For many new mums once baby has been born, their bub will instantly become their main focus – and everything else either takes a back seat or is forgotten all together. Unfortunately among those things that are typically neglected after baby has arrived are the all important social circles of friends and relatives that mums rely on for love, support, affection – and those occasional doses of fun necessary for staying healthy both mentally and physically.
While caring for a new baby will take a lot of your time, to stay a perfectly happy and healthy mum for your baby, you’ll need to maintain at least part of your social life throughout each stage of new motherhood.
Here are several tips for staying connected with family and friends in ways that won’t get in the way of you meeting the needs of your little one’s care.
- Relatives: Your own mum, if you are lucky enough to have one nearby, may likely be the easiest person to stay connected with due to the advice and help she may be able to offer, however you don’t want the time you spend with your mum, or her involvement in your life, to only be comprised of holding baby while you take care of some task or her helping you out with chores while you look after your baby. Rather, alternate your activities by taking your mum out for coffee, lunch or a trip to the park, that way you can get a break and you and baby can get some fresh air. You can also do this with other relatives, as well as your friends.
- During those times when you’re either too tired or too busy to go out, you can stay connected by asking your close friends or relatives to help with housework working bee, chatting as you go, and having a cuppa and a snack afterwards.
- If you were already using social media before your baby was born, you’ll no doubt continue to use it afterwards. However, you’ll likely find you have less time for it as a new mum. One strategy to tackle this reduced time is to simply stay focused on staying on a few friends’ pages at a time, rotating which ones you go on each day. And if you were in the habit of either writing long messages or chatting for a while, switch over to writing shorter messages, ‘liking’ things they’ve posted, and writing shorter comments for postings. This way they’ll know you haven’t forgotten about them and you can stay up to date with what’s going on in your friends’ lives without feeling pressured to go out when you may not be able to.
- Avoid letting yourself get isolated. As a breastfeeding new mum it can be too easy to fall into the mindset of always being ready to lay down and feed your baby when ever he or she is hungry. However, this isn’t healthy for either your baby or yourself as it can lead to both isolation and depression as well as poor physical health. Some of the ways to avoid this are to remember that going out is good for your baby as well as yourself, so plan to go out either sometime during your day.
If you are one of the many mums who aren’t completely comfortable with breastfeeding your baby outside, there are specially designed breastfeeding clothes available that reveal virtually no skin during feeds, allowing you to completely avoid exposing your back, stomach and chest while revealing only the most minimal area of the breast necessary to feed your baby.
At Peachymama, we offer a wide range of these clothing items such as fashionable T-shirts and breastfeeding tops, as well as fashion-forward dresses in an attractive selection of colours and prints.
See our latest designs right now, at https://www.peachymama.com.au/!
Further Reading:
https://bfmedneo.com/resources/education/family-and-friend-support-of-breastfeeding/
https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/bonding.html