Why Should Motherhood Destroy Your Body?
One-third of mothers worldwide see lasting health issues. Why aren't they being treated?
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.
