Julie Green: A Letter to New Moms

Things it might be helpful to know before reading this: After the birth of our first child, I had the usual "baby blues" but within a week or so after giving birth I felt mostly like my normal self. I enjoyed new motherhood most of the time — there...

Catherine Connors: A Letter to New Moms

Give peas a chance. If you're anything like me, you have trouble asking for help. I have a lot of trouble asking for help. And accepting help. Pretty much anything to do with being helped, I cringe away from. So I basically never ask for help, ever. Especially...

Diane Sanford: A Letter to New Moms

As a mom of two daughters who are now 17 and 21, I vividly remember all the changes pregnancy and motherhood brought, intermingling moments of joy and awe with worry and doubt. Of everything I've done, being a mother has been my most important role, and the one...

Adrienne Martini: A Letter to New Moms

Congratulations, new mom! Welcome to the hard part. Remember how you spent the last nine months convinced that getting the baby out would be the biggest challenge you ever faced in your young (or not so young) life? That part, in hindsight, will turn out to have been...

Therese Borchard: A Letter to New Moms

I have just one piece of advice for you: don't try to be a martyr. Consider your own needs along with the baby's, your husband's, your mother's, your mother's cousin's and those of La Leche League. Learn from my mistake. I tried so hard to do...