To Every Mum Who Is Running on Empty
As a mum of two girls, I feel like I can say this.
We are really, really good at pushing through. At telling ourselves we are fine. At putting everyone else first and convincing ourselves that our turn will come later, when things slow down.
But things do not slow down. And our bodies do not forget.
I want to talk about something that does not get mentioned enough. Pregnancy takes a lot out of you. And I mean that in a very real, physical way. Your body gives so much of itself to grow a baby - iron, B12, folate, magnesium, vitamin D. All of it gets pulled toward your baby first, and what is left over goes to you.
A lot of mums come out of pregnancy already depleted, and then go straight into the newborn phase, which is its own level of exhaustion. And then breastfeeding, which continues to pull from your body for months. And then the general chaos of raising kids, working, keeping a house, being everything to everyone all at once.
At some point, something has to give. And usually it is you.
The thing is, it happens so gradually that you stop noticing. You just adjust. You have another coffee. You tell yourself everyone feels like this. You start to think this is just who you are now, a tired person. And that breaks my heart a little, honestly, because it does not have to be that way.
A lot of what we write off as normal mum tiredness is a body that is genuinely depleted. Low iron. Low B12. Low magnesium. Not dramatically, just enough to make everything feel heavier than it should.
What I love about what we do at strIVe, and why I think it works so well for mums, is that it does not ask anything of you. You do not have to go anywhere. You do not have to organise childcare or drive anywhere or sit in a waiting room.
I come to you. You sit on your couch. For about an hour, someone looks after you for a change.
And the amount of times I have had a mum sitting there and just started crying because she finally had a moment to just stop — honestly, that is why I do this.
Most people feel a real difference. Not wired, not buzzy. Just restored. Like their body finally had a chance to catch up.
You cannot pour from an empty cup. I know that sounds like something on a fridge magnet but it is also just true.
You matter too. Let someone look after you for once.
