[Experience of Body Changes and Role Awakening in Postpartum Women]

The reduced number of postpartum hospitalization days and decrease in providing intensive parenting guidance experienced in Taiwan in recent years may impact negatively on postpartum mothers. Moreover, these changes have reduced the opportunities available to professional caregivers to learn about the physical impacts of the postpartum period on new mothers.

This study was designed to explore how postpartum women perceive their feelings and experience their bodies and roles after childbirth.

Based on Merleau-Ponty's theory, this qualitative study included purposive sampling at two medical centers in northern Taiwan. Information on bodily changes and self-perceptions during postpartum care was collected using in-depth, open-ended interviews with women between two and six months postpartum and was analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Two major themes were identified. The first theme, "My postpartum body is not my own", indicates that postpartum women perceive their bodies as no longer belonging to themselves. The second theme, "Refamiliarization with the postpartum body", describes how the participants adapted, accepted, recognized, and gave new meaning to the changes in their bodies during the postpartum period.

Although women may feel that they lose their identity and become "objects" after childbirth, this experience may trigger an opportunity for transformation that allows them to re-identify as "subjects. " By listening with respect, clinicians can help postpartum women understand they are in control of their lives. This may help postpartum women identify their capabilities and embrace postpartum life with greater optimism.