02/03/2026
For generations, cultures across the world understood what we are only beginning to remember again:
the first 40 days after birth are sacred.
A time for rest.
For warmth.
For nourishment and quiet.
For the body to heal and the nervous system to settle.
For a mother to be cared for as deeply as her baby.
And yet, modern society asks women to do the opposite.
To shrink back.
To perform recovery.
To “bounce back” as if birth did not rearrange every cell.
But healing is not linear.
Milk takes time to flow.
Hormones take time to settle.
Bonding takes presence.
And babies were never meant to be raised by exhausted mothers pushed back into productivity.
The push to bounce back does not serve women.
It does not serve babies.
And it does not serve families.
Rest is not weakness, it is wisdom.
It is how bones knit, milk establishes, confidence grows, and mothers are made.
The fourth trimester deserves the same reverence as pregnancy and birth.
Because when we slow down enough to care for mothers, everyone benefits.
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