Emotional Support in the Postpartum Period

The 40 days after birth are known as the postpartum period, or puerperium. This is a stage of adjustment and adaptation to our new physical and psychological reality.

Although today we do things differently, in many traditional societies women cared for children communally and looked after postpartum mothers. Meanwhile, the men were in charge of finding food.

However, our social environment today is very different. Many of us live far away from our close relatives, who cannot support us. As a result, it is difficult for parents to get help nowadays.

But just because modern society doesn’t allow us to maintain this support network doesn’t mean we don’t need it. In fact, women need social support in the postpartum period to face the physical and emotional wounds of childbirth.

Get support in the postpartum period for a happy family

We must take into account that after giving birth, we need to recover and rebuild our social, biological and psychological structures. Beginning life as mother and baby means living with the most absolute chaos, and often going a little crazy.

For this reason, now more than ever, the mother needs the emotional support of those who love her. From time to time, she needs to leave the rational world of timetables, obligations and logical decisions behind, to let herself dream and forget about the material world for a few moments.

This is one of the sensations that new moms miss most of all. It is, without a doubt, the sacrifice that is most difficult to bear during this hard process of discovering ourselves, our child and those around us.

Loss of identity during the postpartum period

Facing up to our new identity as the mother of a baby means that we “leave” the world we knew, whose rules we shared.

This means accepting our own confusion, as the work, friendships and interests that once filled our days fade into distant memories, drowned out by the sound of the baby’s cries.

All of this internal turmoil can give rise to a kind of mourning. We end up believing that we will never again be that wonderful, active, charming, intelligent and dedicated woman that we took so long to become.

This happens because, in addition to the physical and emotional trauma that we go through, we lose contact with our points of reference. We are cut off from the places where we worked or studied, our hobbies and the places we like to go.

In the postpartum period and beyond, we become people with a single role in life. We are mothers. We see the world through our babies’ eyes, and sometimes don’t even recognize ourselves when we look in the mirror.

In fact, a strong link with our maternal side can make us feel extremely sensitive or emotional. Our brains can feel foggy and overwhelmed by confused feelings.

When we understand this, we realize that affection and emotional support in the postpartum period is not a luxury but a priority.

With this in mind, we should invite the people around us to understand, and to offer their emotional resources to make the postpartum period a time to discover ourselves and others.