Undoubtedly, motherhood is one of the significant milestones for the majority of the women out there. However, it had also been noted that motherhood can be a mixed blessing. The excitement and expectation of having a new baby combined with radical and sometimes difficult changes to a woman’s body, financial concerns, emotional ups and downs, lack of sleep due to the caretaking of the newborn and much more.

According to reports by TODAY, 70% of the mummies noted that motherhood is incredibly stressful and 90% of the mummies had experienced chronic stress while taking care of their newborn.

Be it that you're a mum looking forward to expecting the arrival of your first newborn, a working mum or an experienced mum with plentiful kids at hand, motherhood adjustment can be incredibly overwhelming and may not only affect you but your kids, as well as the people around you. Hence, Twinkle would like to share some wisdom and tips to help you chill out as a mother!

Without further ado, let's begin!

1. Learn Your Stress Signs

Learning to identify how you react to stress will help you curb your overload mode. Common stress signs include:

· Rising blood pressure or spiked heart rate (which can make you feel a little dizzy).
· Speaking louder or yelling.
· Irritability, more impatient or experiencing lapses in judgment.

Imagine how those behaviors affect your kids and your loved ones. Hence, it is incredibly important to tune in to your body until you identify your warning signs.

2. Learn To Take A Break

After learning how to identify your stress signs, next we would encourage all incredible mummies to learn to take a break (Yes. We know in certain situations, it is hard to achieve but it is incredibly important to take a break and gather your thoughts again instead of feeling overwhelmed.)

Learn to give yourself permission to take brief "stress breaks" to decompress or just give a new perspective to the trouble or stress you are facing. Here are some "stress breaks" that all mummies could take!

· Taking a Mommy time out: Put up a "do not disturb" sign on your bedroom door. Listen to relaxing music or plant a picture in your mind of a soothing place. Take five minutes to decompress.
· Give permission to “take ten”: Let everyone in your family know it’s OK to walk away until they can get back in control. Some families create a family signal such as using an umpire “Time Out” hand gesture that means that the person needs to decompress.

3. Finding a solution for your "HOT" times

As for 'HOT' times, what we actually meant was the most stressful or busy times within the day. Hence, these 'HOT' times usually really predictable such as the morning when everyone is dashing to get out the door or at that dinner time witching hour. By identifying the time which you feel that you are the most irritable, and find a simple way to curb the friction during that ‘HOT’ time.

For example: If you are always stressed about the chores in the morning such as sending your kids to school on time, you can find a solution to resolve that. E.g. scheduling a school bus service or teaching your kids how to take public transport on their own which would benefit in the long run.

4. Avoid Being Lack of Sleep

According to reports by HEALTHLINE, not getting enough sleep can make it more difficult to do simple tasks and can lead to frustration. Hence, with the immense pressure and responsibilities of a mum, we understand that this may sound easier than done. However, with continual lack of sleep or insufficient rest, it may further pose health problems such as high blood pressure and cause you to be overweight as your body loses out on metabolism rate.

With the above health threats, Twinkle would like to encourage all mums to grab up as much sleep as possible despite it sounding extremely tough. Here are some tips which could help you achieve that!

· While your baby is sleeping, sneak in some time and take the opportunity to nap. Take note of your child's downtime and allow yourself to charge up during that time as well.
· If you are a working mum, try to grab a power nap while travelling from home to work via public transport. Power nap could not only help you to gain back your loss of resting time while you're home but you can also be more productive and alert when you are at work!

5. Avoid Bottling Up

Imagine you're in the situation where your baby is crying, your child is in a mess and you're cooking. At this difficult times, many would certainly want to scream their lungs out. However, if that happens, it is incredibly important to come to terms with yourself and understand it is okay to feel that way.

The key is to not bottle up, making yourself feel awful and burst out at unpredictable times. Twinkle believes that problems should be shared and voiced out. Allowing your beloved partner to be your listening ear and provide support when times needed would undoubtedly help you in reducing the amount of stress you are facing alone.