Need help getting through your first six months of motherhood?
Want to reach through the confusion to discover your own inner mothering wisdom that will guide you through your future years with your child?
I can help and here's how..
Everyone knows how new mothers attract so much excitement and support during pregnancy and birth or adoption. But many new moms are not prepared for the huge adjustment involved in becoming a mother for the first time. Transitioning into motherhood involves adapting to enormous emotional, social and physical changes.
While there are cultures that have supportive structures and rituals in place to help the new mother transition, western culture for the most part, does not. Typiclaly, there is far too little emotional, social and physical support and preparation for this new mothering role.
To make matters worse, are many myths surrounding motherhood as being easy, natural and constantly joyful. The difficult aspects of adjusting to mothering are ignored and seldom discussed by the media as a normal part of the journey. Unrealistic expectations of perfection and coping may mean that a mother who finds it hard to cope and who becomes exhausted and overwhelmed feels like a failure.
Feeling like everyone else is doing wonderfully except you makes it hard to reach out and talk about the invisible feelings of new motherhood. Not sharing, not talking, not reaching out worsens the isolation and may lead to depression and worse.
Postpartum depression and anxiety are so widespread now, affecting 10 - 20% of women in the USA. But a review of anthroploligical literature does not support this figure. PPD in many other cultures is not as prevalent and even non-existent (Stern & Kluckman, 1983).
What do other cultures do that helps mothers negotiate this transition better and feel less helpless? The answer to this question is complex. But it has much to do with the expectations the culture places on the new mother and the guidance and support she is given.
How can Kim Richardson help?
As a new mother coach, I work with new mothers helping them transition into motherhood. I help you create a time and space in your lives in which to get to know your new baby and your new mothering self. I help you acknowledge and let go of the losses that any new change brings. I help you build on your natural ways of coping when things get hard. I help you identify and use your core values to guide you more confidently through the thousands of choices you will make as a mother.
Discover Your Own Unique Mothering Identity
If you are filled with questions, and perhaps some anxiety at becoming a parent for the first time, and the enormity of this life-changing task, you are not alone. The experience is not always radiant, but with help and loving guidance and support you can survive and even thrive on first-time motherhood. I help you strengthen your own inner resources and feel stronger, and less overwhelmed by exhaustion and the onslaught of useless and disempowering parenting advice. I help you discover and grow your own inner mothering self.
Email me with questions or to set up a free trial session in which we can figure out whether I can be useful to you. I work face-to-face in Douglas, MI or long distance using telephone, skype or google talk.
Contact me: KimARichardson@aol.com
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