Karen Plomp, a mother of six, believed she had accomplished all the mommy-to-be prerequisites. Turns out she wasn't as prepared to become a mother as she thought.

"I was totally unprepared for motherhood," says Plomp, a resident or Lebanon, N.H. "I had a vague picture in my mind of how the baby would sleep almost all day, waking up once in a while to eat and to play. Boy, reality was very different from that!"

Plomp says that things were much easier with her later children because she had an idea of what to expect, but the first baby was a difficult adjustment.

But can you really prepare for motherhood? The experts say yes – to a certain extent. Nothing is going to prepare you for the emotional highs and lows that are a part of the job description, but you can prepare yourself for the physical demands of motherhood and figure out the logistics of becoming a parent.

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