Post Partum Pressure

This article is written by Sky Corbett-Methot, Yoga to Cope’s Director of Holistic Health. Sky is a Certified Holistic Nutritionist, CYA-RYT 500-hour Hatha yoga and meditation instructor, certified in prenatal/postnatal yoga. She combines all of these modalities (nourishment, movement, and meditation) to help her clients live their best life.

They say having children changes your world, the infamous ‘they’ in this particular case, are completely correct. Its an understatement because no amount of preparation, or words from other parents, can provide you with the sense of understanding, until you yourself become a parent.

This tiny human, that you have so tirelessly grown for the past 40ish weeks decides they are ready to join the world and once they have made that decision you are completely and irrevocably altered.

Viscerally, emotionally, physically you are a different. It is the most wild and intense thing I have experienced so far on this planet and yet billions of females have done this!

I am someone who likes to be prepared to a certain degree. I prepared for pregnancy, by practicing my daily yoga and going back to yoga school where I learned more about my body and growing baby. I prepared for labor with the help of my Doula. Who by the way you might recognize as this badass of a human is the founder of this organization! I also prepared for life after labor, at least for the first six weeks of life with a newborn, had my padsciles ready, frozen meals in the freezer, snacks on hand etc.

But then all of a sudden this six week mark approaches.

This I wasn’t prepared for.

My babe and I got discharged from the midwife, hello family doctor here we come. I got cleared for exercise… are you kidding me? My body just went through a natural physiological trauma…. after a sprained ankle do you immediately start running? No, instead you recover and heal through rehab yet I was cleared… just like that?

Oh and I got cleared to have sex…. my organs are displaced and I am just beginning to understand my changed and new body but suddenly you get that “okay” and it can be overwhelming. On top of all of this, now I have to navigate going back to work because I only planned for a six week leave…

All of this hit me at once. This pressure of “oh shit, the honeymoon is over folks” now I need to adapt and figure out how to live with my new, very adorable, extremely needy and dependent tiny human and my changed self.

I was overwhelmed, fortunately I felt supported by my tribe, and had very open and real conversations with my partner, but internally I felt displaced. I wasn’t prepared for life after this six week mark.

What I realized was while I was growing my tiny human, I had this mindset of how to fit my tiny human into my life. When in reality I now have to figure out how to fit my life into hers.

Everything changes.

Everything.

My purpose, how my body feels, how my body is mine again but also completely hers, my thoughts are different, my priorities shifted, my sleep distorted, and the list goes on.

An overwhelming amount of pressure post partum but you know what, motherhood is not an event, its a transformation.

Once I accepted and embraced that I am a first time mama, a lot of this pressure slipped away. Once I shifted my mindset by holding the same amount of compassion for myself as I do for my tiny human, things began to fall into place.

I no longer feel displaced, but rather that I have been placed exactly where I need to be. Now I just need to figure out how to keep moving forward, with this tiny human by my side.

Sky - 11 weeks post partum A.K.A 11 weeks of transforming into motherhood.

Sky Corbett-Methot