Being A First Time Mom Analysis

The Effects of Being a First-Time Mother

Imagine being a young, single mother of a 2-week-old infant and your primary means of transportation breaks down on the side of the road in the middle of the night. Imagine feeling helpless as your world comes crashing down. Reading “Tim Gunn and a Leaky Shower: Welcome to My Life, Little Guy”, by Maggie Downs (2015) sparked a memory of my own personal and relatable experience. I feel that the author was clarifying how life factors and stresses can take its toll on a first-time mother. Being a first time mother can be an extremely challenging task. Dealing with the fear of the unknown (outside factors), loss of sleep, or “am I good enough?” (mood swings) can have a new mom questioning her validity.

As stated by Alexandra Sacks M.D., found in The New York Times article, “The Birth Of A Mother”. “For most women, pregnancy and the new motherhood is a joy-at least some of the time. But most mothers also experience worry, disappointment, guilt, competition, frustration, and even anger and fear” (Sacks, M.D., 2017). I learned over night that you are the second priority in your own life. Being young that was a challenging circumstance I had to overcome. As Andy Hertzfeld said, being idealistic really helps you overcome some of the many obstacles put in your path. As a first time mother I felt was doing everything wrong. At least my daughter made me feel that way. I was not use to my daughter crying. I didn’t know if she was crying from hunger, needing a diaper change or flat out if she just didn’t like me. According to Midwifery found in the article, “Crying Babies, Tired Mothers: What Do We Know? A Systematic Review”, evidence from this review indicated that the amount of infant crying during the first three months postpartum is associated with the experience of tiredness and fatigue in new mothers. Significant associations were found in five of six quantitative studies. The four identified qualitative studies describe how infant crying disrupts new mothers’ circadian rhythms, reducing opportunities to rest and exacerbating tiredness. Incremental exhaustion diminished parents’ ability

As mentioned in my introduction I was stranded on the side of the road due to my vehicle breaking down. It happened at the worst possible time. Like the mother in the article who experienced her shower leaking, I too know what it feels like to endure an unpredictable circumstance. I recall simply sitting in my automobile pondering internally, “this can not be happening right now.” The effects of my vehicle breaking down caused a limitation factor in me getting to work on time. Another fall out from my vehicle breaking down was getting my beautiful little precious bundle of joy to childcare. I spent countless hours figuring my life out while I was pregnant and all of a sudden I had to reassess my plan. As John Lennon said, life is what happens after you have been busy making plans (Lennon, 1957). Out of the blue I concocted the ideal solution to get out of my dire circumstance. I then removed my cell phone from my handbag and made my first call to my sister who only lived a few miles away from the location where I was stranded. She finally arrived about 20 minutes later to pick my baby and me up. She revealed to me that she knows I am super late for work and that she wouldn't mind dropping me off at my job. She insisted to keep my baby girl until I got off work in the