What happened to postpartum care in the U.S.?
Long ago, women were completely in charge of, and worked in concert with other women, during the long and sacred process of bringing new life into this world. These women, whether midwives or family members who may also have given birth and raised children themselves, were not only responsible for helping the mother give birth to a healthy baby - they were also present afterwards for a month or more, to ensure both the baby AND the new mother were deeply cared for, nourished, rested, and well fed, gently tending and caring for the mother, who had just gone through one of the most radical, traumatic and perilous life experiences that any human being can face.
But, with the advent of "modern" medicine, birth ultimately became industrialized. And women, who once held the knowledge of the birth mysteries and postpartum care, were purposefully shunted aside from this powerful process - forbidden to be the holders of birth and birthing knowledge, primarily by church leaders, doctors and governments. With this theft of power and knowledge, few of those in positions of power over birthing mothers deemed care of the mother after the birth of the baby as important - and thus nourishing, life-affirming postpartum care became a medical afterthought.
It must also be acknowledged that second-wave feminism, which emphasized the idea that equality between the sexes could best be acheived only if women took on the same roles as men, and leaned in to the patriarchal and capitalist conditioning that falsely equates having a career and "being consistently productive" with one's inherent human value. This essentially brainwashed women into thinking that they could and should "have it all and do it all." And it placed a ridiculous and unsustainable new burden on expectant mothers who also worked/had a career outside the home. This disingenuous and harmful belief that we can "pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps" fails all of us, regardless of gender - and it especially fails new mothers.
The abnormal and harmful conditioning that believes new mothers can "do it all for and by themselves" in concert with the failure/omission of the health care industry to actually care for new mothers were a perfect storm of factors that has all but eradicated the practice of postpartum care in the U.S. “Our healthcare system does not prioritize women healing from childbirth, so it routinely fails them as a result.”
The postpartum mother's health and wellbeing are seemingly no longer considered important, once her "purpose" of growing and birthing a child has been completed. At the roots of this abandonment of mothers to a wide variety of real health risks, and even death, lies a deep and disturbing misogyny. In the words of one doctor, "We treat the new mother as if she is a candy wrapper: once the candy comes out, we throw the wrapper away."
In truth, it has never been the mother's responsibility to take care of herself alone while caring for her newborn. It was never the mother's resonsibility to self-diagnose her own needs and to care for herself postpartum alone.
Yet, new mothers are essentially abandoned every day by our health care system, to figure out how to rest and heal on their own after the birth of their babies. One sobering result: the United States has the worst levels of infant and maternal mortality in the developed world. And more than half of maternal deaths here occur after birth.
Postpartum care and support can help change this horrible statistic. ALL mothers and their babies, indeed, the wellbeing of entire families, are at risk as a result of this travesty of care.
Long ago, women were completely in charge of, and worked in concert with other women, during the long and sacred process of bringing new life into this world. These women, whether midwives or family members who may also have given birth and raised children themselves, were not only responsible for helping the mother give birth to a healthy baby - they were also present afterwards for a month or more, to ensure both the baby AND the new mother were deeply cared for, nourished, rested, and well fed, gently tending and caring for the mother, who had just gone through one of the most radical, traumatic and perilous life experiences that any human being can face.
But, with the advent of "modern" medicine, birth ultimately became industrialized. And women, who once held the knowledge of the birth mysteries and postpartum care, were purposefully shunted aside from this powerful process - forbidden to be the holders of birth and birthing knowledge, primarily by church leaders, doctors and governments. With this theft of power and knowledge, few of those in positions of power over birthing mothers deemed care of the mother after the birth of the baby as important - and thus nourishing, life-affirming postpartum care became a medical afterthought.
It must also be acknowledged that second-wave feminism, which emphasized the idea that equality between the sexes could best be acheived only if women took on the same roles as men, and leaned in to the patriarchal and capitalist conditioning that falsely equates having a career and "being consistently productive" with one's inherent human value. This essentially brainwashed women into thinking that they could and should "have it all and do it all." And it placed a ridiculous and unsustainable new burden on expectant mothers who also worked/had a career outside the home. This disingenuous and harmful belief that we can "pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps" fails all of us, regardless of gender - and it especially fails new mothers.
The abnormal and harmful conditioning that believes new mothers can "do it all for and by themselves" in concert with the failure/omission of the health care industry to actually care for new mothers were a perfect storm of factors that has all but eradicated the practice of postpartum care in the U.S. “Our healthcare system does not prioritize women healing from childbirth, so it routinely fails them as a result.”
The postpartum mother's health and wellbeing are seemingly no longer considered important, once her "purpose" of growing and birthing a child has been completed. At the roots of this abandonment of mothers to a wide variety of real health risks, and even death, lies a deep and disturbing misogyny. In the words of one doctor, "We treat the new mother as if she is a candy wrapper: once the candy comes out, we throw the wrapper away."
In truth, it has never been the mother's responsibility to take care of herself alone while caring for her newborn. It was never the mother's resonsibility to self-diagnose her own needs and to care for herself postpartum alone.
Yet, new mothers are essentially abandoned every day by our health care system, to figure out how to rest and heal on their own after the birth of their babies. One sobering result: the United States has the worst levels of infant and maternal mortality in the developed world. And more than half of maternal deaths here occur after birth.
Postpartum care and support can help change this horrible statistic. ALL mothers and their babies, indeed, the wellbeing of entire families, are at risk as a result of this travesty of care.