Why on earth am I doing this?

Where to begin? I’m not really a blogger.
This all came about because, as a new mum, there were passing comments and unasked for opinions that made me turn to my husband and say ‘I’m going to write a blog about this’. I don’t know why I thought a blog would help – perhaps a place to vent, or maybe just a safe place for ‘normal mums’ to realise their feelings are valid.
I’m also not totally sure what I mean by ‘normal mums’ but I’ll do my best to explain..

As a first time mum, and spending the last trimester of my pregnancy in the COVID-19 lockdown, I really lacked the social aspect that has become a cultural norm for most parents. The antenatal classes, specifically, where bonds are made with local mums and dads going through the same thing at the same time – in turn providing a network of people to turn to for support during a really unknown and ‘new’ time. These are my ‘normal’ people, I suppose.

Without this available, apart from online zoom classes – which are fab but don’t really build the same rapport, and often people are spread across the country – I did what most people had to do and turned to social media to try and educate myself on the complexity of motherhood through others experiences.
Sadly, I was quite disapointed with what I found, and to put it simply it was one of two extremes…
Either; It was this really overly positive post about how easy and wonderful birth is and how motherhood is this zen, blissful experience – OR – it was a pretty terrifying post about how traumatic it was.
Now don’t get me wrong, both are valid and I’m sure both can be true, but it was all so lyrical and almost poetic I found myself so detached.

I wanted just the chats.

The mum chats of ‘it was great – but my fanny bloody hurts’ or ‘I pooped but it was totally worth it, look at her face’. I just wanted the normal, down to earth real talk – and quite frankly it was so hard to find.

Also, going back to my original point, there seems to be a lot of opinions thrown at you, the majority of which come from other parents, as if they are almost trying to ‘dictate’ how your parental experience should be, perhaps based on their own experience, or maybe based on what others have dictated to them, and thats a bubble I’m wanting to pop too as it’s really not very helpful.

So, here I am. A self confessed non-creative-writer giving this whole blogging thing a go to give my honest experience of pregnancy, birth and ‘mummy-hood’ and also (hopefully) dispel a few myths and maybe make being a new parent, without losing yourself as a person, a little less scary.

Disclaimer: I’m discovering this as I go along, too. I will most likely be incredibly open and explicit. I may occassionally swear.

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