Self Awareness
HOME
The importance of self awareness and its affect on quality of care provided is critical to everyone let alone new mothers. In order to fully give oneself to another person for the purpose of encouraging health and well being, one must know themselves quite well. Being aware of how one feels in regards to certain situations, ideals, morals etc, will determine how they act with other people. If one doesn’t even know what they like, in time of need, more energy will be expended on determining what is feasible or what one is capable of accomplishing than the care being provided.
One study notes that “Specifically, mothers' negative emotionality and disagreeableness (themselves correlated), predicted more power-assertive and less responsive parenting” (Clark, Kochanska, Ready, 2000, p.274). “Alternatively, mothers low in extraversion (i.e., introverted) may be more withdrawn and unassertive in pursuing disciplinary goals.” (Clark et. Al., 2000, p.280). “Formation of maternal identity and mother's confidence in her ability to cope with the tasks of motherhood was affected by mothers' prenatal identification with the motherhood role, supporting the notion that knowing what to expect provides a sense of control.” (Kiehl and White, 2003, p.96).
Now considering how important self awareness is, self care is equally important. One can surely not provide good quality care for others if they themselves are not well. That implies mental, emotional and physical well being be acknowledged and attended to prior to being able to fully give oneself to another. Full self awareness and care fosters confidence in skills and a willingness to perform. Mothers, who are confident and willing, will pass that attitude and security on to their children, who can eventually share that same outlook. Accordingly, “the influence of the mother – infant relationship would account for associations between attachment quality and factors such as partner support and maternal depression.” (Tomlinson et. Al, 2005, p.1051). Another study found that ,“Conceptually, the most challenging finding in the present study is that both autonomy and sensitivity were strongly related to security but only modestly to each other.” Pederson, Gleason, Moran, and Bento, (1998, p.931).
Some say maternal instinct will kick in once the baby is born. For some mothers this is true, the skills necessary to care for their child come naturally and with ease. For others this is far from true. Veddovi et. al. (2004), states that “Regression analysis indicated that in the newborn period, maternal positive reappraisal and a planful coping style, more knowledge of child development, and previous experience with babysitting were associated with better infant development, maternal adjustment, and mother-child relationship at 12 months.” (Veddovi et. Al., 2004, p.580). Skills need to be learned and sometimes, re-learned, although, that doesn’t imply that mothers aren’t willing. In most cases they are more than willing to learn, for they want only the best for their children.