The start of a new year can bring a lot of pressure, especially if you’ve had a baby recently. Everywhere you look, there’s messaging about “getting back to your pre-baby body,” feeling like yourself again, or being endlessly grateful. While well-meaning, these messages can leave new parents feeling stressed, inadequate, or like they’re “failing” at recovery.
As a midwife, I want to bust some of the most common myths that can make postpartum life harder than it needs to be:
Myth 1: You need to lose baby weight immediately
Truth: Your body grew a human! Healing comes first. Weight loss can follow when you’re ready, not because a calendar or social media tells you so. Your body deserves patience and care, not rush and pressure.
Myth 2: You should be back to yourself already
Truth: Your “new normal” takes time. Your body and mind are adjusting, hormones are shifting, sleep may be interrupted, and emotions fluctuate. Be kind to yourself. Progress isn’t linear, and that’s okay.
Myth 3: You should feel grateful all the time
Truth: Postpartum life comes with a wide range of emotions: joy, exhaustion, frustration, worry, and love sometimes all in the same hour! Feeling anything other than constant gratitude doesn’t mean you’re ungrateful. It means you’re human.
Myth 4: You should have bounced back by now
Truth: Postpartum recovery is unique for everyone. Physical, mental, and emotional healing can take months sometimes longer. Comparing yourself to others or arbitrary timelines only adds unnecessary pressure.
This Year, You Don’t Need a “New You”
You just need to honour the you that’s already doing the extraordinary.
Whether you’re growing, birthing, feeding, or raising a tiny human, your body isn’t something to fix or restart. It’s something to thank. Every stretch mark, soft fold, scar, and shift tells the story of life being made, carried, and nurtured. This skin has expanded, protected, healed, and held and that deserves celebration, not reinvention.
So, this New Year, let’s choose compassion over pressure. Let’s embrace the body you’re in — the one that’s already achieved something incredible.
New Year. Be You. She’s already enough.
Your body and mind deserve patience, compassion, and care not comparison, guilt, or pressure. This year, let’s honour the extraordinary work your body has done and continue to do every single day.
