Emotional changes in the new mother
After the emotional high of delivering your baby, the anxieties and tiredness begin to be felt. Actually caring for the tiny helpless creature can make you feel emotionally raw, and because the baby's feelings are so strong and uncontainable, they can have the effect of making the mother a bit babyish in her own feelings. This may show in a need for reassurance from her partner, unexplained tearfulness, or emotional instability. She may feel the urgent need to have her own mother around.

Another emotional change is the shift from woman to mother. Suddenly there is 24 hour demand, and she has to meet it or see that somebody else does! The responsibility can seem to change her attitudes and values. "You're no fun any more" is a common cry!

Exhaustion can make it hard to know exactly what you do feel, and exhaustion is a very common part of adjusting to parenthood. After a while, many couple with one child find life can carry on quite a bit as before, but after the second baby, they really notice the difference.

Finding any emotional energy left for lovemaking is a major change for some women. After being at the baby's command, a request for intimacy of any kind can feel impossible to meet.

Remember that whatever emotional changes occur, they do not last forever! That tiny baby will grow into a teenager and then leave home to go through his or her own emotional changes when you become a grandparent.