31 DAYS OF GENTLENESS

Nurturing New Mothers After They’re Born

Day 14: Why postnatal recovery matters

Made in Canva by the author. Photo used with permission by Dr. Sophie Messager

When we think about gentleness, many of us tend to think of a newborn baby, fresh out of her mother’s womb, and in need of being held, fed, and loved. But every time a baby is born, a mother is born too, even when she has given birth before.

We often neglect the mother’s need to be nurtured after childbirth. It’s highly stressful to need to concurrently recover from the experience of childbirth, and take care of a newborn baby highly dependent on you for survival for at least the first three months. I’ve experienced a lack of postnatal support in my second childbirth, and I’m so grateful to insist on having postnatal massage sessions after giving birth to my third child.

This is why I totally resonate with Sophie’s work to educate parents on the importance of postnatal recovery through her book — Why Postnatal Recovery Matters,

More about Dr. Sophie

Sophie left her native France in 1997 to pursue postdoctoral studies as a biology research scientist in Scotland, where she met her Hong Kong-born husband, Chi. They moved to Cambridge in 2001, got married, and had two children, Sebastien and Charlotte. Their births (both very positive…