Cannabis After Birth: Redefining Motherhood
Art By Rebekah Jenks
If you have ever had a c-section you already know coughing, sneezing, laughing, really everything can make you feel like you’re just going to collapse into a puddle. It’s not a great feeling at all, and not one I’d want to mix with a high.
For the first few weeks, I avoided smoking because I was literally afraid to cough. Immediately after being moved from the observation room to my recovery room, I got motion sick (which I knew would happen). There is no feeling that compares to your empty stomach dumping its contents, while several people hold compression on your core and incision site. I never wanted to feel that again… and I think that is really where my fear came from.
About 3 weeks after birth, I took my first “test” hits just to see how it felt. I needed to know if I could even manage the sensation that would come with it. A good body high was exactly what I needed and it truly helped so much. My son struggled to eat and ultimately ended up breastfeeding and taking a bottle, but the “damage” had been done. I carried him 24/7 because he was so fussy otherwise. This never truly gave me a chance to take a break. The body high came in to save the day.
I had an amazing compression wrap that saved my core. I found it watching tummy tuck recovery videos. I could have smoked and coughing wouldn’t have even been an issue for me. I was walking normally a few days after surgery too. Without that wrap, there’s no way I could have returned to smoking that fast.
I started micro-dosing edibles to see where my limits were. It gave me consistent & gentle pain relief for hours. I worked my way to “full strength” edibles. Within a day or so I was off oxy completely and took ibuprofen as needed. It wasn’t long after that I started to smoke daily again.
All Art By Rebekah Jenks
I found that because I used cannabis so heavily throughout my pregnancy, I was completely unaware of where my limit was or how quickly I would get there. Maybe it’s just that Alaska weed hits differently, which, I will say (in my own opinion) is true. There is a grace period after birth where you must feel out where you are and what your new relationship is with weed.
I think it took me AT LEAST a few weeks before feeling like I knew my body again. Pregnancy changes everything about you; how you digest food, how medicines affect you, how you sleep, how you feel, how you move. There is a period after birth I called the “Reintroduction period” where things are changing in a million ways. You’re finding a balance in life and this new role you serve to this tiny person.
Your relationship with cannabis is one of those things. Even if you have children each pregnancy changes you and you have to kind of meet yourself again, without judgment, but with a genuine curiosity about yourself. I really took time to explore what place cannabis had in my life. Moving forward, how would I use it? Only time could answer that question.
Nap time was my time to really relax and sometimes maybe smoke a little more than I normally would. I really just needed to lie down and rest. I mean the deepest form of rest, I really used to simulate a mini nighttime for myself. It almost made 1 day feel like 2 days but in a more positive way. If the morning was rough that was ok, because I can take a nap, and day 2 can start with a snack.
As weeks went on when my kids sat down to eat, I would smoke every time. I would wake up a little before them so I could smoke early and make sure I started my day off well. I really integrated it into every part of my life.
Cannabis after birth helped me redefine what being a woman is to me. For the first time, I held the paintbrush in my hand, I got to choose. I feel like I have been able to dive within myself and connect to this divine feminine energy more deeply. I feel like being in that vulnerable place after birth really allowed space for cannabis to come in and show me the kind of woman I could be. The kind of woman I am now.
