When you become a new mum, you're told about the joy, the love and the bond with your baby - you're even warned about the sleepless nights or the trouble feeding.
But who tells you about the loneliness?
Jess Bowen is 23 and a mother to eight-month-old Teddy. She is the first of her friends to have a baby, and her partner is at work all day.
She feels young, insecure and unconfident.
Research from the Co-op and British Red Cross shows that loneliness can be triggered by life events - including becoming a new mother.
When British network ITV asked to speak to those in that position, within days 270 mothers had made contact to say how lonely they are.
The common threads are a loss of identity, a surprise that motherhood isn't all hearts and flowers and often post-natal depression, which fuels anxiety and isolation.
ITV / Newshub.
