Depleted Mothers – Part 1

Image from sheknows.com

Demands of Motherhood

Growing demands on you, the mother, seem sometimes insurmountable given that you have used 80,000 extra calories to bring your fetus to full babyhood.  If you have a deficiency in your diet, nutrients in your body will pull them from you and give it to your baby.  When your baby was born what was harboring it, the placenta, comes out after the birth.  It had been a breeding mill or hormones and now it’s gone and your estrogen and progesterone dropped significantly, which is a contributing factor to post-natal depression.  At the very least, the hormone changes can bounce you around like a rubber ball.

If you choose to breast feed your baby, which is good for you and your baby, another 750-1000 calories are lost. That would be the same as running nearly 10 miles a day.  The milk from the breast is excellent for your child and for you as it keeps your spirits up and it’s loaded with good nutrients.  If you aren’t taking care of your own body and your body is depleting from lack of nutrients, your bodily reserves are constantly being drained.  You could easily work yourself sick.

Well, you’ve gone through a lot giving birth to your baby.  Now it’s time to really work.  For 18 years from now you will be doing hundreds of care taking projects for your child.  You are trying to be attentive to your mate, keep your child safe and happy plus take care of the house and meals.  It is one of the most work-intensive jobs you could ever have.  You still feel you’re not doing enough and that means you have zero time alone with yourself.  This is not a good scenario.  You need to work out another plan to keep yourself up and busy but you can’t live as a full-time babysitter.  You will have no life and your child’s development requires that he/she takes care of some things alone without you.

Besides having all your hours addressing other people’s issues, you are so stressed out that you make yourself ready to have problems relating to that constant stress.  You have been up, down and around for months getting pregnant, working through the pregnancy and bearing your child.  Breast feeding comes with its own set of possible failures.  At the beginning you are not used to your new life and you go from one thing to another, never feeling competent or fulfilled.  When your child grows there will be the childhood illnesses and it will probably be you who has to administer to your child with little help from your mate.  It will be you who is there in the middle of the night with a sick child.  This spells more stress for you and if you have others in your family it skyrockets that depression and stress right to the moon.  Now add a full-time job to your child raising and you are a bomb waiting to explode.  Talk to friends with kids, your mother or go to a counselor to unburden to someone.  There has to be an emergency hatch.  You are not machine to be used by just anyone.

Related posts:

1. Depleted Mothers – Vulnerable Spots in Your Armor of Resilience
2. Depleted Mothers – Thin Soup of Resources
3. Nutritional Health Tips for Moms – Carbohydrates
4. Coping up with Sleep Deprivation
5. Menopause – Depression, Sex, HRT
6. Detoxifying Your Body
7. Preventing Hearth and Blood Vessels Problems
8. Simple Steps to a Healthier Diet – Sugar and Sodium
9. Preventing and Treating Injuries
10. Nutritional Health Tips for Moms – Fiber