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The Unexpected Loneliness of New Mothers by Guy Winch Ph.D. with Psychology Today

The Unexpected Loneliness of New Mothers


Why it happens — and what parents of newborns can do.




Few new parents have accurate expectations of how much their lives will change after the birth of their first child. The physical and mental exhaustion, and the constant attention newborns require, leave virtually no time for the individual pursuits or relationship activities that had characterized their lives previously. Even those who anticipate these challenges rarely anticipate their intensity.
But there is one challenge few new parents see coming, especially nursing mothers — loneliness.
One might think that having a newborn by your side (or on you) virtually every minute of the day and night would lead to the opposite problem — to craving alone time. But while new mothers might feel extremely connected to their newborn, they often feel extremely disconnected from everyone else — including their spouse. Continue Reading...

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