Wish ListMotherhood
Motherhood is one of life’s most challenging journeys. It simultaneously holds the potential for great joy and significant pain. It brings changes and shifts, some temporary and some permanent, which can draw on our strengths and play on our weaknesses. We can have days where we feel on top of the world and days where we feel like the world’s worst mother.
This section offers a range of articles to support your motherhood experience. In the article, Five Tips for Managing Your Expectations of Motherhood we briefly explore how having realistic expectations can assist us in being kinder to ourselves. After all, it is often easier to be hard on yourself than it is to be understanding. On that note, in the article So, what do you do? We consider how often women devalue their role as full-time mothers and how this can impact our self-esteem.
Meanwhile, this section also offers an article on mothers’ important role in their children’s speech development, called ‘Motherese’ essential for children’s language development. We also have an article on Postpartum hair loss – are you going bald, and what can you do to stop it? Which explores the worrying pattern of hair loss that can occur after the birth of a baby, how common it is and what you can do about it.
Do you have a story about your experience of motherhood that you would like to share? We are always looking for new content for this page; nothing supports a mother like the words of another. If you have a story to share or would like to suggest a topic you’d like to read more about, please email Pregnancy Birth and Beyond.
Motherhood Articles
Postpartum hair loss – are you going bald, and what can you do to stop it?
Worrying about postpartum hair loss is the last thing you need when you’re adjusting to new motherhood. On top of learning to breastfeed in public, use a baby carrier, and get bub to sleep, why are you losing hair? Could you be going bald? And what can you do about it? How common is postpartum hair loss? If bub is two to four months old and you’re now losing hair by the handful, you’re not alone. About 1 in
Five tips for managing your expectations of motherhood
Be flexible: It is common for mums to struggle with coming to terms with what they planned versus what reality serves up. For example, you may have planned to return to work in 3 months yet circumstances change when bub arrives. Don’t believe the hype: The media portrays a romanticised version of motherhood: Understand that life with a young baby does not look like a Huggies ad! There are amazing moments of joy and bonding yet this is mixed
‘Motherese’ important for children’s language development
Talking to children has always been fundamental to language development, but new research reveals that the way we talk to children is key to building their ability to understand and create sentences of their own. The exaggerated speech we naturally use with young children is a special register – often called ‘motherese’. “We use changes in pitch and rhythm when we talk to children, and we emphasize important words This is what children usually learn and produce first,” says
So, what do you do?
One of the ways in which people have high self-esteem is through their occupation. How you feel about your occupation determines how others will view your occupation. If your occupation is selling ice in Alaska but you spoke with confidence and enthusiasm and believed you were the best ice salesperson in Alaska, then you would certainly be seen by others as being successful. You are also able to answer the ‘So, what do you do’ question with pride as