Post Partum Oppression

Stop trying to get me down, mommies of the world! I had some great advice from one of my patients the other day. She is 9 weeks post partum and was very friendly and asking me the usual questions - when am I due? do I know what I'm having? how am I feeling? Then she told me not to listen to all the negativity that also accompanies those conversations - "glad you're feeling good now, because you'll never sleep again after you have that baby!" Or "enjoy that baby while it's in your belly, it's easy to take care of in there!" Then there's all the things said about labour "oh it hurts so much, you have NO idea!" and my favorite, as I'm planning on a drug-free natural birth: "you'll never be able to do it! You should just get the epidural!!" The patient said thinking about all those things had her absolutely terrified to meet her newborn. How awful! I'm sure there are truths to these statements...but how to take the fun out of my looking forward to meeting this baby and being a new mom! I realize that my sleep will be interrupted (but it already is), I realize that we will have big adjustments, I realize that we will lose a lot of our "freedom", especially at the beginning...but trust me - we thought about this long and hard and knew all of this before we got pregnant. I'm looking forward to the challenges that motherhood brings, but I know there will be lots of rewards too. So yes - I know I will be tired, I know I will be moody, I know I will lose some freedom...but I also get to be a mom.

Taken from Off The Mark

I do still have a sense of humor about everything... :)