Laura Mazza is a resident of Australia and the mother of three children. About three years ago, a woman began blogging The Mum on the Run to talk about postpartum depression after the birth of her first son, Luke. Now Laura also runs pages on Facebook and Instagram, and almost 250 thousand people subscribe to her, who clearly appreciate the fact that she sincerely tells them about her life.
Laura is a social worker by profession, she graduated with a master’s degree in psychology and considers it her duty to help other mothers cope with difficulties. But recently it turned out that perhaps the best help was just one post.
I actually wrote this text because someone wrote something offensive to me in response to a post about depression. The woman then apologized, saying she had a bad day.
Laura realized that the commentator had recently become a mother and she herself was suffering from depression and from not coping. It was for her that the blogger wrote this post:
People always tell me, “I don’t know how you can handle three, I can’t even do one.”
And I always answer: the first is the most difficult.
Never in my life have I been so shocked, depressed, and exhausted as the first time. Yes, three is difficult. But when you become a mother for the first time, it’s like a tornado that sucks you in and then spits you out. Those days are definitely the hardest.
But what I can say is that the days when you seem to get drunk. You can hug your baby, and he will fall asleep in your arms, and you can do things or not, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Sometimes you’ll shower, and sometimes you’ll smell like an orangutan picking fleas off your head. Sometimes you will feel happy, sometimes you will hate yourself for your own problems because you wanted a child. All this is normal, it does not make you a bad mother.
Hiring a babysitter, sleeping, dumping the baby for a partner, or just putting the baby in the crib to give yourself a minute of time is normal. Your mental health is important. Taking care of yourself is important. You are still a separate person. You don’t need to exhaust yourself just to be a good mother. You don’t have to lose your identity.
