Becoming a parent is full of contradictions: It’s a time in life when love and meaning and joy crash headlong into worry and exhaustion¹, so much so that some new parents struggle to maintain their own identity. A new study out of the Netherlands suggests that this is especially true for mothers.

成为父母是一件充满矛盾的事情：在生命的这一阶段，来自爱、意义和喜悦以及忧虑和疲惫的互相冲击，让一些新晋父母必须非常努力才能维持自己的身份认同。荷兰的一项新研究表明，这对妈妈来说尤其如此。

The researchers found a consistent pattern: Women experienced declines in self-esteem during their pregnancies², and then increases in the six months afterwards. But then their self-esteem declined once again, and continued falling. By three years into their child’s life, it was still lower than their original “baseline.”

研究人员发现了一个始终一贯的模式：女性的自尊心在孕期会下降，分娩六个月后有所回升。不过，紧接着她们的自尊心又会下降，并保持下降的趋势。直至孩子长到三岁，仍低于原来的“基础值”。

Because they didn’t keep collecting data, researchers don’t know if the dip lasted even longer, but they do know it wasn’t permanent: Women who completed the survey again for a subsequent child had returned to their baseline by the time the process began anew.

由于研究人员没有继续采集生育三年后的数据，他们无法得知女性自尊心下降的持续时间是否更长，不过他们知道不会一直下降，因为那些生二胎并再度完成调查的女性在生育前便已恢复到基础值水平。

The researchers noted³ several possible reasons for a decline in self-esteem during pregnancy⁴, including physical changes to the body, rampant⁵ hormones⁶, stress over the baby’s development, and concerns about the future.

研究人员指出了几个可能导致女性孕期自尊心下降的原因，其中包括身体上的变化、激增的荷尔蒙、婴儿发育的压力以及对未来的担忧。