Motherly acquired Motherhood Understood, continuing our mission of providing a woman-centered and supportive community for mothers. We are leaning into telling personal essays from mothers as a way that we learn, connect and feel less alone. Centered on the perspectives of maternal mental health, these stories are intended to help moms feel validated and seen.
The poem in this picture has meant so much to me over the last few years. I get emotional every time I read it. I hold my head high and feel so thankful I found it.
This wasn’t normal. A mother should have so much love for her child. She should know what to do, and when to do it. She shouldn’t dread when he would wake up to eat. She shouldn’t dread living her life in two hour time frames. And she shouldn’t hate herself for it. But yet I did.
I had what I thought to be normal baby blues. I had a hard time looking at pictures of my son from the previous week because I felt he was growing up too fast. I cried all the time.
I believed that if I just did this one thing, like the sleep coach or the sleep expert in the books said, and if I could just get him on this schedule, then it would fix everything.
I was disconnected from the baby and her kicking made me furious. Isolation and shame overwhelmed me. Where was this pregnancy glow I had been promised?
