A few weeks ago, my husband, Curtis, and I started to hash out our business plan, marketing plan, plans for social media … plans, plans, plans! We were bouncy. Jumping around and getting excited. This idea, that idea; it was a frantic mish mash of compelled thought.
Then we stopped and realized we needed to ask the world. Survey Monkey to the rescue!
First of all, THANK YOU to everyone who participated. We had almost 400 people give us ideas and insight. I feel like we have the surrounding that we need; and the feedback has been so valuable.
I’d like to share some of the things you told us. After giving the survey a few days, Curtis printed the results and we ran (again: bouncy) to the nearest coffee shop to read through them and debrief. We discussed various answers, came up with new ideas, and mused over the things that surprised us.
But the question I fixated on was the one we asked all of the moms out there:
“In the month after your child was born, did you find difficulty with any of the following?”
We had 11 options moms could check, and an “others” box where they could state more challenges they faced.
This question is the crux of our business; it’s the center of everything. It’s the very thing we will always need to circle back to – what is it that moms actually need in the months following childbirth?
Here’s how the options ranked:
- Sleep deprivation – duh
- House cleaning – of course
- Meal preparation – yup
- Running errands – seriously, me too
- Maintaining a social life – considered not even putting that option in there; am I a hermit?!
- Breastfeeding – oddly difficult at times
- Maintaining good nutrition – oh my heart wishes this were higher on the list
- Caring for older children – which not everyone has …
- Yard work – ugh
- Postpartum Depression (PPD) – more on this later for those who struggle; we’re here with you!
- Understanding baby’s health – are they supposed to poop like that?
Other concerns included balancing visitors, involving family in the experience, self-care, hygiene, physical recovery, couple time, moving, and preparing to go back to work. Man alive, we women have a lot to shoulder!
My intention with this blog and the (hopefully) resulting community is to address these things that moms struggle with after childbirth. How do we deal with sleep deprivation in those tender first months? How can we balance house cleaning with raising our other children? How can meals be simple yet nutritious? How do we foster our friendships, or perhaps we should be letting them foster us? And WHERE is the nearest Lactation Consultant, for crying out loud??!
Or even if you’re not a mom and have never experienced these things before, how do we help our new mom friends when they don’t know how to ask or what they need? How do we navigate new baby territory in our friendships?
Some of this will be just me talking about what I’ve learned works and what doesn’t. Other times, I plan to share noteworthy or new work in pediatrics (lactation, early motherhood, postpartum nutrition, etc.). And often, I’ll ask you, because you know more than you think you do, and we all need to hear it.
So, here’s to chiming in, learning together, and supporting all the mamas out there.