The amount of family adjustment required during the year following birth is often greatly underestimated. Motherhood may come easily to you, yet changes are inevitable and must be accommodated.
Postpartum blues are common during the three months after childbirth.
Mild sadness may well up as your body recovers from pregnancy and delivery and you adjust to the life changes that having a baby can bring. Isolation is the main cause of acute depression, but support groups for new parents can help you make contacts for babysitting and answer some of your needs for companionship. More important, a new-parents support group can banish the misunderstanding that motherhood is instinctive. It is not. Mothering is very much a learned experience, although much of what we know about it is learned unconsciously, relayed to us during childhood by those who cared for us.