Just as with our birth stories, our postpartum stories can vary so differently that sharing them opens the eyes of mums and builds a connection, a knowledge that there are others out there going through the same highs and lows.

Sophie attended pregnancy yoga with me and has kindly agreed to share her postpartum story which touches on her physical recovery from birth, support network and breastfeeding journey. And she has some golden nuggets of wisdom to share with other mums finding their new normal.

“When I had my first baby everything was completely new and unknown. I was very lucky to have had friends and sisters who had previously had babies, so I had a bit of an idea, although they had all had very different experiences, some great and some not so great due to different factors affecting their births and aftercare etc.

I think I had fairly positive expectations and hopes (I am generally a very glass half full girl and hypnobirthing had put me in a pretty positive mindset)! Although I was also aware of how tough postpartum could be.

Reality vs Expectations

My reality vs my expectations were a bit of a mixed bag. I was disappointed not to feel as overjoyed and in love with my new baby, as society will lead you to believe is the way you ‘should’ feel! My body and mind took a much bigger battering than I was prepared for, due to a very long and arduous labour. So it took me a while to really soak in all that had happened and feel the immense love for my little one. It did come but it was more of a slow burn rather than a sudden explosion.

I did however feel extremely supported by those around me and that helped to give me extra strength, just knowing that others had been where I was and had gotten through the tough bits, made me feel less alone. The baby blues were a bit of a shock, I had a really hard few days with that and I feel that this isn’t talked about enough, so that mothers don’t feel alone or overwhelmed and know that it’s just a normal hormonal phase.

Breastfeeding Journey

I was very lucky that breastfeeding came fairly easily, although one midwife had questioned if the latch was correct. Looking back I feel a little annoyed, as this made me second guess myself, when in fact we were doing amazing and he was feeding perfectly and put on a lot of weight very very quickly! Other than that one experience I found all the midwives and health visitors to be absolutely amazing and really lovely.

My local children’s centre held a variety of free baby classes and meetups including weekly weigh-ins, an under ones group, baby massage, weaning advice etc and these were so helpful with getting out of the house and meeting other new mums. Sadly these all stopped due to covid and I believe most of them have not come back.

Golden Nuggets

My one piece of advice would be- to not compare yourself to other mothers! We all have such individual experiences and you really never know what another mum is going through behind the scenes. They may appear to have it all together but that doesn’t mean that they actually do! This is your personal journey, just take it one day at a time and be kind to yourself.

Remember you have just grown and birthed a whole new human being! Life is going to be very different for a while. It can feel very overwhelming and all consuming some days and easy and amazing other days. You may feel as though you have lost yourself for a while, but little by little, piece by piece you will find her again. She will most likely be a slightly different version of the woman you knew before, but you may find she is actually an even better version.”

Thank you so much to Sophie for sharing the details of her transition into motherhood. If you would like to have your story featured please do get in contact.