Having a baby is one of the most incredible things that our bodies can do – so why are mums abandoned as soon as the baby arrives?
Our bodies change dramatically, and yet despite the sheer scale of the physical, emotional and psychosocial changes that follow pregnancy and childbirth, many mums receive remarkably little preparation for what to expect as they recover, and even less for how to optimise that recovery.
So, they turn to Google, social media, and AI assistants in the days, weeks, and months after birth, desperately searching for answers to unending questions.
Advice on caesarean recovery is heavily searched on Google and it is easy to see why. Caesarean births in England have reached unprecedented levels, accounting for 45% of all deliveries in 2024-25 and, for the first time, outnumbering spontaneous vaginal births.
Despite this, recovery from what is major abdominal surgery is barely touched upon in most antenatal classes, leaving many women to work it out for themselves once they are home.
Postnatal depression and burnout are also well-searched terms. Three in 10 new mothers in England report symptoms of depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress six months after giving birth, and an estimated 56,000 to 85,000 mothers in England experienced postnatal depression in 2024 alone.
As a GP, I have seen support drop off a cliff edge: from countless appointments and support during pregnancy to next-to-nothing once the baby arrives. I often only get to help the mothers who come into the clinic and proactively ask for help, often because they are really struggling.
I have also experienced it myself during pregnancy and postpartum recovery. As a GP, you’d expect that I would know all the answers, but I didn’t, and I found myself battling postnatal depression, too.
That gap in care between preparing for birth and preparing for recovery after childbirth is one of the many reasons I wrote my book, The Fourth Trimester: The Best Friend’s Guide To Your Postpartum Body and Mind. An entire industry exists around preparing for childbirth and caring for a newborn.
By comparison, the fourth trimester, the first 12 weeks after birth, is still treated like an afterthought.
Once we’ve delivered the baby, we’re expected to instinctively know what’s to come as our bodies and minds recover. Despite receiving little to no education on postpartum recovery, mums are just supposed to figure it out – not only that, but to recognise when something isn’t right.
In the UK, the six-to-eight-week GP review is one of the few points in postnatal care dedicated to a mum’s health after childbirth. On paper, it offers an opportunity to assess recovery and identify emerging problems, but in practice, many mums describe it as a tick-box exercise. They’re given just 10 minutes, 15 if lucky, to cover birth experience, physical and mental health, contraception, bladder and bowel function, pelvic-floor and sexual health concerns, and any ongoing effects of pregnancy or childbirth.
This appointment usually happens when they are at their most sleep-deprived, with their new baby in tow (often the mother’s review is attached to their baby’s GP check-up), which can mean the focus of much of the session shifts to their tiny bundle.
The problem isn’t only how much must be compressed into that consultation, but also how much mums have already had to navigate before reaching it.
Six weeks is a long time to spend trying to make sense of a body that may feel foreign, while simultaneously adjusting to the demands of caring for a newborn and a version of life that may feel equally unfamiliar.
It’s no wonder so many women turn to the internet to work out what is happening with their bodies and minds and to access the support they need.
The internet itself isn’t the issue; reliable digital health information can be invaluable. The concern is when searching becomes a substitute for being taught what recovery might involve in the first place.
A woman looking for an answer about postpartum bleeding might find an NHS page alongside a parenting forum, a TikTok video and advice written for an entirely different healthcare system.
One account offers reassurance; another presents a seemingly similar experience as the beginning of a medical emergency. Instead of clarity, she is left with a new responsibility: deciding which information applies to her, which source deserves her trust, and whether her own symptoms warrant help.
More information doesn’t necessarily leave women better informed. Sometimes, it leaves them responsible for making clinical sense of information they were never equipped to interpret.
I’m not suggesting we burden expectant mothers with every possible complication that might follow childbirth. However, we do need to ensure they enter the postpartum period with enough understanding and confidence to recognise when something needs further attention.
Women shouldn’t have to reverse-engineer their own recovery after birth. A maternity system that prepares women meticulously for birth, then leaves them to decipher its aftermath, has left the job unfinished.
Google is filling the vacuum because healthcare has left one.
Dr Julie Hammond is author of The Fourth Trimester: The Best Friend’s Guide to Your Postpartum Body and Mind.
