We have been repeated for a long time that postpartum was summed up at six short weeks of recovery. We then talked about a “fourth quarter”, just to extend the concept a little. But a new study published in Science Advances comes to set the record on the hour: in reality, it takes more than a year to the body to recover from a pregnancy. Yes, a year. And this, even after childbirth without complications.
An unprecedented database for a titanic study
It is a dizzying dive in the organic behind the scenes of maternity. Led by biologists of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, in collaboration with Helen Schneider women’s Hospital and the Yale University, this study analyzed more than 44 million medical data from 300,000 births, over a period of 17 years. A first on this scale.
Scientists were interested in 76 physiological markers – from cholesterol to red blood cells, including hepatic enzymes, inflammation markers or the functioning of kidneys. And this, from 4.5 months before the design at 18.5 months after childbirth. What did they discover? A symphony of internal upheavals, far from trivial, and above all that last.
The body takes time to regain its balance
The results are striking. 47 % of indicators return to their “normal” state in the month following childbirth. Until then, everything goes (roughly) well. But for 41 % of markers, it takes more than 10 weeks to stabilize. And not just a little: cholesterol, for example, can take six months to come back to its pregnancy front level. As for certain markers of bone and liver health, they need more than a year – exactly 56 weeks – to find a semblance of normality.
And that’s not all. Certain parameters never return completely to their level before design, even 80 weeks after childbirth. This is the case for certain inflammation and blood health markers. What does that mean? That there are lasting, even permanent, changes of the body after pregnancy. It is not necessarily dramatic, but it deserves to be recognized.
An invisible load
What this study reveals is an immense “physiological charge” and often underestimated. It manifests itself by: changes in blood coagulation, which may promote certain post-reduction risks; prolonged hormonal imbalances, which affect everything, from sleep to mood via libido; impacts on the immune system, still misunderstood but very real; chronic fatigue linked to the instability of red blood cells or liver; A bone weakening, which can last far beyond the baby blues.
Add to that a company that pushes young mothers to “find their bodies” in the blink of an eye, and you get a cocktail of physical, mental and emotional pressure.
Detect risks… even before pregnancy?
One of the major discoveries of the study is the possibility of predicting certain complications-such as gestational diabetes or pre-eclampsia-even before pregnancy begins. Women who developed these disorders indeed displayed distinct biological profiles, sometimes months before design.
An advance which opens the way to preventive screening, potentially revolutionary for reproductive health.
A call to rethink postpartum
“The medical textbooks are still speaking six weeks for postpartum, but many women live a much longer recovery,” summarizes researcher Uri Alon. And this is precisely what this monumental study proves: the maternal body needs time, care, and above all, recognition.
So no, we don’t “bounce” in six weeks. Or even in three months. And it’s ok. This new science of postpartum reminds us that it is urgent to expand our gaze on maternity, and to offer it, finally, the space (and the care) that it deserves.
