New study proves that postpartum recovery takes much longer than initially expected

Biologists now have a much better understanding of the toll a pregnancy has on the female body. 

A new study, published March 26 in Science Advances, analyzed the results of blood, urine and other tests taken before, during and more than a year after pregnancy from more than 300,000 women. 

According to the data, the postpartum recovery period following childbirth is much longer than initially expected. 

“Researchers examined 76 physiological markers in hundreds of thousands of pregnancies, looking at how long it took for each marker to settle following delivery,” the study read, per Nature.com. 

The measurements included everything from cholesterol to red blood cells, inflammation, metabolism and the health of the pregnant woman’s liver and kidneys. 

“It took my breath away to see that every test has this dynamical profile that is so elaborate, week by week, and has never been seen before,” says Uri Alon, a systems biologist who led the study. 

Of the 76 measurements, 47% of them stabilized within one month of delivery and 12% settled within 4-10 weeks of giving birth. 

But the remaining 41% of results took between 10 weeks and one year to stabilize. 

For example, iron levels settled within the first five weeks post-delivery, while folic acid took nearly five months and cholesterol roughly six months to stabilize. 

Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), which measures bone and liver health, took more than one year to settle.

“This is like the biological proof that you don’t” bounce back as quickly as originally thought,” says Jennifer Hall, who researches reproductive health at University College London.

And while some markers — such as those regarding inflammation and blood health — did eventually settle, data shows that they failed to return to pre-conception levels even after 80 weeks post-birth. 

“Nearly half of the lab tests take many months (and in some cases up to a year) to settle after delivery,

highlighting what a journey pregnancy is, even after delivery,” Alon adds in a post on X.

Scientists have yet to determine if this was a result of pregnancy and birth or from circumstances and behaviours that changed after having the baby. 

They’re now calling for more research in the future to further study these changes.

Study could help doctors diagnose pregnancy complications

Perhaps one of the more “exciting” findings, as one scientist put it, was the possibility of “being able to identify and help women at risk” of certain conditions before conceiving, says Nature.com. 

Two of those conditions include gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia. 

Pre-eclampsia is defined as “persistent high blood pressure that develops during pregnancy or the postpartum period,” per the Preeclampsia Foundation.

It’s most often associated with “decreased blood platelets, trouble with the kidneys or liver, fluid in the lungs, or signs of brain trouble,” the foundation explained. 

Both gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia are currently diagnosed during pregnancy, but findings in the new study could help doctors diagnose these conditions much earlier — even before conceiving. 

Biologists also uncovered certain changes in the body that proved to be beneficial to women’s health. 

For example, researchers analyzed a reduction in a marker for inflammation and an increase in folic acid that began prior to conceiving. 

These changes were primarily attributed to taking supplements and living a more healthy lifestyle when trying to conceive. 

All in all, the new study shows the importance of using biomedical information to yield fresh data and new perspectives when treating pregnant women. 

“Pregnancy is a dynamic process, stretching physiological control to the extreme with lasting postpartum effects,” Alon writes on X. “We now have a deeper understanding of physiological adaptation.”

And now that same research team is using a similar approach to learn more about menopause and the changes the female body experiences as it ages. 

“We can ask any statistical question we want,” says Alon, per Nature.com. “It's like paradise.”