This is a guest post written by Katie Moore. Katie is an active writer within the blogging community who discusses maternity, motherhood, prenatal health, childbirth and other topics within this niche.  If you have any questions or would like to connect with Katie please contact by visiting her blog, Moore From Katie or her twitter @moorekm26.

Tips For First-Time Mothers

Women pregnant for the first time are often anxious about becoming mothers. After all, the role is probably one of the most important they’ll ever have. They will be responsible for all facets of their child’s life for years, including physical, mental and emotional well-being, financial security and more. Just as important is the need for women to take care of themselves; a healthy and relatively stress-free mother is better able to care for her child. Here are seven tips for transitioning to motherhood.

1. It’s a learning experience. Women do not have to know everything about motherhood, as there are different styles and methods that other mothers will utilize. Learning to trust her natural maternal instinct will help a mother develop as her child develops.
2. Take first things first. Women should take the months of pregnancy to learn not only about the labor and delivery process, but also about how to care for their infant in the first days and months of her life. Women should learn about breastfeeding versus bottle-feeding, using car seats, handling sleeping needs and trying soothing techniques. A mother should also ask her doctor about options like umbilical cord blood banking; a process where a newborn’s valuable cord blood is collected following birth and stored in case it is ever needed to potentially help treat a medical condition down the road.
3. Schedule baby’s first wellness visit. Also, mothers need to know when it is important to call for a sick visit. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers a printable guide called “When to Call the Baby’s Doctor” to help mothers know when baby is truly sick.
4. Prioritize the essentials. In the first weeks of motherhood, mothers are tired and they and their baby are learning to live together. Working moms should talk to their employer about how much time they can take off. They should also ask someone to handle housework so they can concentrate on the baby. Even if no one is staying over, new moms should make motherhood their top priority and let other things go.
5. Self care is important. Women will do their baby no favors by sacrificing their own health to such an extent that they cannot cope as a mother. Motherhood is certainly about sacrifice, and women will put baby’s needs above their own, but they need to take care of their own health, too.
6. Read up on parenting techniques. Moms can look online, check out books or magazines and ask the pediatrician for tips about their baby’s development. They should learn what kinds of behaviors and abilities their child will progress through so they are prepared to parent him accordingly.
7. Balance work and family. Working mothers should ask their employer about flexible scheduling and any other ways to ease back into work. While pregnant, they should plan who will take care of baby when they return to work. Sometimes a relative in town will babysit for the first year or so. Many mothers instead call a day care center; most have long waiting lists, so women should call when they are pregnant to make sure she has access to the service when she needs it.

As women transition into this new phase of life, they should take time to cherish the good moments.  As long as baby’s basic needs are addressed, moms should relax. He’ll grow up more quickly than they realize, so moms should enjoy these early days of motherhood.