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Motherhood Didn’t End My Dreams — It Fueled Them.
There was a time when I thought motherhood meant you couldn’t have it all. Especially in those early days — the nightly wake-ups, cluster feeding, the endless nappy changes. I grew up thinking that to be a good mother, you had to devote your entire life to your child.
By Diary Of A Modern Mummy 7 months ago in Families
Two homes, Twice the Love: My Journey with Overnight Stays.
“No parent anywhere wants their child to come from what’s typically described as a ‘broken home.’” However, sometimes things are out of our control, and the result can often be that the child is ‘shared’ between parents. This will never be an easy thing to do, but if it is done consciously and with love, the child can feel happiness in both homes.
By Diary Of A Modern Mummy 7 months ago in Families
Postnatal Depression and alternative therapies.
We all know that motherhood comes with its difficulties, the sleepless nights, the overwhelming responsibilities, and the pressure to make it look like we are coping well. What’s rarely spoken about is how much of a toll it can take on the mother's mental health and well-being. A year ago this month I was diagnosed with Postnatal Depression. I had no idea that this was what I was experiencing at the time until I googled my symptoms on the internet. It took me weeks before I was able to pluck up the courage to go to my GP to talk about it. I remember having overwhelming anxiety about admitting how I had been thinking and feeling. I thought to myself, they are going to take my son away from me if I tell them what's going through my head. I felt like a failure at the time and embarrassed to tell anyone. To this day, it is still quite a challenging subject for me to discuss, however, I am aware of how valuable it can be to share our experiences with others. After all, I was searching for other women who had or were experiencing the same thing as me so that I didn’t feel so alone. After speaking with other mums, I soon realised that a lot of what I was thinking and feeling was very common.
By Diary Of A Modern Mummy 10 months ago in Writers
Great guilty mums.
We all have our idea of what self-care means to us, however, once we become a little person’s everything this reality can very quickly and very easily turn into self-neglect. Becoming a parent can challenge us both mentally and physically is not something that we are always quite prepared for.
By Diary Of A Modern Mummy about a year ago in Families
Motherhood and isolation.
There I sat in a class full of other mothers and babies. I’d managed to leave the house today so I could try and attempt to be social after becoming a new mummy. Yet for some reason, at that moment, I felt so alone. I’d find myself avoiding eye contact with others or just looking down at my baby. All the mums just seemed so clicky. It felt like school again. Feeling like an outsider, glaringly obvious that I was different. Or so I felt. Though every week I’d make myself go, for the sake of my baby. He was extremely social from such an early age. I could tell he enjoyed the company of other people because he was so curious and happy to be around them. Here I was, an introverted mother blessed with an extroverted baby.
By Diary Of A Modern Mummy 2 years ago in Humans
Breast chance.
There were so many times I wanted to give up breastfeeding. No one prepared me for how hard it was going to be. Not only is it draining on the body physically and mentally, but it can also be extremely challenging. I wanted to breastfeed exclusively, but my milk took a long time to come through. I decided I didn’t want to give up, so I continued to persevere, hand-expressing colostrum, then small amounts of milk, pumping, nipple shields, and feeding for what felt like around the clock. I was doing everything I could to give him what I never had.
By Diary Of A Modern Mummy 2 years ago in Families
What do I know?
There were only 3 of us on the prenatal ward and it was dark and eerily quiet. With each contraction, I suppressed the pain to try and stay in control of myself. I’d asked for a paracetamol at 8 p.m. and was told they would bring me some. An hour had passed and I’d been completely forgotten about. I pressed the buzzer as the pain began to intensify. “I think I’m in labour, can you check to see if I’ve dilated at all please?” I said. The midwife appeared quite old school so I assumed she was in her late 50s. I already had a feeling I wasn’t going to be taken seriously. “We started your induction at 6 p.m.,” she replied. “We won’t check you again for another 24 hours now.” However, I knew something was happening and I knew my body, so why didn’t she believe me? At around midnight, my waters broke and the same midwife came to check on me, “Oh, you’re 4 cm dilated,” she exclaimed. “I told you!” I said firmly.
By Diary Of A Modern Mummy 2 years ago in Families
Is this your first?
It’s not even been 24 hours since the birth of my son. I shuffle down the corridor, holding my stomach as I imagine the horror of my c-section stitches busting open. I can’t carry anything, not even my newborn baby. So his dad and my sister are there to help. As I exit the postnatal ward after being coerced to leave my bed prematurely, I pass by a midwife who was with me during my labour. She congratulates me and then continues to comment with what I can only assume is some sort of sick joke. “I’ll see you again soon,” she says. I’m so shocked I almost drop to the floor! I tell her that I won’t be doing that again, but she laughs and says, “They all say that, but you’ll be back here in a year I guarantee it!” I can’t help but feel instantly upset by her comment. I guess it’s because I feel like she’s generalising me and I’ve never been one to want to be put into a societal box. I didn’t respond, but at that moment I’m completely unaware of how many more times I would hear comments like this for weeks, months and possibly years to come.
By Diary Of A Modern Mummy 2 years ago in Families
Disney and its unrealistic portrayal of romantic relationships.
ONCE UPON A TIME...Disney set a lot of young and impressionable girls up to fail in future relationships because of its incredibly high, unrealistic, and most importantly ‘magical’ expectations that it used to portray romance and love.
By Diary Of A Modern Mummy 5 years ago in Humans
My RACIST nan.
“My Nan’s racist,” I’d say casually, dropping it into conversation if the conversation led to it. Some people’s reactions were to downplay it or avoid the topic of conversation completely because it made them feel uncomfortable or they did not understand. Others would be shocked and apologetic for such abysmal behaviour. Either way, my nonchalant attitude towards it was always a defence mechanism, a way of guarding myself against something that I would never completely come to terms with myself.
By Diary Of A Modern Mummy 6 years ago in The Swamp
