I have always believed that those who say that forty days after delivery everything returns to normal, fall short.
My mother usually says a very wise phrase, that the pregnancy lasts nine months and that the recovery, the same.
I think he is absolutely right, nobody recovers in 40 days. However, it also falls short, because the specialists are considering a year as a period of the puerperium. In Canada, for example, it is already considered a twelve month postpartum.
The physical, hormonal, and emotional changes that women suffer during pregnancy and childbirth need their time to adjust and return to normal. And those of us who have been mothers know very well that all these factors do not balance in just a month and a half.
Quarantine (40-day period) can be considered as the days immediately after childbirth, in which the uterus returns to its normal position, blood loss occurs and in which it is recommended not to have sex. However, postpartum extends beyond. And not only in physical aspects, but also in the psychological aspect.
The mother needs time for the hormonal system to normalize, but in addition, and especially if it is first-time, it needs at least a couple of months to adapt to motherhood and keep an eye on a 24-hour baby. And that to name just some of the changes that occur and that return to normal over a year.
Breastfeeding, as I see it, is also part of the postpartum period, and in some cases it extends for several months, a year or more in which the woman still lives a particular stage.
Of course, I agree with this new conception of the postpartum period, in which women experience, in addition to physical changes, a whirlwind of contradictory emotions, which require more than 40 days to assimilate.
