Ash Andrea

Can we talk about pain for a second? The kind that doesn’t go away, the kind you just learn to live with.

I’ve been in constant pain for years. I went to a chiropractor about a year ago. As soon as he looked at my X-rays he asked, “Are you in pain right now?” like he couldn’t believe I was even standing.

If I sit too long, I have to limp until everything “settles.” When I get out of bed, I have to move slowly and slip on my cloud slides right away just to take the pressure off my heel. Walking barefoot feels like stepping on knives. Turning my neck? Almost impossible. I use a special memory foam pillow because a regular one can throw my whole spine off for days.

My bones crack and I can’t move the way I used to. None of this came from an injury, or bad habits, or even age. I didn't used to be like this.
It came from pregnancy: from carrying and birthing my children naturally, and from my body never fully recovering afterward.

This pain is the part of postpartum that almost no one talks about.
And it’s one of the biggest reasons I’m doing this.