The Hormonal Aftermath of Birth
Why So Many Mothers Feel Off and Why Science Is Just Catching Up
By Sofia Erica Lane
In the weeks following childbirth, much of the world turns its gaze to the newborn: swaddled in softness, surrounded by gifts, praised for their perfection. But quietly, just a few steps away, a mother often sits in the shadows swollen, sleepless, emotionally unmoored and wondering if what she’s feeling is normal, or if she's slowly unraveling.
Science is beginning to answer: she may be experiencing one of the most significant hormonal shifts known to the human body.
The Plunge
At birth, a mother’s hormones don’t just “shift” they plummet.
Estrogen and progesterone, two of the dominant pregnancy hormones, drop dramatically within hours of delivery. Estrogen which plays a critical role in mood regulation can fall by as much as 95% in the first 48 hours. Progesterone, often called the body’s natural anti-anxiety buffer, also vanishes almost entirely.
In their absence, the body attempts to rebalance but slowly. And often, not without symptoms.
For many women, this internal shift feels like a quiet internal collapse: not dramatic enough to warrant medical intervention, but far-reaching enough to affect mood, memory, appetite, sleep, and self-perception.
The Unseen Hormonal Symphony
What many forget is that the hormonal orchestration of pregnancy is not a performance that ends at delivery. It is, rather, the beginning of a complex hormonal aftermath one shaped by breastfeeding, stress, sleep deprivation, and the relentless demands of caregiving.
In the weeks and months that follow, the maternal endocrine system remains in flux:
Cortisol (the stress hormone) often remains elevated, especially in mothers with poor sleep or limited support
Oxytocin, the bonding hormone, surges with skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding, but can dip with loneliness or birth trauma
Thyroid hormones may fluctuate, 10% of postpartum women develop thyroid dysfunction within the first year
And serotonin and dopamine, two neurotransmitters vital to mood and motivation, are closely linked to the hormonal changes in the postpartum brain
This symphony, when unbalanced, is not simply hormonal it is existential. It explains why a mother can feel like a stranger to herself, even as she holds a child who knows her heartbeat by heart.
Beyond “Baby Blues”
Postpartum mood disorders exist on a spectrum. While baby blues affect up to 80% of mothers and usually resolve within two weeks, postpartum depression and anxiety can last months or even years, especially when compounded by hormonal imbalance and nutrient depletion.
In more severe cases, this imbalance can manifest as postpartum rage, obsessive thoughts, and dissociative episodes. And yet, many mothers never speak of it. They fear judgment. They lack language. Or they simply don’t know what they’re experiencing has a name.
In clinical settings, the conversation often skims the surface: a brief postpartum check-up, a depression screening, and a hopeful thumbs-up before sending her back into the blur of motherhood. But hormonal research tells us: the body remembers what culture forgets.
A Systemic Blind Spot
Modern medicine is just beginning to reckon with the complexity of maternal hormonal health. For decades, postpartum care has focused on obstetric outcomes and infant wellness, largely sidelining the maternal nervous and endocrine systems.
According to a report by the World Health Organization, most postpartum protocols around the world fail to address mental health, fatigue, or hormonal recovery despite their long-term implications on a woman’s health and her ability to care for others.
And perhaps most notably, there is no universally recognised medical term for postnatal hormonal depletion only symptoms scattered across disciplines: psychiatry, endocrinology, nutrition, and maternal health.
Remembering the Mother
What’s emerging now from functional medicine clinics to integrative health studies—is a renewed understanding of the postpartum body as one that requires gradual replenishment, not pressure to “bounce back.”
In many traditional cultures, postpartum was not a gap between birth and normal life. It was the sacred transition. The Javanese “pantang”, Indian “sutika kala,” and Chinese “zuo yue zi” all center the mother in rituals of warmth, rest, and nourishment for at least 30 to 40 days after birth.
These traditions weren’t quaint customs they were biologically intelligent. They accounted for what science now confirms: the maternal body needs time, nutrients, emotional support, and hormonal rebalancing to fully recover.
What Every Mother Deserves
To ask a mother to nurture new life while her own body remains depleted is not just unfair it is unsustainable.
We must begin to see postpartum not as an endpoint, but as a critical, hormonally vulnerable season that deserves its own medicine, language, and support.
Every mother deserves more than survival.
She deserves informed care, restorative recovery, and a culture that does not leave her behind once the baby arrives.
Because behind every birth story is a woman whose body is still bleeding, whose hormones are still shifting, and whose life whether she knows it or not is still in the process of becoming.