POSTPARTUM BODY By Amelia Roessler Positivity
B . ecoming a parent doesn’t just change your daily life— it reshapes how you see yourself. Even in the glow of a wanted, healthy pregnancy, many new parents find themselves quietly grieving—missing the body they knew, the independence they once had, and the version of themselves that felt familiar. In a culture that celebrates “bounce back” transformations, that grief can feel confusing or even shameful. But it’s also deeply human—and worth talking about. Amy Lowe, a therapist and director at a Colorado Women’s Center, says they serve women with postpartum depression quite a bit. They also serve women with feelings of being overwhelmed, a sense of pressure around how to do it all, and a struggle to abandon self care in order to keep up. Postpartum depression can come from a variety of reasons, including the neurochemical or hormonal impact or imbalances of pregnancy, the loss of the experience of the child in the womb, and/or undischarged or suppressed grief
about the major changes that have just occurred.
and evolve now that you’re a mother?” Lowe asks her clients. Regarding their body, Lowe knows a lot of moms attach their value to how they look and how they’ve been programmed to feel about how looks are their value. She says some new moms have to form new relationships with what health looks like for them and what the value of their In a social-media world portraying the “bounce-back” culture, Lowe says she asks clients what their motive is when it comes to looking to social media. If it is externally driven, like comparing yourself, it can be harmful. If it’s implicitly inspiring, like looking at a woman, a mom, who did something cool and thinking that you can do it too because you know you are capable, and it feels right and good, then Lowe says it can be helpful. body is besides how they look. AGE OF INFORMATION We live in an age of information, and Lowe says that helps us know so much more than we used to. She notes that an unexpected consequence of
“Some mothers hormonally are so on point when they are pregnant and after the delivery, the system sort of crashes because it’s not dedicating all the resources to that life inside,” Lowe states. “Another form of grief can be the loss of the experience of the child in the womb. I had a little bit of that. I had this unexpected episode of deep grief that I would not feel that close to this human ever again. I did not expect it.” Along with postpartum depression, there is also the clinging to the “me I was before.” Lowe points out that she sees suffering from women who cling to that old version of self and want to get back to who they were before the life-changing moments. “That can be a set up for suffering because it will never be true,” she says. However, it can open a door to changing the relationship with that story. “What are the aspects of your old self that you love that you’re bringing forward? How are you going to upgrade
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PINK&BLUE | SPRING 2026
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