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As if new mums don't have enough pressure to look good minutes after one of the most physically demanding challenges the human body can endure. Now there's a book about to hit the shelves that offers "advice" on what they should be wearing.
Wardrobe 101 For Mums has been penned by style guru Dijanna Mulhearn - and yes I've never heard of her.
Apparently, she's been making sure women around the world have been stepping out stylishly for years having worked for brands such as Prada, Harper's Bazaar, Grazia - labels and couture bibles that I'm not sure most new mothers give a toss about when they're really just trying to manage a shower and find something clean to wear.
After the birth of Cybergirl, wearing stylish clothes was the furthest thing from my mind. Wearing matching clothes was even a struggle.
But Mulhearn insists that what we wear changes how we feel so if you put on the latest fashions, squeeze into your favourite pair of Sass and Bide's when you walk out of the delivery suite, then you'll feel like you can conquer the world.
And lycra is not a material, she says, designed to flatter the post-pregnant body and should never be seen outside the privacy of your own loungeroom where, of course, brand new mums are sweating it out in all their free time to make sure they can step out in style.
She even goes so far as to suggest that new mothers should take a leaf out of the book of Aussie supermodel Miranda Kerr, which would be fine if they also had at their disposal a full-time nanny, chef, housekeeper, personal assistant and enough spare change to buy as much organic skin care, environmentally friendly nappies and Givenchy nappy bags as they wanted.
Motherhood, especially those first few months and years, should not be ruined by the perception that how you look has any influence on how you parent, on how much you love your babies, or on how successful you are at combining your pre-kid life with your new role.
But for some reason, in this new era of celebrity worship, where being "ordinary" is no longer OK, even this precious time of learning the ropes of how to care for a little person as well as yourself is being sabotaged by other women who seem to think they have the right to "suggest" what we should and shouldn't be doing, wearing, eating, or wanting.
After the birth of Cybergirl, wearing stylish clothes was the furthest thing from my mind. Wearing matching clothes was even a struggle and there is documented evidence of my fashion mistakes that although I now look at and cringe, at the time were enough to make sure I could get on with living my new life as best I could.
I managed to combine stripes and checks, lycra and wool, blue and green without a colour in between, but Cybergirl didn't care because she was well loved, well fed and happy. As was I.
When I went back to work, I struggled into "proper clothes" but always had a reminder of my role as a mother with a few baby vomit stains on my shoulder after an early morning feed before I handed her over to grandma. As she got older, the vomit patches were replaced with vegemite finger prints on my pants or skirt, but I wore them like a badge of pride that I was not just another face on the crowded train, but one with a new life that I was helping to mould.
So rather than worrying about what new mums are wearing while they're sipping their lattes at the local cafe or rushing around the supermarket between naps and feeds, it would be a welcome change to focus instead on whether they're coping in the most responsible job they'll ever have and giving them a smile rather than a critique on their wardrobe.