Essentialism for Nursing Moms

(U.S. Breastfeeding Committee)

The basic idea behind essentialism is: decide what is essential and get rid of what is not essential so that you can focus on what really matters.

What really matters? We all need to decide what we think matters in our lives. However, I bet if you are a Catholic nursing mom, your faith and your family are pretty high up on your list. If you are a new mom, you probably know in general what your top priorities are but maybe you are finding it challenging to get everything done. Here are some ideas that might help.

Write down everything you think is essential in your life right now. Your list might look like: nurse my baby, change my baby’s diapers, eat nutritious food and drink enough water, take a shower, rest, pray, get outside, make time for my friends, make dinner, spend time with my husband, etc. 

Now think of ways you can make these top priorities happen. Maybe your husband can hold the baby while you take a shower? How about if you take a nap while you nurse your baby to sleep? If you already have a good prayer routine, definitely stick with that. However, if you are having trouble making prayer a priority, commit to 5 minutes per day right now while nursing your baby. If you want to drink more water, maybe fill up some water bottles in the morning and set them next to your nursing corner so they will be there when you sit down. If you want to get outside, why not invite a friend to take a walk with you. You can wear your baby in a baby carrier or push him in a stroller while you chat with your friend. As for dinner….why not ask a friend if she could set up a meal train for you for a few weeks?

Now make another list. These are things you need to get to at some point but they are not really essential at this very moment. Write down things like sweep the kitchen floor or return library books. Then when your mom-in-law or a friend visits and asks what she can do to help, point her to the list and let her pick something. One of our CNML mentors mentioned this great idea during our online meeting last week. Thanks, Christine!

Eventually, when you are ready, you can take your first list and write the essentials in a shorter, more succinct form for each day. It might look something like this: prayer, baby, take care of myself, do one load of laundry, spend time with my husband in the evening, reheat dinner my friend dropped off last night, do something that brings me joy.

The main goal of the essentialism exercise is to really think about what is most important to you right now and about how much energy you have. Then when someone asks you to volunteer for something at church or wants you to join a book club, you will have already taken some time to think about your priorities and energy levels and you will know if it is something you should do.

Written by Gina Peterson