Why Postpartum Recovery Support Is Essential

This article is one of a series of articles and interviews featuring the child-bearing journey of one of our owner-founders, Lauren Reyes. If you’re not caught up, the first describes her pregnancy at an advanced maternal age, the second is her birth story, and this article discusses her postpartum recovery.

I’m so grateful that Lauren and Andrew were willing to share these experiences with our community. I know that I don’t just work for a company, but for real women doing the work and living the experiences with us. They show us who they are. They are authentic and vulnerable and have a clear vision. They want all of us to reach our goals and feel supported in the process. They want all families to thrive. There are a lot of different ways to thrive, and this article is about thriving after birth so you can re-enter life with good health and abundant energy.

The Way We Usually Do It

In the United States, most people don’t get much time off work for maternity leave. Most families don’t have a supportive workplace so they can continue breastfeeding and parenting children, especially in the early months and years. Most people don’t have excellent childcare options. Most people don’t have a close community of support to help them in the early weeks after having a baby. And most people don’t know how critical it is to rest and rehabilitate after having a baby. You might only get a couple of weeks of maternity leave. You might get six weeks of maternity leave or even more, but you might also spend your recovery time doing a lot of work at home or taking care of older children. You might be under the impression that your body should look a certain way, so you spend your recovery time focused on exercising and dieting. This is probably not the healthiest and most supportive atmosphere or advice for a newly postpartum mother.

Our new parents are suffering from high rates of postpartum mood disorders. Our maternal mortality rates are among the worst of any developed nation, and most of those deaths occur in the postpartum period. Many are related to mental health issues. Women are told that it’s normal to have dysfunction related to core strength, back health, bladder control, bowel control, and sex after having a baby. Sadly, these things are very common in this country, but should never be considered normal. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Why We Need to Do it Differently

Recovering from pregnancy and birth is a really big deal. At the most basic and critical level, there is some physical recovery that needs to be taken seriously so your body can go back to functioning normally. There is also another side to this. You’re not just recovering from a physical event like a surgery or other kinds of injury. You are also becoming a parent and having to figure out all the things that go along with that. On top of all that, you are also having to shift your entire identity.

Most people do not go into their parenting journey with this expectation. You probably see a lot of the opposite message. You might see examples of people “bouncing back” after pregnancy, looking and behaving exactly as they were before, just with a cute baby to share pictures of. This is not reality, but it’s what most people are shown. This is very damaging. When you see these depictions of motherhood, you might have certain expectations of yourself. When you go through the experience yourself and have more struggles than you expected, you might think that you’re failing or not as capable as most people. This is just not true.
Fortunately, there are a lot of people taking a deeper look at this life transition. Sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and many other professionals who study or work with people in the postpartum period call this transition matrescence.

The term matrescence was originally coined by anthropologist Dana Raphael in the early 1970s. She said,

“Childbirth brings about a series of very dramatic changes in the new mother’s physical being, in her emotional life, in her status within the group, even in her own female identity. I distinguish this period of transition from others by terming it matrescence to emphasize the mother and to focus on her new life style.”
— – Dana Raphael, The Tender GIFT: Breastfeeding (1973)

More recently, it’s being studied by academics and scientists in a lot of different fields. Aurelie Athan, clinical psychologist and professor at Columbia University says,

“Matrescence is a developmental passage where a woman transitions through pre-conception, pregnancy and birth, surrogacy or adoption, to the postnatal period and beyond. The exact length of matrescence is individual, recurs with each child, and may arguably last a lifetime! The scope of the changes encompasses multiple domains—bio-psycho-social-political-spiritual—and can be likened to the developmental push of adolescence. Increased attention to mothers has spurred new findings, from neuroscience to economics, and supports the rationale for a new field of study known as matrescence. Such an arena would allow the roundtable of specialists to come together and advance our understanding of this life passage.”

What these definitions and this attention to matrescence means to me is that people are finally starting to catch on to the very ancient idea that entering motherhood is a big deal. There are physical changes, including brain changes like in adolescence, but there are also huge changes in how a person will live their life. Their priorities, habits, values, and even friendships might go through radical changes. This is a huge transition, a true Rite of Passage. The good news is that when matrescence is handled with the appropriate level of gravity and care, it can lead to radical growth. People can emerge from this developmental life stage stronger, wiser, and better. It’s something to look forward to.

The Way It Can Be Done

So how exactly should this be handled? First, setting different expectations is critical.
People should enter this transition with the understanding that they need time and support so they can fully rest and heal.
People should enter this transition with the understanding that their priorities and habits might change dramatically and that is normal and good. It is not only their right, but it’s actually an important part of their growth and development.

In many other eras and cultures, this time in a person’s life is more sacred. It is better understood that a person’s body has a lot of healing to do after supporting 40 weeks of pregnancy followed by labor and birth, and for some people this includes major abdominal surgery. People bleed for weeks after giving birth, and in many traditions, this is viewed as a signal that the body is healing and should rest and rehabilitate. I think that is very true. The way you handle your recovery can have a big impact on your future health. In some Asian cultures, a period of postnatal confinement, or “Sitting the Month”, is common and expected.

There are certain traditions that are followed during this time, and usually special care is provided by a family member or even at a special facility designed for this purpose!

Doula Support as Part of Your Healing Journey

You may have great family or community support, but if you don’t, there are other options. In the video interview with Lauren, she talks about getting support from a postpartum doula. They can be so helpful during this transition. They know what to expect during recovery and know how to offer help and support. Each doula brings their own special set of skills. Lauren’s doula has special training in Ayurveda. This is an ancient tradition of health and wellness that includes a lot of emphasis on supporting your body as its healing. There are certain foods and practices that are traditional to Ayurveda, and Lauren has really benefited from this kind of care. Other doulas might have different specialties. Some are body workers and might incorporate massage or other practices into their care. Some are especially skilled with housework and organization. Others might be able to provide some lactation and newborn care support. It’s great to meet with doulas ahead of time so you can better understand what they offer and whether you feel comforted by them.

Doula care is not usually free, but you can get creative. You might ask for a postpartum doula care package as a baby gift. You might save some money during pregnancy so you can have a certain amount of doula care. There might even be local programs like this one in my hometown of Austin, TX, providing doula care for free in your area. You can also recruit friends or family members to be your doulas if they’re willing!

Here are some great books to learn more about this kind of care.

• The Fourth Trimester by Kimberly Ann Johnson
• The First Forty Days by Heng Ou
• Nurturing the Family: The Guide for Postpartum Doulas by Jacqueline Kelleher

References:

Matrescence: lifetime impact of motherhood on cognition and the brain – ScienceDirect.

A critical need for the concept of matrescence in perinatal psychiatry – PMC