Mom's stress guide: babies

Here are some mom-proven strategies for weathering the highs and lows of life after baby.

Motherhood is never easy, but it does get easier.
As you spend more time getting to know your baby, you'll become better at reading his signals and your mothering self-confidence will grow. "Even though each stage presents its own challenges, the longer you're a mother, the more practice you've had and, for the most part, the more competent you feel," explains Andrea J. Buchanan, author of Mother Shock: Loving Every (Other) Minute of It (Seal Press, 2003).

Be prepared for the fact that that things could be a little tense between you and your partner right now.
("Having a baby is like throwing a grenade into a relationship," says Andrea O'Reilly, founding president and director of the Association for Research on Mothering at York University.)You're both missing out on sleep, it can be tough to carry on a coherent conversation, and your sex life may be missing in action. Let your partner know that as happy as you are about the new baby, you miss the alone time the two of you once had.

Realize that you're hard-wired to nurture and to reach out for support.
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, have discovered that females under stress tend to exhibit a "tend and befriend" stress reaction: an urge to tend to their children and to befriend other women -- particularly women who are related to them (Click here to see the study). Reaching out to other women who may be able to support and nurture you is the perfect biological response for a new mom. Even Mother Nature thinks so!

See the other articles in this collection:
• Mom's Stress Guide: Pregnancy and birth
• Mom's Stress Guide: Toddlers and preschoolers
• Mom's Stress Guide: School-aged children
• Mom's Stress Guide: Teens and tweens

Ann Douglas is the author of The Mother of All Pregnancy Books. She can be contacted via her website at having-a-baby.com.