Women address realities of postpartum recovery

Brut America

An ad that showed a woman’s body after birth was rejected by ABC and the Academy Awards for being too graphic. Now, women are taking to social media to shift the conversation about postpartum recovery.

Transcript

00:00There's so much pressure for new moms. I mean, we feel the pressure to be a perfect parent.

00:04We feel the pressure to, you know, get our pre-baby bodies back really quickly.

00:30We call it the fourth trimester. And after this, you know, a woman is stronger and able

00:48to go out into the world. But the deal is, and this isn't talked about either, that the

00:54way a woman takes care of herself postpartum can directly affect the way she moves through

01:00menopause.

01:19It wasn't enjoyable for me, the baby stage. And I didn't feel I could say that because

01:25what kind of a woman doesn't enjoy having a baby?

01:41I'm a mother of two daughters. And after the birth of my first daughter, I suffered acutely

01:47from postpartum depression. And the biggest tragedy of all of this was that I did not

01:52know that I had postpartum depression. I did know that I wanted to die. I did know that

02:03I was incapable of holding or looking at or kissing or smelling or singing to my perfect

02:10tiny little baby. I just couldn't fathom that I would have something called postpartum

02:16depression.

02:17The pressure that we put on women when they enter motherhood to be having the perfect

02:36experience, and no one has the perfect experience, but often that's not something you realize

02:40until you're right in the teeth of it yourself. So I suppose it's a huge ask, but changing

02:45the way that we talk about motherhood generally, and making it clear that this is, as with

02:50anything in life, it's an imperfect experience. And that's fine, and it's something that can

02:54be embraced and enjoyed, if possible.

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