New mom says everyone needs friends ‘who show the hell up’ in viral post
New moms can often feel overwhelmed with everything that comes with having a new baby. And Gabrielle Dunn certainly was. But it wasn't the overwhelming parts of being a new parent that sparked her now-viral Facebook post.
"I was overwhelmed with love for my best friend," Dunn told "Good Morning America."
In a post that's now been shared 60,000 times, Dunn snapped a photo of her friend Becca Ryan holding her week-old daughter Lilly Ann. The Glenpool, Oklahoma, mom wrote, "Sometimes the kind of love I need is this. Just showing the hell up, no matter how many times I say you don’t have to. Thank you, Becca for loving me and my sweet girl. Thank you for letting me cry to you and thank you for making me do things for myself from time to time."
Dunn told "GMA" she has severe anxiety and OCD. "As a new mom, I was terrified, I had no idea what I was doing, or what was right or wrong. My anxiety was so bad, that I didn’t want to even leave her to take a shower," she said. "Even if her own father had her! When I would take showers, I would just cry, because I was so overwhelmed with doubt and fears of 'am I doing this right?'"
Not uncommon thoughts for a new mom. But when Ryan saw her friend's tear-streaked face on Facetime, she came right over.
"She said 'Gabrielle, look at me.' Then I burst into tears and told her I was struggling. She said, 'That’s it. I’m coming over. I’m taking the baby and you are going to eat and shower!'"
Ryan said, "I knew she wasn't OK. I dropped everything and drove the 30 minutes to drive to her house."
She was so touched when she saw Dunn's Facebook post she said, "I started bawling my eyes out. All I thought was I’m so blessed to have a friend who feels this way about me just simply being a friend."
Both women feel the post is being shared so widely because friends want to tag one another and show their appreciation too. "Be a Becca" is a popular comment on the post.
While most of the feedback is positive, there has been some negative comments, according to Dunn.
"Judgmental comments like 'how can someone not shower for two days? That’s disgusting. Her husband obviously doesn’t help.' Well that is far from the truth. When you have the anxiety that I do, your thought process isn’t the normal thought process," she told "GMA." "When it comes to doing anything for myself, my mind goes to all of the worst-case scenarios and then I talk myself out of it. So it wasn’t the matter of not having help at home, it was a matter of allowing that help and learning how to receive it."
Dunn stressed that new moms need to ask for help.
"It’s okay to not be okay and you are not wrong for not being okay," Dunn said.
