No Judgement Mama

nojudgementmama - 26 May 18

It starts from Pregnancy ‘So, will you breastfeed?’ -‘You DO know its best for the baby, don’t you’ ‘ I breastfeed all of mine and I they are such healthy children’

It continues after one of the emotionally and physically demanding things a woman’s body can do, MORE judgement. ‘Wow, you really did ‘bounce back’, didn’t you?’ (For the record, no mama every ‘bounces back’ – our bodies have just performed quite an amazing miracle and quite simply, no, they do not ever ‘bounce back’, whatever it ‘looks like to the naked eye.

Judgement is human nature, we know that.

In a ‘insta’ society, where we are judged from a few seconds of looking at someones ‘Picture perfect’ profile, we see women who are ‘having it all’ with the ‘Perfect baby’ + ‘Perfect Body’ + ‘Perfect Husband’ = ‘Perfect Life’.

We judge. We just people we don’t know. We judge people we do know.

What if we as mamas were more mindful and we took a step back and thought about the impact it was having on other women? We bring a human into this world (A pretty powerful thing, don’t you think?), and without minutes the judgement starts. Without wanting to signal royalty as the ‘norm’, how could the Duchess of Cambridge felt when moments after giving birth, she’s judged from her outfit choice to her hair, to her ‘Post-baby body’? All the trolls, tweets and insta comments on her appearance (Quite frankly, I think I’d hide under a rock until all the hype died down..).

For all the ‘Insta-mothers’ who are judged for the time it takes to ‘Get back to pre-baby body’, it’s pretty insane, isn’t it?

All the societal pressure to ‘conform’, to be the ‘Perfect Mama’ can lead to feelings of inadequacy and not feeling like you are ‘measuring up’ to society’s idealist view of a ‘mother’.

Societal demands and pressures can lead to women, quite frankly, feeling ‘low’. With hormones all over the place (pesky ones at that, that can have you reaching for the Green and Blacks before the morning feed has even kicked in!), it’s no wonder over 70,000 women are suffering from Post Natal Depression in the UK (and that’s estimated!).

Even scarier is that only an estimated 15% are getting help! 15%…Anyone else find this figure just shocking?

As women we are either too scared to get help due to the JUDGEMENT from medicals on whether we can care sufficiently for our baby if we have the illness, or we just don’t know where to turn to get the help we need.

Medication – in this day and age, not everyone is keen to take anti-depressants. Counselling – NHS Waitlist and not quite knowing what support we need or even knowing that what we have is post natal depression..(Who recognises the symptoms??).

In a world where we are focused on wellbeing (It’s just not a ‘buzz word’, it’s very real!), why are we not taking more of a holistic approach to supporting women with the illness? Why are doctors not supporting women with the right nutritional/ supplement advice and moreover asking the question ‘How are you feeling? Do you know the symptoms of post natal depression?’.

Without the shameless plug, No Judgement Mama is launching soon to support women who are suffering from post natal depression. Our aim is to bridge the gap between modern medicine and  traditional counselling to ensure women get the support they need.

If you’d like to support our mission, collaborate or if you are suffering from the illness – do follow us and we’d love to hear from you (and if not, no judgement!).

Post Natal Depression is an illness and one that won’t go away with the huge stigma behind it and the judgement from society of being a ‘Perfect Mummy’ that can lead to feelings of inadequacy.

No Judgement Mama are on a mission to change this and hope you join us on the journey @nojudgementmama

Sending Love and Light to all Mamas – You are AMAZING and doing a great job!

nojudgementmama

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