Maria discusses how self-care is a necessity, not a luxury, for new parents. She also shares how her partner, Pablo, came to realize that time for self-care was a crucial part of what Maria needed to recover from PPD/A.
Transcript:
M: Be patient and be kind to yourself both as, as the wife and the husband. Don’t judge yourself, don’t blame yourself, I think that was the, once I knew the diagnosis for me I, that really helped me because I was blaming everything on me, everything before.
When I knew that it was out of my hands, that there was a mental thing going on in my head, at least I could start, I allowed myself to be more kind to myself. And, and believe in yourself, believe in yourself, believe that if you willing to, to fight for this feeling this depression there’s help out there, there’s amazing resources in this, in this country. And just reach for that, reach for that help.
Allow yourself time, allow yourself, understand that taking care of yourself is not a luxury. I had that idea and I learned that it’s a, it’s a necessity. You have to learn how to take care of yourself, you have allow yourself to do it and, and you have to fight for that right because in the beginning for me it was hard for, for me to make him understand that I needed those breaks, that when he, when I started doing that and he saw how different I came back from two hour, two hour breaks or just an hour break of being on my own just window shopping or having a coffee with my friends, and he saw how different I was coming back home then he said : oh. I think he realized: oh this is working it’s not that she’s just trying to get away with something, she’s really needing this time for herself, so.
And, and hang in there and keep working and one day you will start to see the difference.
