Powerful image illustrates why women need time to recover after childbirth
by Michelle Stein posted in Pregnancy
A few years back, I wrote about a study that found nearly one-quarter of employed mothers returned to work within two weeks of giving birth.
Two weeks!
Rather than personal preference, of course, this had to do more with the fact that families depended on mothers' paychecks. That's because there is no guaranteed paid maternity leave for new moms in the U.S. So moms are basically forced to do whatever it takes to make ends meet -- even if that means returning to work while their bodies are still trying to heal.
Here's the thing, though: Doctors don't tell new moms to rest and take it easy for roughly 6 weeks after delivery for no reason at all. And this mom's powerful image shows exactly why women need plenty of time to recover after childbirth. Laura Fry -- a mom and birth advocate who runs the Facebook page, Labor of Love - Lancaster, PA -- recently put things into perspective. Using a paper plate and a tape measure, Fry demonstrated the size of the wound that's left by your placenta after giving birth. For thousands of Facebook users, her post was the "aha!" moment about the toll of childbirth they never knew they needed.
"22cm or 8.6 inches. That is the exact diameter of a paper plate, AKA the fine china in our house. It is also the average diameter of a placenta," Fry wrote on her now-viral Facebook post. "After a baby is born, mothers are told to take it easy for at least 4-6 weeks. There are good reasons ...
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