Moms, What Unexpected Thing About Motherhood Do You Wish You Knew Beforehand?
It's an identity shift that's full of surprises.
If you haven't already heard, moms 👏 are 👏 badass 👏! And of course, being a mom is just one facet of a person's identity.
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While society expects new moms to seamlessly and naturally transition into (and embrace) motherhood, there is an identity shift that comes with it.
So we want to know: What do you wish you knew about being a mother before you became one?
Maybe it was jarring how — the second you became responsible for a tiny human being — society expected the personality and identity you've always had to vanish, and you are now only thought of as "a mom."
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Perhaps you shocked people when you still wanted to go out to bars with your friends for a birthday because...you're a mom now! Or your colorful hair choices and loud style get a lot of looks at PTA meetings.
Did you have to reevaluate your professional identity and the place of your career in your life?
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Or were you so excited to meet your child — only to struggle to adjust to motherhood or experience postpartum depression?
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A 2018 review from the Journal of Psychiatric Research found a postpartum depression prevalence of 17% in mothers who have no history of depression and gave birth to healthy full-term infants.
On the other hand, was there a joy you discovered in motherhood that you could never anticipate — like bonding with your child, watching them experience new things, or feeling privileged to shape their minds?
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