Messages For A New Mum
From one new mum to another — This book is like a warm hug from a best friend.
The Motherhood is a collection of letters to themselves written by Mums all around Australia. The realness of these stories was immensely comforting. I giggled every few pages, I teared up more than once. This book made me feel seen, understood, it gave me assurance, comfort and acknowledgment. It made me realise I wasn’t a monster for the thoughts I had during my postnatal depression — “Remember that time you wanted to throw your baby off the balcony? That wasn’t you, that was depression”.
If you’re in the depths of those first 12 weeks (or even first 6 months), send your partner or mum or friend out to pick this up for you. Here are some of my favourite lines 🤍
Babies are balls of pure instinct. All they need from you is for you to love them and feed them and change them and keep them warm and make them feel safe. You are their normal.
pg 32
You’ll see her seeing you, cognisant that you see her epicentre and she is yours. She will smile and you will beam. She will giggle and your eyes will moisten with joy. And that’s all within the next few weeks, I promise.
pg 46
You have to reprogram your brain. Learn to structure your time around your baby’s unpredictable feeding and nap times, rather than a schedule. Learn to get comfortable not ‘achieving’ anything by the end of the day. Try to ignore your craving for stimuli in the form of a new email or an article or the satisfaction of crossing something off a to-do list. Become familiar with feeling ineffective and out of your depth.
pg 63
Being home is easier right now. Going out is scary and challenging and overwhelming and, while you feel isolated and alone sometimes, you also need to take care of you.
pg. 169
The days are long but the years are short
Can you believe that your love for him actually continues to grow? The only way is up. He will kiss your nose and hold you tight. He will sing and dance and crack you up on the daily.
pg 170
You will have days where it all seems too much, where the house is chaotic and the kids have been crying all day. But you will also have boundless amounts of joy and cuddles and kisses and the love that will beam out of your four children - right into you- will fix the hardest days and weeks, I promise.
pg 173
Go gently with your heart and give yourself time and space to heal.
pg 185
One day you’ll see the weird and surprising truth that all the mothers you love, all the women you look up to and see as fierce warriors wrapped in warm softness, full of wisdom and patience and the truest love, the ones who look after everyone and keep us all alive - you’re totally one of them.
pg. 187
I look forward to getting to know my baby. That slow, fascinating emergence of personality and traits that are somehow surprising but, at the same time, not. This long getting-to-know-you period of trying eachother on for size. All this with an unknown goal and destination. For me, babyhood and childhood really is just a long period of getting to know eachother.
pg 193
It won’t be perfect. And that’s okay. You’re human. You’re impatient, over-protective at times, terrible without sleep and prone to anxiety. Sometimes you focus so much on getting everything ‘right’ that there’s no room left for fun, for okay. I want you to keep meditating and staying in the moment. Practice gratitude and open your heart. You’ll reap the reward a thousand times over. Trust me on this one.
pg 199
Your labour was extended and traumatic, and it’s okay to say that. It’s okay that you feel fragile. After what you went through, there is no way you could feel any other way. From the future, I’m happy to assure you that you will never have another labour like it. And, despite what you are thinking in this moment, you will choose to go through labour again. Twice.
pg 216