A Woman's Body After Birth

Written by Jodi Cleghorn

Mom Stages - New Motherhood

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Very little is written about a woman's post birth experience of her body. The focus of education and preparation is on pregnancy, labor, birthing and breastfeeding. Being educated about how your body will change after birth can help women come to terms with the changes as they occur. Jodi Cleghorn introduces the topic of physical changes post birth in this article, the introduction to a multi-part series.

Introduction

When I was preparing for life after birth I was naïve about my body. I gave little thought to what my body would look like, how I would feel about it, how others would treat it and what would be needed to support, care for and nourish it -- beyond good meals once I had birthed.

Birth has the potential to be an empowering and euphoric experience, but once the birth hormones have left the building, a woman's body can feel like a train wreck. Riding shotgun along with the joy and amazement of holding her newborn can be the physical reality of feeling exhausted, struck down, raw, depleted and empty.

How a woman feels about her body and how she adapts to the changes in her body can be challenging if her experience is accompanied by:

• Significant bleeding
• A long and difficult labour
• Tissue trauma
• Unexpected intervention
• Negative attitudes of care providers

The recovery process from birth may be longer and more difficult.

The more educated a woman is about the changes in her body after birth and the more honest stories she is exposed to, the better able she is to cope with the changes. While many women will agree that intellectual preparation never marries completely to the lived experience, knowing what is potentially in store acts as a buffer to any nasty surprises.

As many of the changes a woman experiences after birth are ‘messy' or make women feel embarrassed, very little is discussed about it even between the closest and most trusted of friends. This can leave a woman unsure if what is happening with her body is normal. There are aches and bleeding, for some women there are after pains (often just as intense as labor) as the uterus contracts, other women will be coming to terms with stitches for perineal tears or episiotomies -- and a growing number of woman will be post operative with caesarean sections.

While every woman's journey is her own, there are a number of changes that all women will experience, especially in the early weeks of motherhood. What makes each woman's experience uniquely her own is the intensity of the changes, the duration of them and the feelings a woman has towards these shifts in her physical self.

As a new mother, there is enough to come to terms with without worrying about and suffering in a body that is foreign, painful and for which you have no other point of reference. Henry James, the Grandfather of the self help movement in the U.S. said, "If your expectations meet your reality then you are happy."

So what should a woman expect of her body in the early postpartum period? The following series of articles explores women's experiences of the unexpected, lochia, the vagina, pelvic floor and the anus after birth, combining the best of empirical research with womens' personal experiences and wisdom.

Jodi Cleghorn is a mother, writer and editor, feminist and social geographer. Jodi is the co-author of Reclaiming Sex After Childbirth: the survival guide with Annie Evett, with whom she co-owns the Reclaim Sex After Birth website. Jodi lives in Brisbane, Australia with her partner Dave, son Dylan, the fish of Bo and Keats the Cat.

Yoni Yearning and Checking Changes are used with the permission of Annie Evett

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