It is not a body that you are rushing to “get back”.

It is not as able as the body before pregnancy. 

It is not a body that needs to go back to work the next day.

It is often not desired by those who treat the body as an object. 

It is often not a source of pleasure for the owner herself.

 

It is a body that needs extra care. 

It is a body that has burst open in all dimensions and levels to birth life into matter.

It is as fragile as the baby she gave birth to.

It is shattered into a million pieces and is struggling to regroup, reground and regrow.

It is draining itself of all the accumulated fertile juices and emotions it carried for nine moons.

 

It is a body that is healing.

Slowly reintegrating.

It is a body that carries as much joy as Grief.

It is a body that can give nurturance as much as it requires to be nourished.

 

She is not what she used to be, but she is not yet what she is becoming.

It is the limbo, the umbral of becoming Mother.

She feels the emptiness inside that cannot be filled by the baby she holds in her arms.

She feels the weight she birthed out of herself that she continues carrying for who knows how long.

The postpartum body held and nurtured us in the first days of our lives. 

The postpartum body is the new-born body of the new-born woman.

– Carol da Selva, 2023