M+LIFE: A New Mum’s Guide to Doing Things Differently
Motherhood has a way of completely unravelling and remaking you. Your body is healing. Your sense of self is shifting and the calendar you once curated with meetings, workouts, long lunches and last-minute flights now revolves around feeding schedules, 4am wake-ups and the quiet shock of it all.
It’s not just a baby who arrives. It’s a new version of you.
This guide is for navigating those early weeks with grace - not by chasing perfection or pretending to have it all together, but by finding presence. Through soft rituals, simple tools and honest reminders, it’s here to help you feel supported, soothed, and crucially still connected to yourself.
1. CREATE A system that makes space for you
In the new born haze, structure doesn't need to mean strict routines. What matters more are the tiny rituals that anchor you: a warm cup of tea alone even for five mins. A short note jotted in your phone. A two-minute shower with the door closed. Try beginning each day with a quiet check-in: What does my body need? What can I let go of? Choose stillness over noise whenever you can. These days are fleeting and foggy, but your emotions deserve to be remembered.
Recommended:
The Tenth Wellness 7-Day Postpartum Journal
Designed by the team behind the UK’s first luxury postpartum retreat at The Mandarin Oriental, this journal offers gentle prompts, healing checklists, and space to document the quiet beauty of the early days. £25 and available to order via @tenthwellness or visit tenthwellness.com
2. ASK FOR SUPPORT AND ACCEPT IT
Even if you feel like you’re coping, you still deserve care. Say yes to help — meals, laundry, a quiet hour to yourself — and say no to anything that feels heavy, unhelpful or performative. Visitors can wait and so can WhatsApps.
Keep a running list in your Notes app of things people could actually help with. When someone asks what you need, you’ll know. Most importantly, speak up early. Emotional overwhelm is normal, but you are not meant to go through this alone.
Recommended:
Way Too Honest: Support Cards for New Mothers
64 refreshingly real cards covering everything about motherhood that is rarely spoken about. Created by a mum who’s been there, they’re raw, funny, and deeply validating. £22 from waytoohonest.co — and 10% off with code MOTHERPLUS until 31 July. One purchase = one donation to maternal mental health support.
3. REDEFINE What wellness means for you now
Wellness in this season might look like finishing your tea while it’s still warm. Or brushing your hair. Or eating with both hands. Maybe it’s stepping outside for two minutes of sunlight and silence. Or just breathing — really breathing.
Make your environment part of the healing: fresh air, gentle light, calming textures. Forget “bouncing back.” You’re moving forward, differently.
Recommended:
Avery Row New Mum Gift Set
A box of practical calm, featuring vegan chocolate, soothing teas, nipple balm, and the softest muslins. Everything is thoughtfully curated and midwife-approved it’s the kind of gift that actually helps. Available via averyrow.com
4. the most powerful thing you can be right now is honest
Everything changes in early motherhood — your energy, your friendships, your sense of ambition. Let it. You’re not regressing. You’re rebuilding slowly, and beautifully. Some people will fall awaymand others will come closer than you imagined. Stay open to the newness, especially the quiet friendships that form in DMs, buggy walks and bleary 2am feeds.
You don’t need to return to who you were. That version of you did her job. Now, you get to evolve and she might just be… even better.
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