When my son was born, I was amazed and overjoyed.   Both of us had been through quite a bit in the weeks leading up to his birth.   A week before he was born, my water broke.  Being a first time mom, I rushed to the hospital.  They took me in to be assessed and my obstetrician determined that my water had not broken (apparently this can be assessed over the phone).   So being the naive first time parent that I was, I ignored my instincts and went home.   My poor son had hardly any amniotic fluid left and he was like this for 4 days.   I was in labor and didn't realize it for 3 of those four days.  By the time I was admitted I was already exhausted.    I was in labor for another day and a half before the nurse figured out that my son didn't have enough amniotic fluid and they rushed me to an emergency C-section.   This was the start of my two week long stay in the hospital and my son's almost three week stay in the NICU.   When I finally got to hold him I was overjoyed and amazed and a little overwhelmed.  These feelings over the next few weeks, turned to kind of an overall numbness.   I thought it was the stress of having a new baby, or the sleep deprivation , but I was slowly sinking into depression. Everybody warns you about postpartum depression, but no one really educates you as to how it can affect different people.   For me it was a gradual disconnection from everyday happiness and the joy I took out of life.   I sunk so deep that I didn't even want to go outside.   With the pressures of having a new baby and financial stresses that  a newly married couple face, new moms often overlook their own physical and mental health.   I have taken the sage advice of my therapist.  Life is like when you are in an airplane.  The flight attendants always tell you to put on your own oxygen mask before helping your children.   This is a wonderful example of how to approach parenthood.  We must always take care of our own mental and physical health so that our children can benefit from strong and healthy parents.  So if I could look back on myself, I would definitely tell me

, "Take a break once in awhile.  Let your husband hold the baby and go take care of yourself.  You need to help yourself before you can help your son."