Having a baby is a huge change. .It doesn’t just change your body, but it changes who you are fundamentally to your core. It can make you more ambitious and more willing to achieve things because you have a baby that you want looking up to you. It can make you more soft on the inside if you’ve spent your life feeling like you’re in a fight – but it can also make you more anxious. They say that having a child is like having your heart walking around outside of your body and it is but in a way that makes you panic a lot.

Postpartum anxiety can affect any new mother and while you may have relied on things such as the CBD drink by Hip Pop for anxiety in the past, managing postpartum anxiety may need something else. It’s not that this particular drink is bad for you, it’s just that your choices may be different after you have a baby. There are some factors that put people more at risk of developing postpartum anxiety, but there are things that you can do that can help to manage it better. Let’s take a look.

1. Prioritise your sleep. This is not easy to do when there is a new baby who wants to be awake when you want to be asleep. Sleep deprivation was used as a torture method in the wars for a good reason. It’s because it can make you feel like you’re going crazy without it. Between night feeds and irregular nap schedules, getting as much rest isn’t always the easiest thing to do. But that doesn’t mean you can’t take the rest. Lean on your partner heavily and reach out to your ‘village’. You’ve just given birth which means your body is going to be a disaster site for a little while in terms of catching up and feeling rested. If you can gain a couple of good nights of sleep, you’ll be able to feel like you can conquer the world.
2. Reach out to other parents. It’s very isolating to be a new mother, and if it’s your first time, it can really help you to reach out to other parents in your friendship circles, especially those who are seasoned with more than one child. Every single first time mother goes through the anxiety of being a first time mother and not knowing what they’re doing, but it’s all one of those things that we learn on the job. If you reach out to others, you don’t have to feel so nervous all the time because they’ll be able to tell you that you are doing the right thing or if they need to give you a hand with something, they will help you and reach your hand out.
3. Cuddle your baby as much as possible. Make time to bond with your baby, skin to skin. Contact between a mother and baby releases oxytocin and helps you with calming stress reduction and that bond. When your baby can smell your skin, they feel soothed and a soothed baby can help you to soothe your mind.
4. Move your body. There is research that shows that exercise during and after pregnancy can impact your mental health. While you may feel a bit battered after birth, getting up to move your body, even just with a walk around the block or a stretch, can help you to feel restored.