Why Mothers Need Real Support After Birth

Postpartum Power

What if postpartum isn’t “just hard” because motherhood is intense… but because women have been sold a version of recovery that leaves them isolated, underprepared, and quietly drowning?

In this episode of Faark the Shoulds, QuantiMama Jodi is joined by Chantel from Becoming This Mama for a big, honest conversation about postpartum care, recovery, and what it means to actually be held after birth. Chantel shares the experience that cracked everything open for her: a traumatic first birth, a postpartum period that left her overwhelmed and detached, and the moment she realised that while this kind of suffering might be common, it is not normal.

From there, this chat goes deep. Not in a fluffy “light a candle and have a bath” kind of way. In a proper, practical, system-questioning way. Jodi and Chantel unpack the difference a supported, physiological postpartum can make, why postpartum planning matters just as much as birth prep, and how much inner work women often need to do before they can even let themselves receive care. Because that’s one of the real tensions here: it’s not only about meals in the freezer or help lined up. It’s also about whether a woman believes she’s allowed to rest, be cared for, ask for help, and take up space in that first raw season after birth.

Inside this episode:

• why “common” postpartum struggle is not the same thing as normal
• the moment Chantel knew her first postpartum experience was not okay
• how a redemptive VBAC and intentional preparation changed everything the second time
• why postpartum is a time for receiving, not performing
• the conditioning that stops women asking for support, money, rest, and real care
• how to think about building a postpartum village before the baby arrives
• why postpartum support shapes not just the mother, but the whole family unit

There’s a lot of truth in this one. About maternal depletion. About the loss of reverence around the postpartum window. About the way women are expected to bounce back, host visitors, act fine, and get on with it while their whole body, brain, and identity are being rearranged. But there’s also real hope here. Chantel doesn’t just talk theory. She speaks from lived experience, from doing it differently, and from helping other women create a more intentional, nourishing start to motherhood.

This episode is for the mother wondering why postpartum felt so brutal.
For the pregnant woman wanting to do it differently.
And for anyone ready to stop treating postpartum like an inconvenient footnote to birth.

Press play. This one matters.

Hear more from Chantal at
instagram.com/becomingthismama/

and pick up her fabulous resources at
stan.store/becomingthismama