Pursuing the Postpartum ‘Snap-Back’ Left Me Broken

Doctors make the worst patients

My MRI scan showing a disc protrusion, compressing the nerve root and encroaching on the spinal cord (Image owned by Mumie Health)

The pressure to snap back after giving birth is everywhere. You see it, you hear it. If you could smell it, you probably would be able to. Postpartum women are often aggressively targeted by marketing campaigns selling the latest class, supplement or contraption to get your body back into shape after having a child. What is this obsession with proving to ourselves, or others, that motherhood has not changed our bodies or who we are?

But whilst I can make this broad statement now, it only comes after learning the hard way. So desperate was I to reclaim my body as my own after having my two children, I failed to ignore the warning signs that I was doing too much too soon, until it was too late. Two fractures and one spinal injury down and I’ve finally woken up to the fact that we do not, in fact, need to snap back to anything. We need to allow our bodies, which have done such incredible work growing and nurturing new life, time to find their rhythm and safe place. I wish I had known this back then. Here’s my story.

Before I had my children I was a very active person — always keen to try out a new sport, I found myself doing something active most days. Not only did I love the physical challenge of sports and workouts, but working long hours as a doctor, it…