Latest news with #mama
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
13 Things I Got Rid Of After Deciding I'm Done Having Kids
This article may contain affiliate links that Yahoo and/or the publisher may receive a commission from if you buy a product or service through those links. I'm the lucky mama to two smart, silly, special, and sweet little girls. My daughters are aged 2 and 4, and I feel grateful and lucky to be their parent. I also feel complete. For a host of personal reasons, my husband and I decided we are done having kids — and with that comes a whole lot of stuff to throw away. Between trying to get pregnant, actually becoming so, and taking care of newborns, I've amassed so much stuff. For a time, I held onto much of it under the guise of 'what if.' What if we decide to try for a third, what if I get pregnant unintentionally, what if I meet another mom who could use any of it. All those 'what ifs' have left my bathroom, closet, and dresser overflowing. There's also the emotional weight, as getting rid of these things signals an end to one of the most meaningful and yearned-for periods of my life. The simple act of decluttering can feel sad and difficult. However, it also can be positive. Clinging to unused ovulation sticks and nursing ointments doesn't allow me to focus on the present, or the future. And so, if you're at a similar crossroads, I invite you to join me and discard the things that are piling up, and make space for the next great chapter to come. Anyone who is trying specifically to have kids will likely lean on an ovulation tracker of some kind to up their chances of conceiving. I used ovulation sticks for all of my pregnancies, and bought more than I ended up needing. A pile of unused ones is still sitting in my bathroom and because they're linked to a specific tracker, I couldn't even donate them if I wanted to. I'll never need these again, so they can go into the trash. In addition to ovulation trackers, I bought a bunch of pregnancy tests to use every month when trying to conceive. Even after having my first child, I never tossed them out, as I knew the day would come when we would try to have a second. Now that we're done, these only add unnecessary clutter — especially because they're expired and I can't give them away to fellow mamas-to-be (although I wish I could, as they're not exactly cheap). I suffered with a lot of nausea in my pregnancies and required over-the-counter help. I also needed additional medications while pregnant due to my 'advanced maternal age,' which I was so lovingly reminded of at every OB-GYN appointment. All of those pills and tablets are still in my medicine cabinet, and while I'm guilty of holding on to other regular, everyday medicines for far too long, I can't foresee any situation where I'd need these specific-use medications again. I could use a good clothing declutter session in general to rid myself of old 'going out tops' or formerly trendy pieces that now induce a good deal of cringe. But even more unnecessary are my maternity clothes. There's no scenario where I will wear full-belly-coverage leggings, hidden panel nursing tops, or under-belly drawstring linen pants. In adolescence I was prone to stretch marks, so in pregnancy I religiously slathered on creams and oils that promised to prevent them. And while their hydration qualities in general are nice, they're a bit heavy for everyday use and no longer what I reach for when my skin needs a drink — even on super-dry days. Out they go. The so-called fourth trimester isn't spoken about enough. In my opinion, it's harder than pregnancy itself — and that's coming from someone who spent much of her pregnancy colored green or awake at all hours with insomnia. After giving birth, in addition to caring for an infant and navigating a flood of hormonal changes, a new mom must also recover from the trauma of childbirth. My deliveries were very different, but in both instances I needed things like peri bottles, sitz baths, postpartum ice packs, special underwear, and cooling foams and pads — all of which I've yet to throw away. When it comes to feeding babies, however you do it, fed is best. I personally nursed my babies and struggled a lot in the beginning. Eventually, we got into a good rhythm but only after relying on aids such as nipple shields, lanolin creams, and cooling gel pads to help my baby latch and relive my discomfort. And would you believe it? All of those items are still in my house and ready to make their way out. Similar to above, I only wore nursing bras for years. Because they're convenient and more comfortable than regular bras, I kept wearing them after weaning, too. But I've now realized these bras no longer serve or support my changed body. While I haven't missed underwire over the past few years, I know I'm ready to go back to regular bras. Babies grow so quickly, and the adorable onesies you so excitedly picked out, in reality, may only get two or three wears. Couple that with the fact that friends and family love to give clothes to new babies, and you'll quickly end up with more clothes than you know what to do with. For a while, I held onto clothes for sentimental value, or to give to friends. But with bins overflowing, it's time to bring them all to the nearest donation center. When I was pregnant for the first time, every list of must-have baby items I read included receiving blankets. So I stocked up on a bunch, and was gifted even more. Do you know what we never used at all? Receiving blankets. I still have no fewer than 20. I previously tried to organize them, and while that helped, most of these need to go (aside from one of two that I'll hold onto for sentimental sake). While I'm not quite done changing diapers just yet, there are other things I no longer need that my kids used as infants. For example: baby nasal aspirators for tiny stuffy noses, gripe water for upset tummies, gas and colic relief products, and teething rings and toys. Even though my girls were primarily breastfed, they took bottles from time to time as babies. I purchased so many kinds in the early days to see what they'd like. Now my daughters have graduated to sippy cups and straw Thermoses, and yet I still have a cabinet full of old bottles. Some are intact but too dusty to give away, while others are missing parts entirely. There are plenty of big items we still use, like a crib or a kids' dresser. But our bassinet stroller attachment? No longer needed. Baby bouncer? Bye bye. A baby walker? We're done with that. Same for baby carriers, infant loungers, sit-to-stand activity centers, rattles, and tummy-time mats. And in the case of my 4-year-old, much of her aged-out stuff can't be reused by my 2-year-old who already has her own duplicate. This includes a diaper pail and caddy, changing table top, and a rocking chair. Removing these large items will make the biggest difference to clear space in a home. Home: Where Your Story Starts How a Cheerful DIY 'Drop Zone' Made This Whole Space Work Smarter 3 DIY Paint Projects with Pro Results Sign up for Apartment Therapy's Daily email newsletter to receive our favorite posts, tours, products, and shopping guides in your inbox.
The Guardian
25-06-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
‘I am worried my baby is too bald' and other anxieties we tried to solve with products – so you don't have to
The wonderful thing about having a baby is that you are incredibly vulnerable, physically and emotionally, and as a result, incredibly susceptible to advertising. Even those moments when you have a minute to 'relax' and spend some quality time with your phone, you're reading parenting forums, looking up symptoms, bookmarking baby-led weaning recipes and watching videos of experts telling you the 12 ways you are doing irreparable damage to your baby by being on your phone right now. Luckily for you mama, the very same device that creates endless anxieties also gives you access to the products that will solve them! Truly, we are living in the golden age. Fix: a wipe warmer One thing no one warns you about when you become a mother is how much of your brain will be constantly preoccupied by temperature. Is the baby's head too cold? Is her bath too hot? Does she feel warm to you? Is her bottle too cool? What's the TOG rating for this damn sleepsack? It's every mother's nightmare that your child will ever experience a single moment of discomfort and hold it against you for the rest of their lives. Who hasn't felt their baby flinch as you applied a cool wet wipe to their nethers during a midnight nappy change and thought, 'I am a monster. Time to walk into the forest and howl at the moon'? Good thing there's a product that allows you to circumnavigate trauma of the cold bum cheeks. With this nifty device you can get that adorable little asshole spick and span while sparing it from the dangers of ever knowing a suboptimal temperature. Will you immediately follow this warm wipe with a cold scoop of Sudocrem? Could you have saved yourself $69.99 by just sticking a wipe under your tit before using it? I dunno mama, it's late, try to get back to sleep. Fix: a silk pillowcase Is your precious newborn developing a bald spot? How is he meant to pose in his baby milestone photoshoot without a perfect head of hair? What if someone sees your baby's bald spot and thinks, 'That baby has a bald spot.' Why, this could really affect his career prospects and social life, even though he is merely days old. But, because you are a good mother, you can help him now by spending a stupid amount of money on a mulberry silk bassinet sheet. Yes, mulberry silk, laboriously made by cultivating and killing millions of silkworms. Once it was a fabric reserved for royalty, now it can be shat on by any middle-class baby, if his mother is anxious enough. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Fix: earmuffs for newborns So you've dropped a couple of grand on the cutting-edge robot cot that rocks your baby to sleep while playing white noise. But now you're worried: is it too cutting-edge? There hasn't been time for longitudinal studies on what white noise might do to your baby's fragile ears. After spending six hours Googling studies, reading studies, realising you don't have a science degree and can't interpret the studies, there's only one thing you can do. You must buy infant earmuffs to protect her ears from white noise, in case the white noise is somehow damaging her eardrums or disrupting the neural pathways that need to develop for her brain to understand sound. While you're at it, remember to put away some money for occupational therapy costs in case she ends up having an auditory processing disorder because of how much white noise you've already played her. Also, while she's wearing the earmuffs, you have to stay awake and watch her like a hawk because the earmuffs are not a part of the Red Nose safe sleep recommendations. So you can't ever sleep again, sorry. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion Fix: sensory play Worried your precious baby will not develop the ability to touch things? Sometime in the last decade, parenting experts came together to invent something called 'sensory play'. Sure, stimulating your senses could be achieved by doing something called Being a Person in the World, but for some reason this now involves a messy abomination known as sensory play. Influencers show off their tubs of shaving cream, food colouring, water, pebbles and assorted slimes, arranged into perfect little scenes like a high school science diorama. When we were kids, our sensory encounters were limited to metal slippery dips in the playground and stepping on bindis in the summertime. Now, parents must spend hours hand-dyeing grains of rice and conjuring up taste-safe sands, just for a toddler to poke at it for a hot five minutes before they get bored and traipse everything into the house, leaving you with your own sensorial play of cleaning goo stains out of your carpet and stepping on a chickpea in the middle of the night. You got this mama! Fix: a neck floatie So your baby seems to like the bath, but could your baby be having a better time in the bath? Are you just letting them sit in there, with their bum on the base of the bath? Why not suspend your baby from the surface of the bath instead, with a flotational neck doughnut. Simply pop your baby's head in the doughnut, fill the bath up all the way to the top, and have them bob around in there, serene as a leaf in a pond in a Japanese garden. Now how did anyone bathe their babies before we could order a flotational neck pillow directly to our door? Alex Lee and Humyara Mahbub are the hosts of the podcast Baby Shoes.
Mail & Guardian
08-06-2025
- Health
- Mail & Guardian
Tanzania leads the fight to end maternal deaths
Maternal health has been prioritised in the country's national development plans. Tanzania has made great progress in saving the lives of mothers. In just seven years, the country's maternal mortality rate has been This is not only a national achievement; it is a model for Africa, and a signal to the world that change is possible and long overdue. At the 78th World Health Assembly, which concluded earlier this week, health officials and world leaders When the Jiongeze Tuwavushe Salama Access to Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (CEmONC) has been expanded by increasing facilities from just 115 to over 566, ensuring that more than 90% of Tanzanians live within five kilometers of a health facility. The referral system has been significantly strengthened through technology-driven initiatives such as the m-mama emergency transportation programme and the Safer Births Bundle of Care (SBBC). In recent years, more than 20,000 new health professionals have been employed and health facilities have been equipped with ambulances and digital innovations, including artificial intelligence-supported maternal death reviews and real-time telemedicine solutions. These innovations, from WhatsApp triage groups to Project ECHO's virtual consultations, have already saved hundreds of women's lives. But the foundation of this success has not been technology alone, it has been political will. Maternal health has been prioritised in every national development plan. Work with Other African countries are taking note. Earlier this year, Tanzania hosted delegates from 16 nations under the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention to study the country's approach. Through the Collaborative Advocacy Action Plan Yet more must be done, and fast. Across sub-Saharan Africa, maternal deaths remain common. Many women still give birth too far from help, without skilled care and without access to basic medicines or transport. These are solvable problems. As we look toward 2030, I call on fellow leaders to prioritise women's health not as a statistic to improve, but as a moral imperative. Adopt national campaigns that place maternal mortality at the heart of health reform. Invest in infrastructure, workforce and digital solutions that work for people, not just institutions. Share knowledge. Measure outcomes. And above all, treat every maternal death as an unacceptable loss. Tanzania stands ready to support those ready to act. It can offer technical assistance and the insights gathered. Together, we can ensure that no woman dies while giving life in Africa and anywhere in the world. Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan is the President of Tanzania.
Vogue
08-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- Vogue
Don't Call Me 'Mama'
I was such an easy mark. The day I discovered that I was pregnant, in January of 2020, I googled what to do when you get pregnant, and instantly the brands supplied me with their answers. They offered me leggings and belly oils and a new identity, too: They all called me mama. Not mother, or mommy, or mom. Mama. Its eerie ubiquity signaled the kickoff of a promotional campaign. I was being rebranded as a mother, and motherhood itself was being rebranded through me. Mama is actually an old word—the Oxford English Dictionary guesses that it came straight from the mouth of babes, as it's 'characteristic of early infantile vocalization'—but now it's been fully integrated into the language of marketing. In 2015, Elissa Strauss traced the rise of 'mama' as affluent white women began cribbing it from Black and Latina communities. They were using it to style themselves as alternative wellness gurus, promoting homeschooling, cloth diapering, and organic feeding solutions. Now their mothering style is inescapable, and the word has acquired a totalizing power. The newsletter for the maternity dress company says: Everything in moderation, mama. The novelty mug sold over Instagram says: Deep breaths, mama. The mirror in the airport breastfeeding pod says: Lookin' good, mama. Mama is not exactly new, but it's new enough that it wasn't applied to my own mother in the 1990s, or her jeans. The mama supplants all the other mother types that have come before her. She transcends the pattern set by the refrigerator mother, the soccer mom, or the mommy blogger. Her pharmaceutical drugs are not mother's little helpers, her glass of wine is not mommy juice, and her mind has not yet dissolved into mom brain. Using a fresh term lends an optimistic gloss, seeming to rescue motherhood from the cultural forces that have rendered past generations of mothers uncool, infantile, and generally unfit for public life. Of course, with every rebrand, the cycle begins anew. Mama aims to transmit a sense of earthiness, sensuality, and above all, solidarity between the mother and the brand. There is a real smarminess to it, a presumed intimacy where none exists. It's the sound of a supplement start-up throwing an adult sleepover inside your phone, and it feeds on the isolation built into the structures of American parenthood. A 2021 Harvard report found that 51% of mothers of small children felt 'serious loneliness'; their degree of isolation was second only to young adults between the ages of 18 to 25. Both groups are Americans at transformative and destabilizing life stages. The brand capitalizes on the mother's aloneness and says: I see you, mama. But all it sees is an advertising category.
