TITLE: Encouraging Mums preface 20th July 2016 By Nicki Jeffery 07/20/16 |
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Your hand is on your tummy from the moment you first discover you are pregnant. As the weeks go by, you rub your tummy and smile to yourself for you have a secret. A secret that makes you feel warm and tingly inside.
You squeal with delight when you first hear baby’s heartbeat through a Doppler, or see tiny baby on the ultrasound screen. A bean with stubs for arms and legs. Wow. A life is growing inside you.
You make the announcement, perhaps at the famous 12-week mark, that you are with child. You might post a picture on Facebook of a bun in the oven. Or gather your closest family members for a meal and then blurt out your news. The celebration begins before you hold your treasured child in your arms.
You join Baby Center online, and start reading pregnancy books and magazines. These are the most exciting days of your life to date. You are filled with hope, anticipation and joy.
You might have morning sickness [and we all know that doesn’t just mean feeling sick mornings only]. Pregnancy may be hard for you, or seemingly quite breezy. The gift at the end of the 9 or 10 months will be totally worth it.
Somehow you make it through labour. Your bundle of joy has arrived! You and your baby are showered with attention, with love and gifts and kindness. And life with a newborn begins.
Now you have poo on your hands, vomit down the back of your shirt and sore breasts. Your baby is crying, you’re wearing pyjamas all day and your hairbrush is missing.
You are bombarded with information from media and human resources. Conflicting information. Your brain is reeling from lack of sleep and a traumatic birthing experience. It hurt! You feel pressure to cope. And cope you do … outwardly. Perhaps inwardly too. But no one really knows.
Welcome to motherhood!
“Encouraging Mums: 31 Days of Hope” has been divided into three sections. Feel free to read whatever relates to you. You may like to read the whole book anyway, because you may have a friend or family member for whom sections two or three are a big deal. Thanks for reading, beautiful mothers. From my heart to yours, Nicki xx
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