, you’re likely dealing with logistical challenges that require on-the-spot judgment calls. The job description changes with each promotion (read: new child).
A baby creates a ripple effect in the house, and it may be hard to predict how those ripples will impact you. If you have older children, they may be able to help you with the new arrival and ease the transition. Siblings may also experience anxiety, anger, or confusion—and negative changes in behavior—in response to a new member of the family.
It might be a good idea to allow older children to help bathe or diaper the baby. If your older children want to help, you could give them roles such as laying out the fresh diaper, pulling out a wipe, or caressing the baby’s head.
“When you say no, it makes them want to do it all the more. By saying yes, they feel they are part of the team and taking on the role of a team member, making it less likely they will become jealous,” Raines says. Of course, “once they have helped once or twice, they really don’t want to do it anymore. Kinda like reverse psychology.”
Chris Raines
Perinatal psychiatric nurse practitionerOr maybe you’re the one struggling, and not any other siblings, because you cannot devote equal time to parenting all your children while there’s a newborn in the house. Or you just feel as though you’re being pulled in a million different directions. With time and communication among family members (especially between you and your partner), you’ll find a new rhythm.
Work changes
Resources—yours, your partner’s, and any family or friends who have been helping you—need to be considered and negotiated. And the return to work after parental leave, if it applies to you or your partner, can be logistically and emotionally challenging. After all, if parenting is a full-time job, how do you go back to the very different full-time job that’s waiting for you?
For other women, the adjustment to motherhood can be clarifying. Perhaps you don’t miss your job as much as you thought you might during leave, or you feel as though you’ve found your new mission in life and decide not to return to work at all. Or perhaps you assumed that you would stay home once the baby came, but you’re feeling an unexpected tug to return to work. Maybe you really have to go back to work for financial reasons, and you feel guilty or sad about leaving your baby with someone else. It’s helpful to talk about this with your partner and discuss a way to ease back into work.
Sleep changes
Lack of sleep steals a bit of our ability to have perspective. Sometimes, when you’re in the midst of what feels like chaos, it’s tough to visualize a not-too-distant reality where you (and your baby) are more rested.
Becoming a mother is a shock to the system, but what might initially feel like a freewheeling emotional experience usually starts to stabilize after three months. Unsurprisingly, it often happens when you’re at your wits’ end…and suddenly your baby starts to sleep through the night! That may seem like a dream, but it will become a reality.
Changes in expectations
Your experience of motherhood thus far may not be what you thought it would be. It rarely is, so you’re not alone in that regard. It’s normal to feel kind of weird about it, to have mixed emotions, or to be worried that you’re not bonding with your baby. Contrary to what pop culture and social media might have you believe, bonding doesn’t always happen as soon as your child is born. And that is totally OK.
The journey of becoming a mother comes with challenges and changes, but also a new reservoir of problem-solving skills. Its most special gift, however, is that it can expand your capacity for love in ways you may not have imagined, while offering you a whole new way of seeing the world. And this, too, can make you feel joyful, inspired, or even awestruck.
Postpartum self-care matters
Stress, guilt, and anxiety. Everyone experiences these unpleasant emotions, and during motherhood, they’re all the more common, says Chris Raines, a perinatal psychiatric nurse practitioner. These are normal responses to big changes in your life. For moms of newborns in particular, these feelings can arise and coexist in varying degrees of intensity. So what can mothers do to manage these emotions?
Raines talks about motherhood as a job. “In every job, there are things you like and things you don’t like, and that is why it is important to have a ‘break’ away from your job. Motherhood is no different, and this break is called self-care,” she says. “People talk about self-care like it’s selfish, but it’s really just about taking care of yourself.”
Self-care is crucial
Jen Schwartz, a postpartum mental-health advocate and founder of Motherhood Understood, says taking care of yourself is crucial. She sums it up simply: “If Mom’s not OK, how is anyone OK?”
Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish, even if—and especially if—you’re in the early days of motherhood. It’s about attending to your real needs so you can better take care of your baby and family. As the airline safety videos advise: Put on your own oxygen mask before your child’s.
That’s easier said than done, right? Taking a personal day to focus on yourself is simply not an option for most women—and it’s not necessarily the point.
Self-care is up to you—not your partner or mother-in-law—to define, Raines says. “What do you do to renew your resilience or relax?” she asks. “If taking five minutes alone with a cup of tea to recenter yourself helps, then this is your definition of self-care.” So, instead of viewing self-care as a day at the spa, think of it as prioritizing your real needs. A few potential ways of doing that:
- Taking five minutes to recalibrate by focusing on your breathing, going outside, or lying down.
- Protecting your time, energy, and thoughts. Figuring out what your limits are—and saying no to things that exceed them.
- Going for a walk.
- Letting go of expectations of a spotless house with empty laundry baskets.
- Asking someone else to go grocery shopping so you can take a nap.
It may indeed seem radical to ask someone to run an errand for you so you can sleep, but sleep is important! Think about how much you got last night.
“Sleep loss can make all these emotions feel so much more intense,” Raines says. “Working on sleep habits can go a long way in reducing these feelings of anxiety, or feeling like you are doing something wrong. Remember: There are many right ways to do things—and very few wrong ways.”
You know self-care is working when your anxiety and stress levels feel manageable, and you don’t feel guilty about taking care of your needs. “We are human beings; we cannot be ‘on’ all the time,” Raines says. You need a break from your job, and self-care is taking that break.
Common postpartum mood changes
When you have a baby, big adjustments take place in your body and your life that can impact how you feel in all kinds of ways. If you’re noticing more frequent mood changes during the postpartum period, you’re not alone.
“Noticeable shifts in mood are so common postpartum that you can’t put a number on how many women experience them. Simply put, every woman is going to have an emotional response before and after childbirth, and some will experience it more often and more strongly than others,” says Chris Raines, a perinatal psychiatric nurse practitioner. She helps us sort out why mood changes happen after giving birth and offers tips to work through them.
What are some mood changes you can have following childbirth?
Having a baby is a big step. It can feel scary, unsettling, and confusing. These emotions are normal responses to this significant life change. After all, you have taken on the responsibility of another human being! Having a child can also be exciting and joyous. You might even notice your thoughts fluctuate between positive and negative emotions: fear and excitement, joy and anxiety.
“Such mood changes are typical, especially during the early days of motherhood,” Raines says. The most common emotional changes her patients have described in the first months with their baby include:
- Suddenly crying, seemingly for no reason
- Feeling calm one minute and anxious the next
- Irritability due to minor (or unnoticeable) triggers
- Feeling overwhelmed by new responsibilities as a mother
- Feeling irrational fear, loneliness, or sadness
Why causes postpartum mood changes?
It’s not always easy to pinpoint exactly what’s behind a woman’s emotional shifts after having a child. That’s because every mother’s experience, circumstances, and reaction to becoming a mother is unique. Multiple factors often influence mood changes, and knowing some of the more common factors may help a new mother cope:
- A history of mood changes during certain phases of the menstrual cycle: If you typically become moody around your menstrual cycle, this predisposition may contribute to whatever mood instability you experience after delivery. Your body might just be more sensitive to overall hormonal changes.
- Family: The genes you inherit, alongside your childhood experiences, can impact how you respond to childbirth and motherhood. “Your experiences dealing with strong emotions in childhood, for example, might impact how well you’re able to cope with emotional changes during early motherhood,” Raines says.
- Indirect factors related to early parenting can exacerbate mood changes. If you’re not getting enough sleep, or don’t have time to exercise regularly while caring for your newborn, it can make you more prone to emotional triggers and more sensitive in general.
Tips for coping with mood changes
So if you’re in the beginning postpartum days and are experiencing mood shifts, what can you do to manage them? Raines says certain measures are helpful in the days and weeks after delivery, and it all comes down to self-care. “We cannot be ‘on’ all the time; we need breaks. Those breaks are self-care.” This means getting enough of the following:
- Rest and sleep
- Movement
- Support from family and friends
- Nutrients (preferably through a healthy diet, but adding vitamins can help fill in any gaps in your diet)
- Guidance from a trained perinatal mental-health professional
References
1 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1521693413001338?via%3Dihub
Making sense of the baby blues
The first couple of weeks after childbirth can be disorienting, with your emotions feeling like they’re on a roller coaster. Are you feeling extra emotional? Tearful? Elated one minute, sad the next? Are you exhausted and feeling challenged by simple tasks?
If this is you, you might have what’s known as the “baby blues.” Up to 80 percent of moms will experience negative feelings or mood swings after giving birth1, making it a very common experience. These symptoms typically last for two to three weeks following delivery and resolve with no need for medical intervention. Fortunately, baby blues shouldn’t impact your ability to take care of your baby.
80%
Up to 80 percent of moms experience baby blues2.
Symptoms of the baby blues
The baby blues can be characterized by a range of symptoms, including insomnia, anxiety, restlessness, sadness, and irritability3. Crying spells are another symptom of the baby blues: You may hear other mothers describe this as “crying for no reason in particular.”
It’s OK to be emotional. You just brought a human being into the world!
What causes the baby blues?
You can thank your hormones for how you’re feeling. When you were pregnant, your hormone levels surged to help you maintain a healthy pregnancy, but then took a nosedive once the baby arrived. This nosedive can drastically affect your mood. Struggling to find an equilibrium while dealing with major life changes and fluctuating hormone levels is enough to make anyone feel stressed and weepy.
How to manage the baby blues
The baby blues typically resolve on their own, once your body adjusts to these big physiological shifts. Symptoms typically come and go over the course of a day. If you find yourself suddenly feeling low for no specific reason, try to remember that your body is experiencing a lot of big changes in the early weeks, and that your current emotional state will pass.
Self-care is especially important at this time. It’s about meeting your own needs alongside your child’s—and not feeling bad about asking for help!
Certain nutrients may also help your body ward off the baby blues. Studies show that EPA and DHA, two types of Omega-3 fatty acids, may reduce the risks of postpartum depression4. Many prenatal vitamins include Omega-3s, but you can talk to your doctor about other ways to work them into your diet during your pregnancy and postpartum months.
If your symptoms don’t resolve within a few weeks postpartum, or they seem to be getting worse, you may be dealing with a perinatal mood or anxiety disorder (PMAD), rather than the baby blues. PMADs are also fairly common, with more than 15 percent of women experiencing deeper feelings of depression, anxiety, and sleep changes after the birth of their child5.
Only a trained health care professional can diagnose a PMAD, so if you’re dealing with prolonged, severe, or increasingly challenging issues, reach out to your doctor. This postpartum mood quiz may also help you determine whether you’re experiencing the baby blues, or something more serious:
How are you feeling? Learn more about whether your emotional state is normal, or if something more serious may be going on.
Take our postpartum mood quiz (PDF)
Get help from Postpartum Support International
PSI helps women and families detect, understand, and seek treatment for mental-health issues during the postpartum period.
Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs)
If you’re experiencing the baby blues, but your symptoms feel severe or last longer than a few weeks after childbirth, it’s worth talking to your health care provider. It’s possible that you’re not experiencing baby blues at this point, but rather a perinatal mood or anxiety disorder (PMAD).
Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders are rare.
What are PMADs?
For many years, the common term used for perinatal emotional disorders has been “postpartum depression.”2 However, postpartum depression is not the only mental-health disorder affecting women before and after childbirth.
Sometimes mothers are suffering from anxiety more than depression (although they can and do exist in tandem). The medical community now uses the term “perinatal mood and anxiety disorders” to encompass the entire spectrum of emotions women may feel during and after pregnancy3. PMADs can include feelings of depression, but also anxiety, irritability, and even rage.
1 in 8
In the United States, about 1 in 8 women experience symptoms of postpartum depression4.
Who’s at risk for developing a PMAD?
Certain risk factors, including pre-existing mental-health conditions, can increase your likelihood of experiencing a mood disorder during the perinatal period5. That said, it’s possible to find yourself struggling with a PMAD, even if you have never had a mood disorder.
“It’s good to know whether you’re at higher risk for experiencing a PMAD, but it’s also important to remember that mood and anxiety disorders can happen to anyone,” says Chris Raines, a perinatal psychiatric nurse practitioner who’s been treating families for 20 years. “It’s completely possible for someone with no previous mental-health conditions to find themselves struggling for the first time after having a child.”
30-35%
Women with a history of depression, anxiety disorders, or serious mood disorders are 30 to 35 percent more likely to develop postpartum depression6.
How do I know if I have a PMAD?
PMADs can be tricky to diagnose. Each woman’s experience with pregnancy and becoming a mother is unique, and it’s not always easy to know whether what you’re experiencing is normal or a cause for concern.
To further complicate things, the symptoms for PMADs can vary widely, from feelings of confusion to sleep disturbances. A health care professional is the only person qualified to diagnose a PMAD. This resource can help you determine whether it’s time to reach out to your doctor for help:
How are you feeling? Learn more about whether your emotional state is normal, or if something more serious may be going on.
Take our postpartum mood quiz (PDF)
Treating PMADs
There are options when it comes to treating PMADs, and the specific course of treatment will depend on a number of factors, including your personal health history, the type of PMAD you’re dealing with, and the severity and duration of your symptoms. A doctor can provide you with a diagnosis and treatment plan.
“It is common to use the Internet to try and self-diagnose, or try to ‘wait it out.’ However, this can actually make matters worse,” Raines says. “If you are experiencing a PMAD, at the end of the day, only a professional trained in perinatal mental health can tell you what’s happening and how to effectively manage it.”
Treatment plans may be as simple as peer-to-peer support and educating yourself on what is happening. It can also include therapy or medication.
PMADs can sound scary, but it’s important to remember that they’re common—and the result of all the big changes you’re experiencing. Labor, hormonal shifts, identity shifts, and sleep deprivation are just a few of the things you’re coping with, and these stressors can trigger responses in the body that we can’t always predict.
Paying attention to your symptoms, and knowing when to seek support, can get you on the road to feeling better, faster. So be sure to prioritize your health during these busy weeks and months.
Get help from Postpartum Support International
PSI helps women and families detect, understand, and seek treatment for mental-health issues during the postpartum period.
References
1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7077785/pdf/nihms-1571137.pdf
2 https://everymothercounts.org/on-the-front-lines/name-it-to-tame-it-why-pmad-is-replacing-postpartum-depression/
3 https://everymothercounts.org/on-the-front-lines/name-it-to-tame-it-why-pmad-is-replacing-postpartum-depression/
4 https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/depression/index.htm
5 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25678171/
6 https://www.postpartumdepression.org/resources/statistics/
Postpartum wellness toolkit
As a human being, it’s impossible to completely avoid anxiety; physiologically, it keeps us safe. And during those first weeks and months after childbirth, new moms are bound to encounter some degree of anxiety. Regardless of where you are in your postpartum journey, there are many ways to elevate your mood. Many of them are easy and don’t require gym memberships or special tools.
Here are some of our favorite ways to nip those feelings in the bud, seek some relaxation, and involve others when it feels needed.
Try meditation
Meditation is a science-backed way to reduce stress and improve your well-being, and it’s easy to integrate into a daily routine—even one that feels like a moving target during these postpartum days. You might worry that you won’t be able to tune out your racing mind, but meditation is really about creating a deeper connection between your mind and body. It may sound esoteric, but you can feel calmer by meditating just a few minutes a day.
FROM OUR PARTNERS AT EXPECTFUL
Listen to these meditations
Feeling off-balance? Regain your equilibrium
Listen to this Expectful meditation (10 mins)
When we are emotionally overwhelmed, we are out of balance. Notice how your body feels. Do your thoughts race? Are your neck and shoulders holding tension? Maybe you feel light-headed or unfocused. These feelings aren’t a permanent state. To regain balance, we need to take deep breaths. Come back to center with this meditation by concentrating on some deep breathing.
Feeling super stressed? Seek support
Listen to this Expectful meditation (10 mins)
Sometimes we feel like we should be able to do it all. It can be hard to ask for help, even—and sometimes especially—when we need it most. This meditation will help you feel your way through the process of finding help. You, your baby, and your family are more supported than you realize.
Overwhelmed? Seek stillness
Listen to this Expectful meditation (5 mins)
Motherhood can feel overwhelming. You may feel uncertain about who you are, now that you are responsible for this tiny creature. It may feel hard to find time to process it all, but remember that you are a human being. Take a few moments with this meditation to sit and allow yourself to feel whatever you feel. Be. Breathe. Realize that there is an amazing transformation happening right now.
Move your body
One very easy way to deal with anxious feelings is to literally move them through your body. A study in the journal Medicina1 found that for postpartum women, exercise “can be an essential factor in the prevention of depressive disorders.”
During your first few postpartum weeks, you likely will be cleared for walking—and nothing more strenuous. Walking is one of the best things you can do to keep you present and rooted in your body while you are recuperating. But other types of movement are also good. On days when you don’t have a lot of time to exercise, dancing in the kitchen (with or without your baby, with or without your favorite song) is a good option.
Go outside
Many women feel so isolated during the early part of motherhood that getting outside, even if it’s just for 5 to 10 minutes, or to walk to the mailbox and back, can reduce anxiety. If the weather is welcoming, take your movement outside, and get some “green exercise.” A review of studies found that when compared with exercising indoors, green exercise “was associated with greater feelings of revitalization and positive engagement; decreases in tension, confusion, anger, and depression; and increased energy.”2
Eat something good for you
Whether it’s a smoothie full of greens, berries, and plant-based powder, or a quick snack of protein and carbohydrates—cheese and crackers, peanut butter on an apple—these foods are important for your healing. And guess what? Dark chocolate can help. It’s a food whose sweetness and richness brings you right into the present moment. Research3 suggests that chocolate with 85 percent cacao can help elevate your mood just by eating it—and it’s good for your gut4, to boot.
Breathe deeply
The key to quick relaxation is to gain control over your breath. Try one of these two simple ways:
- Start with something called square breathing. Inhale and count to four, and then gently hold the breath for a count of four. Exhale to a count of four, and then hold the exhale for a count of four. Repeat as often as necessary, until you feel calmer. This process helps balance the nervous system.
- Don’t want to hold your breath? Another easy way to invite the body’s relaxation response is to make your exhalation longer than the inhalation. Visualize inhaling all good things (relaxation, joy, calmness) while counting to four, and exhale out the negative stuff (stress, confusion, anxiety) to the count of six. Gradually work up to the count of eight so that your exhalation is twice the length of the inhalation.
Get some rest
We all know how important sleep is. But if you’re having trouble calming down, or you’re anxious about your baby, or you’re tired-but-wired, sleep can feel impossible. If napping while the baby sleeps is out of the question, don’t feel bad. You’re not alone. Instead, rest when you can—even if it means just lying down for a little bit on the couch or in your bed, with a blanket and the lights dimmed. You may or may not fall asleep, but the point is to stop doing and just be.
Call on your partner
If you have a partner, you are both tired and are sharing a lot of responsibilities, but without a doubt, extra tasks tend to fall upon the mom. You’ve also just been through childbirth—and recovery takes time! You’ll need some extra support, but you might not even know what you need, or you might feel awkward asking for it.
Ask your partner for help with finding the right therapist, or to set healthy boundaries, if you’re struggling and trying to do too much. Or maybe you need some verbal support—a pep talk about the good job you’re doing, acknowledgement that what is happening is really challenging, or assurance that your partner is wholeheartedly there for you.
Lean on your community
Community support can make a huge difference in your recovery. Beyond working with your partner, your family and/or friends can help you take care of the baby—or take care of you. That might mean watching your baby while you take a shower, or bringing you dinner once a week.
Being geographically separated from your extended family can add more stress. This could mean that you’re missing your mom’s favorite comfort food, or missing an aspect of your cultural background’s unique way of welcoming babies into the world—and moms into motherhood.
Cultural care traditions—from visiting aunties to rotating overnight grandmother caretakers—can increase support and offer early intervention for potential challenges. Being meaningfully connected to your community brings a reduced risk of depression5.
Hire outside help
If you feel like you need it, and you can afford it, you can hire professional support for you and your newborn. You may be familiar with birth doulas; there are also postpartum doulas. Or maybe you’d prefer a baby nurse to help take care of your baby overnight so you and your partner can get more rest. (Ask your pediatrician, obstetrician, or mom friends about baby nurses, also known as night nurses or night doulas. They tend to be referred by word of mouth, though some are listed in the Postpartum Support International directory6.) Finally, you could consider a part- or full-time nanny, or even live-in help, such as an au pair.
It can be hard to know ahead of time whether you think you’ll need help after your baby arrives, but if you need extra support (maybe your family lives far away, or you have client work to attend to, or you have multiple children on different schedules), hiring outside help can be a real boon, if not something that feels like a life-saving investment. Consider asking for professional services as a gift from friends or family who have expressed a desire to help you but are unable to lend a hand in person.
References
1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6780177/
2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK81780/
3 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/486918
4 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955286321002746
5 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6125010
6 https://psidirectory.com
Getting postpartum help
From nonprofit medical organizations to home-based nurses and doulas, these resources can help you get answers, learn more, and connect with local resources.
Get medical support
If you are experiencing any of the following, please immediately seek medical attention by calling 911 or the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at the three-digit dialing code 988:
- Any unexplained pain, bleeding, or unusual symptoms
- Thoughts or feelings of harming yourself or your baby
For non-emergency support from Postpartum Support International1:
- Talk to a trained volunteer 24/7 at the PSI helpline by calling 833-943-5746.
- Find an online support group to meet virtually with moms in your area
- Get local support, and connect with a trained volunteer
- Get help for your partner, including through dad support groups
- Find a culturally specific provider in your area
Find local help
In addition to family and friends, a postpartum doula can assist you with your emotional and physical recovery. These professionals are trained to offer breastfeeding guidance, care for your baby while you nap or shower, make meals, or spend time with other children in the house.
Learn from experts
These books are some of our advisers’ favorite resources on the transition to motherhood, meditation, managing expectations, and even dad survival tips.
You can also check out the PSI library. All resources have been vetted and recommended by perinatal experts.
Hear mom stories
Connecting with other moms to share stories and advice can help you better understand yourself and your baby.
References
1 https://www.postpartum.net