Think about it.

In an average full time job you work 8 hours a day. 5 days a week.

Free evenings

Free weekends

20-30 days of holidays a year

No one calls you at night

Feeling unwell? No problem, just call in sick.

With a baby?

You work 24 hours a day.

7 days a week.

EVERY.DAY.OF.THE.YEAR.

After a normal day of work in the office, or a stressful week, you go to bed and sleep.

You have a lazy Sunday to recover.

You go out with friends to have a laugh and disconnect.

With a baby?

They don’t know that you haven’t slept for more than 2hours straight in months, they need to eat, and they ask for it.

At 2pm and at 2am. And 3am. And 5am…

Feeling unwell? They don’t know! They still need to be comforted, fed, entertained.

Your boss is demanding, loud, everything is urgent!

If you asked any sane person to take on a job like this, they would laugh at you. Imagine.

What kind of salary would they ask for?

Do you get paid that amount, mama? Yes, I hear you laugh. Or cry

We get paid with something much larger though.

But the mental load we carry is unbelievable.

The intensity of motherhood came as a shock to me.

Carrying your little one around all day. Constant feeding, day and night. Contact napping. Cosleeping.

The sleep deprivation is brutal.

After a long, stressful and exhausting day, you go to bed to get the rest you desperately need. But you don’t, you just do ‘the night shift’.

Even when papa takes the baby for a while, you don’t disconnect! “What if the baby cries? What if he neess the boob?”

It is only when he turned 1 that things became a bit less intense, and I could start taking a bit of time for me.

So mama, if you are in the newborn trenches, things will get easier, I promise.

In the meantime, it is OK to ask for help. You are doing something extraordinary and you deserve all the support you can get.

If they ask if you need a break, don’t say “no, I’m OK”.

If they offer to bring you food, say “yes, please, I would love that!”

If they ask if they can do anything to help you, and they can, let them know what they can do for you!

No guilt, just take the help. You more than deserve it.

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