Congratulations – you have a new baby in your life! While it’s normal to have worries about their safety and their future, you might have some PPA if you are overly concerned about things that are not immediately relevant. PPA is normal, too, so use the tips below to help work through it.
Build a Baby Bond
The baby blues is a common feature in the lives of new parents; there are a lot of changes in your life and a lot of new hormones in your body that change the ways you think and feel. With all this going on, you can expect to feel sad and disconnected at times, but it starts to get better.
In the early days, you want to form a bond of secure attachment with your child, which means tuning into their emotional cues and physical needs, but this can be more difficult with PPA or PPD. If you have trouble connecting with your infant, you can try some of the strategies below.
Baby Contact
In the early days, close contact with your baby is essential to form a bond of secure attachment, so if you’re struggling with PPA or PPD, one of the things you can try is skin-to-skin contact. This kind of contact makes your baby feel comfortable and secure and helps you to relax together.
Connecting with your baby in this way has further benefits; it helps with their sleep patterns, their stress patterns, their cognitive development, and it improves their general moods. If you have trouble connecting with your baby, you can try holding them while you close your eyes.
Smiling and Singing
For around two months after birth, a child has a reflex smile, which means they make faces, but the expressions are not related to any external stimuli; they are simply random physical events. But after two months, your baby will respond to you with smiles that activate dopamine in your brain.
Singing to your baby is also recommended whether or not you experience PPA or PPD. The singing doesn’t have to be in tune, and it doesn’t have to make sense; even humming is a useful way to connect with them. This has the added benefit of taking your mind off any negative thoughts.
Self Care
After you give birth, it’s easy to forget about your personal health and wellbeing as everything is focused on the new baby. However, you need to remember to look after yourself in the same way you did when you were pregnant and used a Prenatal Chiropractor to help with self-care.
Now that your baby is born, you can’t forget to look after yourself. Of course, you might not have time to do the same things you did as a non-parent, but you still find time to get some proper sleep, pamper yourself, eat healthy food, and start to reintroduce exercise into your lifestyle.
Some women find that they’re able to relax better with the help of medication. That’s something you can discuss with your doctor, or you can choose the path of trying cannabis products such as Delta 9o which are known to help reduce the symptoms of anxiety.
Support Networks
Postnatal care is very important, especially if you are prone to anxiety and overthinking. In preparation for your baby’s arrival, make sure you have suitable support networks in place; this might mean counselling services, doctors, partners, or trusted friends that you can talk to.
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