you need your mom after you have a baby

Even people who don’t like their mother, need their mother when they have a baby. Truly. If you’re thinking to yourself, “but really, I just want to snuggle with my partner & babe. My mom will constantly be interrupting our peaceful new family”–you’ve clearly never had a newborn. There’s nothing more peaceful and simultaneously less peaceful than a newborn. *Caveat: if your mom isn’t super helpful to begin with, and you really don’t want to share new baby time with anyone, disregard all of this advice and just gaze at my adorable little SweetPea’s photo. People think that if they have a loving and supportive partner, they don’t need their mother. The two are not mutually exclusive. Consider the following facts that support Mother’s presence–qualifications that your partner simply can’t embody. 1) Fact #1: Moms have had babies before. Yes, even if it was only a one-time occurrence, your mother had you. That means she knows about tearing, hemorrhoids, bleeding, nipple pain, exhaustion, postpartum depression, and hating everything in the world while simultaneously loving everything in the world, especially your little angel-by-day, devil-by-night. Remember my postpartum health tips? Mom should be on that list! Moms know if the baby’s color is normal, if the poop is normal, and how to put on the diaper. They also know what baby stuff you actually need and what is modern materialism at its finest. They know how to swaddle, soothe, and bathe a newborn. Have you ever looked at a newborn’s umbilical cord…