Why Should Motherhood Destroy Your Body?

One-third of mothers worldwide see lasting health issues. Why aren't they being treated?

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

An analysis of global maternal health found that one in three new mothers worldwide — some 40 million women — report lasting health issues after having children, including painful sex, incontinence, depression, and and physical pain. I’ve written before about the stories women tell me: About doctors refusing to treat them because they’re pregnant; about the dismissals of their pain because, hey, they just had a baby and should be grateful; about the expectation that anything involving reproducing or trying not to reproduce will be painful for women and don’t you dare complain. So I’m glad to see a little bit more attention being paid to the things women experience, and shouldn’t have to keep experiencing, after having babies.

From the Guardian’s write-up:

The analysis examined health problems arising or continuing six weeks after childbirth or later. These included pain during sex, affecting more than a third (35%) of postpartum women, low back pain (32%), anal incontinence (19%), urinary incontinence (8-31%), anxiety (9-24%), depression (11-17%), perineal pain (11%), fear of childbirth (6-15%) and secondary infertility (11%).

…

Data gaps were also significant, the researchers cautioned. There were no nationally representative or global studies for any of the conditions identified through the research.

This is pretty stunning: A third of mothers experience at least one of a smattering of postpartum conditions, and yet virtually no one is studying it.