After the Baby is Six Weeks

A poem for the ones who want to help

Photo by Mikael Stenberg on Unsplash

Friends and family stop coming to visit. There are fewer meals,
fewer phone calls, and fewer people walking through the front door
to ooh and ahh and gush over your tiny bundle of joy. After
the baby is six weeks, there are fewer questions peppered at the new parents, and there are fewer offers to do the laundry, make dinner,
pick up groceries, or sit with the baby as the mama showers or gets a little sleep. When a baby is six weeks old, somehow everyone seems to think that the parents should be good, that they don’t need any more help, and that there is nothing left to check in on. But really, after the baby is six weeks, they need you the most — not just the baby, but
the mother, the father, the parents.