No new mom should spend too much time alone
Becoming a mother is one of the greatest blessings that Nature can offer to us human beings. Finally becoming the parents of a child fills both mom and dad with joy, yet in the society we live in today no one tells us outright that fatherhood, and even more so, motherhood is by no means a walk in the park, and that parents must prepare themselves to live a period of great joy, but also of doubts, stress, suffering and inner pain...
via Women's Health
For every seemingly perfect motherhood experience, the specter of postpartum depression is always around the corner. This syndrome mostly affects mothers in the first months, or even the first years, of the child's life and is characterized by a psycho-physical exhaustion combined with thoughts and beliefs of not being up to the parental task, which may lead to a sense of rejection and coldness towards one's child.
The reality is that the child, especially in the first year of life, does not see the mother as the person who infuses him with love, affection and protection. The emotions and feelings that the baby feels have nothing to do with it; they act only to satisfy their basic needs, and for this reason they see their mother as the one who can asuage them immediately.
We are not implying that a baby a few months old acts in a deliberately selfish way, it's simply that they have not yet developed the emotional and cognitive skills to recognize the needs of others and not just their own. Consequently, a mother can feel more and more "swallowed up" by the needs of the little one, gradually ceasing to feel like a woman and coming to see herself only as a full-time mother with no more space (mental or physical) for herself.
For this reason it is essential that a new mother suffering from postpartum depression is surrounded by a secure network of support and affection that can help her to take care of her own needs, never letting her be or feel too alone: a helping hand, a relative who can come home to help her with chores, or simply a familiar face who can sit close to her and listen to her outbursts, her frustrations, her doubts and her fears.
No new mom should ever be alone or feel abandoned. Never.
