7 Simple Ways to Help a New Mom
Motherhood is an incredible journey, but let’s be honest—it’s also exhausting! Between sleepless nights, endless diaper changes, and trying to calm a colicky baby, life can feel overwhelming as the days start to blur together. New moms often believe that they need to be “supermom” and manage it all. Because of this, they often don’t ask for help, even when they need it. Finding practical ways to help a new mom without being intrusive will make mom’s life easier and help her enjoy her time with her baby.
7 Simple Ways to Help a New Mom
Bring Food
Being a new mom brings untold joy as well as the weight of responsibility. It’s difficult to juggle regular household responsibilities along with taking care of a little one while still recovering from pregnancy and childbirth. It’s particularly difficult to find the time and energy for cooking. Bringing food is one of the most thoughtful ways to support a new mom. Postpartum nutrition plays a vital role. Any deficiencies during this time will not only hamper mom’s healing but also affect the quality of her milk. In turn, this will affect her baby’s health and well-being. You can also suggest a supplement. Not all multivitamins are equal so compare the best multivitamins for women that have been recommended by independent experts. Multivitamins help to fill any nutritional gaps which can make a huge difference to a new mom’s physical, mental, and emotional health.
Help with Cleaning
Cleaning is another household chore that can quickly become overwhelming for a new mom. You can offer to help with tasks like the laundry, dishes or vacuuming depending on mom’s needs and your bandwidth. If possible, you can take up just one task that you do consistently. That is one less thing for her to think about. Even small acts like folding laundry or loading the dishwasher can have a big impact on a new mom’s peace of mind. If you cannot help in person, you can gift a professional cleaning service. This can make her life a lot easier.
Take Care of Older Kids
Being a new mom is tough enough but being a new mom with older kids can be overwhelming, especially if the kids are homeschooled. You can ask mom if she needs help with homeschooling the older kids. Teaching is not easy so if you don’t have experience in this area, you can check out homeschooling tips as this will help you plan and prepare for the task. Even if mom doesn’t need help with their studies, you can offer to take them off her hands for an evening so that she has time to relax and unwind.
Run Errands
The last thing that any new mom wants is to run errands with a wailing baby and yet, we see that all the time at grocery stores and supermarkets. Online shopping does provide some relief since we can now get a lot of our household supplies delivered to our doorstep. Unfortunately, there are many errands that can’t be done online so you can volunteer to do those whenever needed.
Create a Support Group
In today’s fast-paced world, it’s difficult to keep up with the demands of our daily lives. This means we don’t have much time to spend helping others. This is where it can help to pool time and resources to help mom. With mom’s permission, you can create a support group of loved ones. Each member of the group can help with just one or two tasks. This simple act can significantly reduce mom’s workload without it becoming a burden for family and friends.
Help Mom Navigate Life
Each of us is unique and what works for one mom may not work for another. New moms are often flooded with advice and suggestions but this can become overwhelming. Instead of being one more person just offering advice, you can be the person who steps up and helps mom figure out what works for her so that she can navigate life with a newborn.
Offer Emotional Support
While practical tasks such as bringing food, running errands, and cleaning are great ways to help a new mom, it’s equally important that she gets the emotional support she needs. Studies on the association between social support and postpartum depression found that women who have moderate or low social support are more likely to have postpartum depression. When supporting mom, reassure her without being dismissive of her experience. Avoid saying things like, “You’ll be fine” and instead say “I know it’s tough but you’re doing a great job”.
