7 Reasons You Might Be Feeling Overwhelmed in Motherhood

1. We are going through a complex developmental process called matrescence (likened to our experience of adolescence).

2. Our reality doesn’t align with the expectations we had for ourselves, our family and our baby/children

3. We are going at it in the absence of a village. A village of support and a village of solidarity - feeling as though we are alone in our suffering due what goes unsaid among other mothers. Both of these contributing to the weight of the mental load.

4. We have grief and loss to process, voids to explore.

5. Our sensory system is processing a huge amount of sensory information leading to sensory overload; physiologically we are operating from a place of fight or flight.

6. We may be measuring our ‘performance’ in motherhood against idealised mothering, or the perfect mother myth. Emphasising comparison and judgement.

7. We have experienced longer term disruption to our meaningful occupations; we are missing the doing of things that we want to do.

Personally, and professionally I find it’s a combination of all of these things.

All very valid, and normal, experiences within the current social context of mothering, matrescence, nervous system function and occupational disruption.

Is there something here that is getting in the way of your satisfaction in motherhood?

Find out how you can work with me.