13/04/2025
This is postpartum.
Not the polished, picture-perfect version. Not the part people rush to document with matching outfits and bows in perfect lighting. This is the part that often gets skipped over, the real, raw truth.
Mesh panties. A stretched, soft belly that still feels like it should have a baby inside. A nursing bra thatâs become a second skin. Hospital bracelets still tight around her wrist. Emotions everywhere. And a brand new life resting peacefully on her chest, completely unaware of the transformation that just took place, for both of them.
This is the in-between.
Between birth and recovery.
Between woman and mother.
Between exhaustion and awe.
These are the hours where your body aches in places you didnât know could ache, where your heart is somehow both heavy and light. Where youâre floating in love but also buried in pain. Where every hormone in your body is crashing like waves and youâre just trying to stay afloat.
And yet⌠this is where the magic lives.
In the way she instinctively holds her baby close, even when her arms are shaking.
In the way she studies every wrinkle, every breath, every sound, memorizing the baby she just met but somehow already knows.
In the way she sacrifices her comfort, her sleep, her body, for someone who doesnât even know how to say thank you yet.
This is motherhood in its earliest, purest form. Itâs vulnerable. Itâs sacred. Itâs powerful.
So many women have stood right here. In hospital mesh and dim lighting, feeling raw and unsure and utterly changed. And if youâre one of them, this is for you.
You are not alone.
You are not unseen.
You are not anything less than extraordinary.
You just brought life into the world.
Let that be enough for now.
And I know, maybe you donât feel like yourself yet. Maybe you feel messy, tired, swollen, and far from what the world calls "put together." But this version of you? She's a warrior. Sheâs everything your baby needs. And she is so, so worthy of being seen.
If no one told you this when you were standing here, let me be the one who does:
You are incredible. You are strong. You are enough.
This is postpartum. And itâs beautiful.
