It is intense, postpartum life.

Those first few days after delivery when you not only have a newborn baby to try to keep alive, but are also trying to heal yourself – physically, mentally and emotionally after the life-altering experience that is childbirth. I remember coming home from the hospital having had my first baby, and being so utterly grateful my mum was there with me. I was a mess. I think we all are. I was leaking from everywhere, my nipples were cracked and bloody, I cried whenever the baby cried and heck, even peeing hurt. It was, in short, the most intense and vulnerable couple of weeks of my life. This is postpartum. And it is an experience we all, as mothers, go through. However, I don't think I was prepared for what this post-delivery period would be like. There is so much information about pregnancy and even birth, books and leaflets and guides, but so very little is said and talked about when it comes to life in the few days and weeks after your baby arrives. I found it totally overwhelming, and still don't know how I could have managed had my mum not been there. So why isn't it talked about more? Why is it still so taboo to show what postpartum looks like? The Oscars are taking place tonight, but while it is a night that awards storytelling's highest form, one ad was actually banned from being shown during the commercial breaks of the show – why? Because it was deemed too graphic, with "partial nudity and product demonstration” by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Frida Mom is an American company that makes products for babies and new mums. The company is vocal about starting a conversation about postpartum life, and how to better prepare mothers for this phase. However, when the company created a new ad for one of their postpartum products, it became too much for the Oscars and was banned. Too graphic for who, exactly? The kids whose mothers went through this to bring them into the world? The partners of those women, who probably just watched them give birth? The soon-to-be postpartum moms who need to know that products like this actually exist? Despite this, Frida Mom has posted the banned commercial on its YouTube channel, stating: “It’s not violent, political or sexual in nature. Our ad is not religious or lewd. And does not portray guns or ammunition. It’s just a new mom, home with her baby and her new body for the first time. Yet it was rejected. And we wonder why new moms feel unprepared.” This year's Oscars rejection comes a year and a half after the company's outdoor billboard-style ads for the Mom Washer, a $15.99 peri squirt bottle, which stated, "your vagina will thank you," were rejected in 13 cities. Are we not ready to hear about postpartum and what it is really like? Do we not want mums to be prepared?