Having a baby ‘causes mothers to lose self-esteem for up to three years’

It’s supposed to be one of those magical moments in life – but having a baby can seriously chip away at a mother’s self-esteem.

The effect is also long-lasting – with new mums seeing a serious dip in self-esteem and relationship satisfaction for up to three years after the birth of a child.

Wiebke Bleidorn of Tilburg University in the Netherlands led a team which asked 85,000 mothers in Norway to complete psychological questionnaires in the months after their child was born.

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Bleidorn said, ‘Self-esteem decreased during pregnancy, increased until the child was six months old and then gradually decreased over following years.’

The consistency of responses suggest that the effect may be standard across the population according to the British Psychological Society’s blog.

The researchers say that the initial upturn may be to do with the ‘sense of meaning’ offered by motherhood – but after six months, the psychological and social shift of taking care of a baby takes its toll.