I wasn't prepared for the physical toll of motherhood
A mother shares her personal experience regarding the intense and often painful physical toll of parenting. She highlights how the demands of caring for a newborn, such as repetitive lifting and breastfeeding, can lead to specific injuries like 'mother's thumb' and chronic pain.
Why it matters
It sheds light on the often-overlooked physical realities of postpartum recovery and the daily strain of childcare, challenging idealized perceptions of motherhood.
The author admitted she wasn't prepared for how physical the act of mothering would be. Courtesy of Sassica Francis-Bruce. Motherhood is painful, truly painful at times. Aside from pregnancy and giving birth, there are the near-daily attacks on my body from my kids. I love them fiercely, and I'm working hard to keep up with them. I never expected motherhood to be so painful. Literally, it hurts. Not even fracturing my rib during the third trimester of one of my pregnancies equates to the pain of mothering day after day, after day. It is a contact sport, parkour, and weightlifting, all wrapped up in a marathon. It's intense, relentless, and not at all what I envisioned. For me, it started postpartum Before I had children , I thought pregnancy and birth would be the toughest parts physically.
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