Do you feel broken after having a baby?

I have heard many people tell me that they felt “broken” after having a baby. The newborn postpartum time is supposed to be this glorious, magical time. Instead it leaves people feeling broken and alone. 

There are many people who are told that they can do whatever they want when they reach the magical 6 week postpartum time. 

What exactly happens at 6 weeks?

6 weeks is the time that the text books have decided to tell physicians that you are healed. This is mostly because this is how long it takes to allow your uterus to be fully healed after the placenta has detached from it. When you birthed the placenta, it left a large open “wound” on the inside of your uterus. It usually takes tissue about 6 weeks to fully heal from a large “cut”. So, this is the magical number that they (whoever they are) have decided to say “you are good to do whatever you want.”

In reality……

It takes about 12 weeks for the relaxin (a hormone that allows your ligaments to stretch during pregnancy to allow your pelvis to open up enough to have a baby) to leave your joints after being pregnant. That means that it takes about 12 weeks for your joints to be strong enough to hold you “together” for you to run or do whatever activity you want after having a baby.

However, you were just pregnant for 9 months. This usually means that your activity level significantly decreased, your body went through major changes (this is for another blog post), and your hormones are not what you are use to. You might have significantly more body fat (this is good, it means that your baby was well nourished during pregnancy), you might have significantly less muscle mass (this is usually from increased fatigue during pregnancy causing you to be less active). These 2 factors alone put more stress on your joints. 

So, with everything you experienced from being pregnant and then the postpartum period (trying to figure out how to care for a newborn and yourself at the same time), no wonder why people feel “broken” after they have a baby.

Usually people do not do much in terms of exercise for the first 6 weeks after having a baby because 1) they are told not to, and 2) they have another being to keep alive. No other time in your life are you told to not do anything for 6 weeks and then go exercise to the level that you want to right at the end of the 6 weeks. Why should the postpartum period be any different?

I just wish that people (the healthcare professionals who helped during pregnancy) would talk about what is common to feel after having a baby. I wish that it would be much more common to talk about the exercises you can do for those first 6 weeks to ease your way back into more exercise at 6 weeks and return to doing everything you want to do at 12 weeks.

You are not broken and you are not alone. Many people do not feel like themselves after having a baby. There are exercises you can do to build a strong foundation during those first 12 weeks postpartum so that you feel strong and confident about doing anything after having a baby.