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.
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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.