Yahoo Lifestyle 'Yummy mummy' a dream for most new mums
Victoria Beckham, seen here just weeks after the birth of baby Harper, is the poster girl for celeb 'yummy mummies'
New mums are usually told by their doctors to expect to take around six weeks to recover from the birth of a baby, but a new study has shown that for most women this is unrealistic, and seeing celebrities bounce back within days of giving birth isn’t helping.
Dr Julie Wray, of Salford University conducted a series of interviews with women at three weeks, three months and six months after they gave birth, and found that most of them considered the six week recovery time to be a ‘fantasy’.
In fact, Dr Wray concluded that the actual recovery time is closer to a year.
And while she identified that hospital wards can have a negative impact on post-birth recovery times due to constant streams of visitors and feeling vulnerable in an unfamiliar environment, those who were discharged within hours after birth also struggled to adapt as they didn’t receive enough support at home with tasks such as breastfeeding and bathing their babies.
‘The research shows that more realistic and woman-friendly postnatal services are needed,’ Dr Wray says. ‘Women feel that it takes much longer than six weeks to recover, and they should be supported beyond the current six to eight weeks after birth.’
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However, Dr Wray says funding issues pose a challenge to postnatal services, a view shared by the British Royal College of Midwives (RCM).
RCM spokesperson Sue MacDonald says that midwives have long been aware that the assumed postnatal recovery period is ‘a bit of a fairy tale’, and laments midwives not being able to see new mums in the community after they leave hospital as often as they’d like to.
‘Women do suffer ill-health, which involves back ache and feeling tired,’ Ms MacDonald says. ‘They could be seen as minor problems, but they are not minor problems for new mums. A lot of women put up with discomfort after childbirth because they think it’s normal.’
Celebrity ‘yummy mummies’ who appear in public looking flawless just weeks after giving birth set unrealistic expectations for the average new mum who doesn’t have an army of nannies, personal trainers and chefs to whip her back into shape.
Ms MacDonald cites the example of actress Amanda Holden who nearly died during childbirth in January, yet returned to work two weeks later looking fantastic.
‘It must be very, very frustrating’, Ms MacDonald says.
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