Melt away your Postpartum Blues

Are you coping with the postpartum blues? Read on to find out what you can do to deal with it. Regardless of the fact that you wanted this child and are thrilled beyond measure with your wonderful new life together, you will also have the inevitable moments of exasperation, crankiness, doubts about your intelligence and patience, wondering why you ever decided to get into this in the first place. What follows is the RELAX! approach: some quick, down-to-earth tips to help keep you in relatively good psychological health. It is especially important to remember these tips in the fourth trimester - the three months immediately following childbirth. In this articleR - Rest Whenever PossibleE - Expect to Feel on an Emotional Roller CoasterL - Let the Feelings OutA - Alone Time Each Day Is a MustX - Exit for a Date with Your SpouseRELAX!R - Rest Whenever PossibleIn this first week home, take to bed and ask for a meal to be served you there. Let a helper watch the baby while you nap (not while you search for the perfect crib-sheet or do errands). The baby - and those errands - will be yours forever; the offers of assistance will not. Your body has undergone a lot of changes throughout your pregnancy and has also faced rigours of delivery. Therefore, taking rest is a must to help the body recover and heal from the stress of childbirth. Ideally, women are advised to take rest at least for the period of 40 to 45 days. E - Expect to Feel on an Emotional Roller CoasterYou may feel elated one moment, weepy the next. Exhaustion heightens this dis-equilibrium, which may hit you over the head or creep up on you. All new parents experience this at some point post-childbirth. Remember: you are neither going crazy nor are you a bad parent. This phase will pass away soon and you will feel better by each passing day. So, do not worry. Reading good parenting books can help you a lot to deal with this phase. L - Let the Feelings OutFind a friend to talk with about the experience you are having. Another mother, even one with whom you are not especially close, is a good bet: motherhood bonds. You can also talk to your husband as no one can understand you better than him. If that does not ease the tension, think about short-term counselling with someone who has no stake in your "acting nice." A - Alone Time Each Day Is a MustSchedule15 minutes each day to remind yourself you are a "you" - take a bath, read, daydream or do whatever you enjoy. Practising meditation can also help you a lot. Meditation is the best way to calm your post-delivery anxieties and depression. With these activities, it is too easy to let yourself slip away in the pleasures and pressures of your new family life, and then resent that. X - Exit for a Date with Your SpouseIt is tempting to get caught up in the joy of your new family and forget the romance of just you two. Do not. Working, caring for baby, helping each other out are wearing as well as fulfilling; you need to spend time alone nurturing your marriage. Have an intimate dinner, play a game, take a long stroll - just schedule some "couple time" each week so it would not get lost amidst the other demands on you. It is a must to nurture your relationships as happy couples raise happy and well-balanced children and families. RELAX!The importance of relaxing after delivery cannot be overlook at all. Resting and relaxing is extremely necessary to help your body recover faster. So, rest whenever possible, expect to feel on an emotional roller coaster, let the feelings out, alone time is a must, and exit the house on a date with your spouse. And as the time passes, you will notice that it just gets better and better and better...