With the arrival of a child, many parents feel overwhelmed and ashamed to ask for help.
Between new responsibilities, new routine, crying, hormonal changes and lack of sleep, it is normal to feel helpless, irritable or tired when a baby arrives at home. Asking for help is accepted, it is not possible to control everything and it may be time to recover.
Almost all new parents need help
To think that you can raise your child alone is to forget that he needs social relationships to develop and that all parents also need rest. Start by talking about it with your partner, taking turns holding it for a while and then asking for help from your family, friends or neighbors. Whether it’s for meals, cleaning, shopping, or babysitting, free up time to do something else in peace and recover.
Whether it’s friends, co-workers, or neighbours, meeting other new parents also helps build a support group for sharing advice and finding comfort.
When should you be alerted?
Despite all the help from those around you, certain situations should alert you and require you to consult a professional, whether it is the attending physician, a pediatrician, a psychiatrist, or a psychologist, for example. This is the case if you can no longer do your daily activities, that relationships with others are increasingly difficult or that you are anxious about taking care of your child.
Other signs such as crying, a feeling of sadness, numbness of emotions, appetite and sleep disorders, anxiety attacks and dark thoughts can mean that depression is setting in and that medical help becomes necessary. To prevent the state of suffering and exhaustion from worsening and endangering the child and his parent, psychological support and sometimes treatment are indicated.
Find out more: “Letter to a young parent – What my job as a pediatrician and affective neuroscience taught me” by Catherine Gueguen, Editions Les Arènes.
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