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…when you become pregnant again.
Of course, not all mothers go on to have subsequent children, but for the sake of argument, let’s say that eighteen moths after the birth of your first child, you become pregnant again. Does your new pregnancy signal the end of your postpartum period? Or is it, in fact, entirely possible to be both pregnant and postpartum at the same time? Or (more likely) are you simply too exhausted to even care, as you battle a fractious toddler alongside hormonal mood swings and nausea?

…when you want to be.
The truth is, while we’d love to give the postpartum period a tidy time line, it’s just not that easy. You’ll always be different after you’ve had a baby, physically and emotionally. The trick is not to let being postpartum (in the broadest sense of the word) define who you are or dictate what you can and can’t do. You’re a woman, first and foremost, and a mother, and therein lies your real power.

c. 2007, Stacy Denney and Kate Hodson from Fit Mama: A Real-Life Fitness Guide for the New Mom, Chronicle Books.

Authors of Fit Mama: A Real-Life Fitness Guide for the New Mom, Stacy Denney and Kate Hodson are fit mamas themselves. However, they know from personal experience that it doesn’t happen overnight. Stacy is the author of Spa Mama, the mother to Maxwell and Ryan, and the owner of Barefoot & Pregnant, a day spa in Marin County, California. Born in England, Kate is the author of Milk It: How to Get More Than a Baby Out of the Next Nine Months, and is mother to Molly, Phoebe and Theo. She currently lives in Berkeley, California.