Becoming a parent is full of contradictions: It’s a time in life when love and meaning and joy crash headlong into worry and exhaustion, 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.
成為父母是一件充滿矛盾的事情：在生命的這一階段，來自愛、意義和喜悅以及憂慮和疲憊的互相沖擊，讓一些新晉父母必須非常努力才能維持自己的身份認(rèn)同。荷蘭的一項(xiàng)新研究表明，這對(duì)媽媽來說尤其如此。

The researchers found a consistent pattern: Women experienced declines in self-esteem during their pregnancies, 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.”
研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個(gè)始終一貫的模式：女性的自尊心在孕期會(huì)下降，分娩六個(gè)月后有所回升。不過，緊接著她們的自尊心又會(huì)下降，并保持下降的趨勢(shì)。直至孩子長(zhǎng)到三歲，仍低于原來的“基礎(chǔ)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.
由于研究人員沒有繼續(xù)采集生育三年后的數(shù)據(jù)，他們無法得知女性自尊心下降的持續(xù)時(shí)間是否更長(zhǎng)，不過他們知道不會(huì)一直下降，因?yàn)槟切┥ゲ⒃俣韧瓿烧{(diào)查的女性在生育前便已恢復(fù)到基礎(chǔ)值水平。

The researchers noted several possible reasons for a decline in self-esteem during pregnancy, including physical changes to the body, rampant hormones, stress over the baby’s development, and concerns about the future.
研究人員指出了幾個(gè)可能導(dǎo)致女性孕期自尊心下降的原因，其中包括身體上的變化、激增的荷爾蒙、嬰兒發(fā)育的壓力以及對(duì)未來的擔(dān)憂。

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（翻譯：Frank）