The First 40 Days Postpartum & Why They Matter
Forty days of intentional holistic postpartum care is a practice we can find in other times & places all over the world. The ancient wisdom of traditional postpartum care, not only supports the mother’s health & wellbeing, but the wellbeing of the entire family unit & community at large. In this blog post I share the differences in care during the first 40 days postpartum, and how the type of support a mother receives during this time can make a significant impact on our mothers, children & the greater whole of society.
In this blog post:
The Western worldview of postpartum & the lack of support we see during here during this sensitive & significant time.
The ways in which other countries & cultures witness postpartum & caretake the mothers.
Why mother-centered, holistic postpartum care is important to not only the health of our mothers, but our children & communities at large.
Postpartum in western society
In the Western worldview, most of the focus on the childbearing journey goes to pregnancy and birth, while the postpartum period gets little acknowledgement. Mothers are encouraged to spend much of their time and energy during pregnancy planning the shower, nursery and birth plan, but hear little about how they can prepare to care for themselves in the moments and weeks following birth.
In Western society, acknowledgement of the postpartum time typically looks like a short visit with a doctor six weeks following birth, to give a quick check up letting the mother know whether she is “healed” or not. Birth is often seen as the finish line in the childbearing journey, and the attention that comes after birth usually centers around the baby instead of the mother. Additionally, mothers are bombarded with messages about what postpartum should look like, rather than what it actually feels like, and are pressured to “bounce back” to their pre-pregnancy body and productivity as quickly as possible. This leaves our mothers unprepared for, and blind-sighted by, their postpartum experince, resulting in feelings of anxiety, isolation, exhaustion, overwhelm, guilt, depression, depletion, etc. The lack of care and missing conversations around postpartum fails our mothers, and in doing so, it fails our children and the community at large.
Postpartum care around the world
If we look to other times and places in the world, postpartum is witnessed with deep reverence and believed to open a sacred window in time allowing the mother a chance to rebuild her internal and external world in a way that will heal and support her for many years to come. It is understood that while the baby is important, the wellbeing of the entire family is dependent on the wellbeing of the mother, and that the first forty days postpartum are the most critical time for a mother to be cared for.
In other countries we see midwives attending birth in a woman’s home, and the midwife’s care for the mother continues weekly, sometimes daily, in the days following. We see entire communities come together to support the mother so that she can rest, heal and build a solid foundation of nourishment for herself and her children to thrive on. This type of care is not seen as a luxury, but as a necessity for the health and wellbeing of the entire community and the generations to come.
As Rachelle Garcia Seliga of Innate Postpartum Traditions says, “The best way we can ‘take care of’ the future generations, is by optimally supporting Mothers. The right order of things is that: Communities take care of Mothers, so that Mothers can take care of their babies, so that those babies can grow up to take care of their communities.”
Why does this type of care matter?
When mothers are able to deeply and intentionally nourish their children, and hold safe, loving space for them, those children are better able to grow up feeling secure, loved and nourished, allowing them to care more deeply for the world around them, the living beings within it and the communities they take part in. However, a mother needs to be deeply held and intentionally nourished herself, so that she can offer this type of care to her baby from a whole and resourced place. Pregnancy & birth are a huge energetic expenditure, as is caring for & sustaining a new tiny being. If a mother’s body is not able to replenish its energetic reserves, her life force will be depleted & her body will struggle to put energy into healing & sustaining her baby. There is a tremendous amount of restructuring & rebuilding that is taking place during the first 40 days postpartum, physically, emotionally, & spiritually. Hundreds of cultures recognize this and make true postpartum care an essential part of raising healthy children and building thriving communities. It is a system of care that acknowledges and supports the entirety of a mother’s being. While these postpartum traditions are specific to the cultural context from which they come, ancient postpartum care practices share common insights that make up the secure foundation that hold a mother’s postpartum body, mind and spirit, and typically offer 30 to 40 days of postpartum care.
Birth is a portal taking a mother through a transition that transforms her from one version of herself to another, and the postpartum season marks the integration of these changes and gives her a rare opportunity to revitalize and replenish herself deeply. Reclaiming the wisdom of traditional postpartum care supports us in planning for the physical, energetic and spiritual support mothers need in the postpartum season. This wholistic approach to postpartum care will not only set the foundation for a mother’s future health and wellbeing, but for the wellbeing of her entire family unit and community at large.
Together, let us change the way mothers are cared for after birth.
With love, Amy
Want to learn more about how to tend to the postpartum body holistically? Read: The Pillars of Traditional Postpartum Care
