Parenting Challenges

If you still don’t feel like yourself months or even years after becoming a mum, you’re very likely still in matrescence, the process of becoming a mother. It often begins in pregnancy and keeps unfolding well past the newborn stage, through the toddler years, a return to work and any children who come after. Feeling unfamiliar to yourself at these points is a normal part of a big developmental change. With time, curiosity and the right support, it usually starts to feel more

Many mums feel like a bad mum because of the impossible expectations placed on mothers, combined with an inner critic that turns ordinary hard moments into proof of failure. Motherhood has no performance reviews and no way to get it all right, so the question "what could I have done better?" rarely switches off. Feeling like a bad mum is very common, and it usually says more about how much you care than about how you're actually doing. Learning the difference between guilt an

Many new mums feel alone after having a baby because support tends to arrive in a rush around the birth and then fades, often within a few weeks, while the need for it carries on for months. Partners go back to work, family may live far away, and friends who mean well aren't sure what to offer. Loneliness after a baby can also show up when people are around, especially if you find it hard to say what you need. It is very common, and with the right support you can start to fee

It arrives out of nowhere. You are carrying your baby down the stairs, or standing by the bath, or watching them sleep, and a sudden, horrible image or thought flashes through your mind. Something terrible happening to them. Or, worse and harder to admit, something you might do. It is gone as fast as it came, but it leaves you shaken, sick with guilt, and certain you must be the only person in the world who has ever thought such a thing. You are not. And it does not mean what

You are standing in the kitchen at 3am. The baby will not settle, the muslins are somewhere you cannot find, and your partner has just asked, in a perfectly reasonable voice, whether you have tried feeding again. Something in you snaps. A wave of anger comes up so fast and so hot that it frightens you. An hour later, once everyone is finally asleep, you are left wondering what on earth is happening to you. If this sounds familiar, please know two things straight away. You are