Jodie Turner-Smith is getting candid about postpartum acceptance.
Jodie, 37, welcomed her daughter, Juno, with her then-husband Joshua Jackson back in April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A few months after giving birth, Jodie opened up about her decision to have a home birth during the pandemic.
“Every stage of my pregnancy brought its own challenges and lessons," she told Vogue. "Nobody really teaches you about what your body goes through to bring a child into the world until you're actually doing it.”
Jodie went on, “We had already decided on a home birth because of concerns about negative birth outcomes for Black women in America.”
"According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the risk of pregnancy-related deaths is more than three times greater for Black women than for white women, pointing, it seems to me, to systemic racism," she continued.
"Delivering at home ensured that I had what every single woman deserves to have: full agency in determining my birth support,” she added.
Now, almost four years later, Jodie has reflected on her postpartum experience, urging new parents to “be kind” to their bodies after giving birth.
Taking to Instagram this Tuesday, Jodie shared a video to her stories that read: “Whoever normalized women being ‘fully healed and recovered’ by six weeks postpartum…lied.”
She also wrote, “I understand the pressure to ‘snap back’ but the reality is: that it is *completely* impossible. Your body must go through its own journey and being a portal for a new soul is an enormously physical, emotional and spiritual task!!!”
“Be kind to yourself mamas. And don’t let anyone make you think you should be back to ‘normal’ 2 seconds after giving birth,” she added.
Jodie isn’t the only celebrity who has been super candid about their postpartum experience lately.
A few months ago, Kourtney Kardashian Barker won praise after reminding new parents that it’s “not a race” to get into shape after giving birth.
“Taking it easy, no rush, no pressure mamas, your body is healing, it’s not a race,” she wrote on Instagram as she documented her first treadmill walk in the gym at seven weeks postpartum.
Kourtney’s message was especially refreshing given how much pressure she and then-partner Scott Disick placed on her to lose weight after the births of her first children, Mason and Penelope.
More recently, just last week, Kourt defended her post-baby body under a photo shared by her sister Kim. After a fan wrote, “Now you know she's not going to like this photo,” Kourt replied, “I LOVE this photo! It is me and my sisters having the best time on a trip with our kids... and the memories to last forever! And I LOVE this body that gave me my three babies and my little boy.”
Meanwhile, other famous new moms — like Halle Bailey and Suki Waterhouse — have recently candidly shared their post-baby bodies, too.
Months later, she opened up about dealing with postpartum depression, revealing that she was struggling to feel “normal” in her body.
“I have severe, severe postpartum [depression], and I don't know if any new moms can relate, but it's to the point where it's really bad, and it's hard for me to be separated from my baby for more than 30 minutes at a time before I start to kind of freak out,” she said this week.
“The only thing that's been hard for me is feeling normal in my own body,” she said. “I feel like a completely different person when I look in the mirror. I just feel like I'm in a whole new body, and I don't know who I am.”
Separately, after giving birth to her first child with Robert Pattinson, Suki shared a candid photo of herself as she opened up about her “humbling” postpartum experience.
“The fourth trimester has been… humbling! the postpartum period has been filled with exhilarating joy, so much laughter, tears, soo many hormones! I’m proud of everything my body has achieved and proud of the kindness and grace I’ve given myself during this recovery period,” she wrote on Instagram earlier this month.