The Sorry State of Postpartum Care in America

It used to be taboo for moms to talk about their postpartum struggles. Today, not so much. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: it seems like everyone lately is talking about the difficulty of the postpartum period. On Google, if you search for “celebrity postpartum stories,” almost every result yields an article about famous moms discussing things like postpartum depression, anxiety, psychosis, and even pelvic prolapse. In March 2023, Brittany Mahomes, wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, shared a warning with her 1.9 million followers, writing, “Just a daily reminder. Once you have kids please take care of your pelvic floor. Seriously.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] This normalization has been a net gain for society. We, as a culture, needed to destigmatize talking about the postpartum struggle to improve maternal well-being. But as two psychologists specializing in women’s health, we’ve recently come to a surprising realization: maybe all this normalization has a dark side. In our culture’s noble attempt to encourage talking about postpartum pain and illness, we have inadvertently normalized the experience of postpartum pain and illness. Today, we find ourselves in a societal and medical climate that views postpartum health issues as an inescapable part of early motherhood. But this resignation runs counter to a wealth of research indicating otherwise. Many postpartum health issues, such...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized freelance Source Type: news