“Personally, becoming a mother has been such a rewarding and wonderful experience. However, at times it’s also been a huge challenge. Even for me, who has support at home, but most mothers do not.
Nothing can really prepare you for the sheer, overwhelming experience of what it means to become a mother. It is full of complex emotions of joy, exhaustion, love, and worry, all mixed together. Your fundamental identity changes over night. You go from thinking of yourself as primarily an individual to suddenly being a mother, first and foremost. And yet, there is no rulebook. No right or wrong. You just have to make up and do the very best you can to care for your family. For many mothers, myself included, this can at times lead to a lack of confidence and feelings of ignorance. Some of this fear is about the pressure to be a perfect parent. Pretending we’re all coping perfectly and loving every minute of it. It is right to talk about motherhood as a wonderful thing, but we also need to talk about its stresses and strains. It’s okay not to find it easy. And asking for help should not be seen as a sign of weakness.”
-Kate Middleton, a.k.a. The Duchess of Cambridge, on the pressures of motherhood, to Best Beginnings, 2017.