Postpartum Quotes

“A photograph of a disposable diaper floating in the arctic miles away from human habitat fueled my daily determination to save at least one disposable diaper from being used and created. One cloth diaper after another, days accumulated into years and now our next child is using the cloth diapers we bought for our firstborn.”
― Gloria Ng, Cloth Diapering Made Easy

“Postpartum depression makes you suddenly feel like a stranger to yourself, but knowing the clinical facts are the first step toward wellness.”
― Judy Dippel, Breaking the Grip of Postpartum Depression: Walk Toward Wellness with Real Facts, Real Stories, and a Real God

“Apparently, as long as I continue to feed my children, there’s nothing wrong with me. A functional mom is one who can change a diaper and remember bedtimes. I’m not falling apart, so I’m fine.”
― Eda J. Vor, Fully Functioning: a postpartum descent into obsessive fangirling

“Hold your newborn as much as you want to. Show affection to your newborn. Reassure your newborn. Do not listen to those who tell you not to. ”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“I admit I am an unnatural thing for not loving my child. But I hardly know my child. How can anyone love a thing that reveals nothing of itself. . . except for its unending screams?”
― Celine Loup, The Man Who Came Down the Attic Stairs

“Somehow, a pervasive idea has spread in modern times that the mom who is out and about soonest with her baby is somehow the strongest, like an episode of Survivor. For some type-A parents, it's almost a badge of honor to say you made it to yoga after two weeks, snuck off to the office for a meeting, or flew with your infant across time zones. But that's all upside down—in a healthy postpartum period, it's she who stays still that wins the prize.”
― Heng Ou, The First Forty Days: The Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother

“Postpartum depression and anxiety that 11-20% of women experience is not at all the same as the more commonly experienced 'baby blues' 80% of women experience for a few weeks.”
― Judy Dippel, Breaking the Grip of Postpartum Depression: Walk Toward Wellness with Real Facts, Real Stories, and a Real God

“The diaper bag slipped from the handle and her bottle fell out and rolled across the floor. I collected it and decided I would not wipe off the nipple. I felt a rush if power when I made clandestine decisions like this, decisions other mothers would not make because they weren’t supposed to, like leaving a wet diaper on too long or skipping her overdue bath again because I couldn’t be bothered.”
― Ashley Audrain, The Push

“I spoke to this woman in the supermaket," Charlie barges in again, "and I said I was tired and finding it hard, and she said, 'Ah, you wouldn't change it thoug, would you?' and I had to of course say no. But I wanted to say yes. I wanted to say, 'Actually, Brenda, I would.' I want to go back sometimes. And I do, Noelle. I don't want to be Charlie of then." Charlie bursts into sobs.”
― Lia Louis, Eight Perfect Hours

“No," she says. "No, I can't. How can I? I've started seeing someone." My heart stops. "A counselor," she adds, and it starts beating again, relieved. Of course. Of course she wouldn't have a bloody affair. "Once a week. I go during work time so Theo doesn't know." So that's where she's neem going, and probably why she wasn't in the shop, and where she was driving to the other day. "But he'll want me to go to the GP and I'm- I'm worried they'll put me on meds and the meds will numb me. I already feel so numb, Noelle. And I'm scared. Of being that mother who needs pills to get through what's supposed to be one of the best things that ever happened to her. I'm a shit mother.”
― Lia Louis, Eight Perfect Hours

“Though it is becoming an increasingly popular area of advocacy, the United States continues to top the list of nations that are disconnected from the basic concept of relieving a mother of overwork and giving her dancing hormones the time and space to regulate through rest and proper nutrition. It's a grin-and-bear-it moment (complete with dark circles and wan complexion). And, these days, with more and more women literally and energetically holding the home together as the primary breadwinner, and very often as the emotional center of the home as well, the postpartum period becomes a pressure cooker. The unconscious message beamed from all angles is, "Get back at it. You can't afford to rest."

But it seems we can't afford not to. Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that when deliberate physical care and support surround a new mother after birth, as well as rituals that acknowledge the magnitude of the event of birth, postpartum anxiety and its more serious expression, postpartum depression, are much less likely to get a foothold. Consider that the key causes of these disturbingly common, yet still highly underreported, syndromes include isolation, extreme fatigue, overwork, shame or trauma about birth and one's body, difficulties and worries about breastfeeding, and nutritional depletion, all of which suggests that when we let go of the old ways, we inadvertently helped create a perfect storm of factors for postpartum depression.”
― Heng Ou, The First Forty Days: The Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother

“After all, family dynamics aren’t independent clusters of choice and consequence, but rather a tapestry of intricately woven threads of action and reaction, passing over and under each other, knotting together time, emotion, and experience as one.”
― Cory Richards, The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within