14/06/2026
A well known midwife said:
“How a woman is treated postpartum will stay with her for the rest of her life.”
And I honestly think one of the deepest wounds many mothers carry… is how alone they felt after birth.
Not just physically alone.
Emotionally alone.
Because postpartum cracks a woman open.
And yet we live in a world that expects her to keep functioning as though nothing enormous has happened.
Women are expected to absorb the shock of matrescence quietly.
To continue cooking.
Replying.
Hosting.
Smiling.
Functioning.
Producing.
Caring for everyone else.
While internally she may feel:
overwhelmed,
untethered,
anxious,
touched out,
emotionally raw,
or like she has completely lost herself.
And what breaks my heart is that many mothers blame themselves for this.
Because no one told them postpartum could feel this big.
No one told them their nervous system might feel constantly on edge.
No one told them the mental load could become relentless.
No one told them how much support a mother truly needs after birth.
People prepare women to give birth.
But not to be held afterwards.
Not to be mothered while becoming a mother.
And I think that changes a woman.
I think the way a mother is cared for postpartum can shape:
how safe she feels,
how worthy she feels,
how connected she feels to herself,
and sometimes even how she remembers early motherhood years later.
Because when a woman is deeply held after birth…
she softens differently.
But when she feels emotionally abandoned while trying to hold everything together…
that stays in the body too.
And honestly?
So much of why I care about this work is because I know what it feels like when a mother needs holding too 🤍
If we can really, really take care of mothers - then the world will be a vastly different place.