Category: Self-Care

Moms are so busy taking care of their families, they often forget to take care of themselves. Get ideas for how to take care of yourself here.

I love my baby, but I miss my old life

by Laurie Ganberg, LICSW  “I love my baby but I feel trapped.” “Maybe having a baby was a mistake.” “Every part of my life has changed. I miss my old life.” I often hear these statements hesitantly shared by women experiencing ambivalence and regret after a new baby—along with, “I can’t talk about this in the new moms group.” But it is…

Five Things I Learned From Yoga About Being A New Parent

by Megan Sloan I was a prenatal and postnatal yoga teacher long before I was a mom, and a student of yoga for even longer. Through years of teaching yoga to pregnant students and then seeing their transformations into new parents postpartum, I witnessed the gamut of what becoming a parent looked like. And if there’s one thing I learned,…

Mother Soulstice: Nurturing Your Mother Self

by Conni Navarre, Founder of Mother Soulstice The transformation into motherhood is a time of tremendous joy and love that can be coupled with the distress of one’s own personal need to heal both physically and emotionally post birth. Many women don’t receive adequate education and support during this time, which can leave them feeling isolated in their recovery. In…

Partners and Self-care as New Parents

by Melinda Ferguson The time after a baby arrives is one of enormous change for the entire family. Relationships shift, priorities shift, many aspects of daily life change, and there is much to learn about the care and feeding of a new little person. All of these transitions happen regardless of whether someone gave birth themselves, just by the nature of bringing a…

Beyond Baby Steps: How I learned to stop powering through

I couldn’t stop turning the words over in my head. “It’s your life, too,” my friend had said to me. It was an off-hand, supportive reply to me cataloging my overwhelming 24-hour-a-day job as mother to three young daughters. But why couldn’t I let the words go? Was it really my life too? There was so much I enjoyed about…

Yoga Poses for New Parenthood

by Megan Sloan Pretty much any new parent will share with you the aches and pains that have become part of their daily life with their new little one. We develop sore necks, tight shoulders, wrist issues and low back problems as a result of lifting, carrying, rocking, feeding and caring for our little ones. It’s amazing the havoc a…

Beyond Baby Steps: Helping others helped me feel like myself again

by Shawna Gamache Like a lot of moms, I found that surviving pregnancy and early motherhood meant that I put my own needs off as long as I could. And then I just couldn’t anymore. At a certain point, after eight years immersed in raising three young daughters, I could no longer ignore the reality that I was not my…

Beyond Baby Steps: How mama got her voice back

So how does a completely immersed mom claw herself out of the abyss of early motherhood? For me, it started with writing a book and ended with raising a hammer. Let’s start with the Book… Last November I told my family that I would be writing a novel that month. You see, every November there’s a month-long writers marathon called…

How do you know you’re done?

According to family lore, my parents always just knew they were done after two babies. It was crystal clear from the moment my little sister was born: family complete. End of story. Throughout my own parenting journey, I’ve heard a similar refrain from other parents, usually uttered in a tone of outright certainty: I’m one and done. I’m two and through. Three…

If You’re Quiet and You Know It: My Advice for Introverted Parents

by Jessica Towns  Introversion is often thought of as a quiet nature, or just plain shyness, but there is more to it than that. Introverts are people who thrive in solitude, who function best when they’re able to process internally. They are energized by solo activities and drained by social situations. As an introverted mother, I am constantly being pulled…