{"id":60199,"date":"2018-10-11T18:46:51","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T02:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=60199"},"modified":"2018-10-15T21:12:19","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T05:12:19","slug":"the-new-moms-guide-to-putting-herself-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/the-new-moms-guide-to-putting-herself-first\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Mom\u2019s Guide to Putting Herself First"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Put myself first?! But mothers are supposed to be selfless! <\/em><\/p>\n

Let us stop you right there for a moment. Mothers are many things: nurturing, fierce, protective, loving, caring \u2013 but selfless<\/em> shouldn\u2019t be something to aim for, especially as a new mother. The opposite of selfless isn\u2019t necessarily selfish. But the self- part is correct. It\u2019s about self-care. <\/em><\/p>\n

New mothers (and veteran ones, too!) do best for themselves and their babies and children when they can balance fulfilling their child\u2019s needs with fulfilling their own. Self-care, it turns out, is just as important \u2013 and often more <\/em>important \u2013 than your child\u2019s care. It\u2019s the oxygen mask theory: take care of yourself first, and everything else falls into place after that.<\/p>\n

Why you should put yourself first<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, because you owe it to yourself.<\/em> You\u2019re still the person you were before you had a baby, which is a fact that can be hard to remember when you\u2019re a very new <\/em>mother. Think of becoming a mom as adding <\/em>a layer to your personhood \u2013 not shedding existing parts of yourself. Second, you owe it to your baby. <\/em>Say what? Yes, it\u2019s true! No matter how great your child\u2019s needs are (and if you\u2019re a mom to a newborn, you know they are great<\/em>), if you\u2019re not meeting your own needs as well, you\u2019re setting a poor example for your child. Infants don\u2019t see their mothers as separate beings for a while \u2013 but eventually children do. What kind of woman would you like your child to look up to and emulate? Exactly.<\/p>\n

These are the emotional reasons putting yourself first matters. But there are important physical wellness ones, too. Remember when you were a teenager and you could stay up all night and do terribly unhealthy things and bounce right back? Yeah, you can\u2019t do that anymore without suffering some potentially serious consequences. Just one example is the importance of sleep: If you don\u2019t make your own sleep at least as important as your baby\u2019s, all you\u2019ll do is make yourself ill \u2013 literally.<\/p>\n

How to go about putting yourself first sometimes<\/strong><\/p>\n

So how do you go about prioritizing your own health and wellbeing? You have to be intentional about it \u2013 otherwise it\u2019s just too easy to slip into Mama Selfless Mode, which (see above!) does no one any good. Our put-yourself-first suggestions:<\/p>\n