(In)visible postpartum. Women’s experiences in Poland

Abstract

This article explores the postpartum experiences of women in Poland. The point of departure for the analysis is the author’s autoethnographic reflection, subsequently developed through qualitative research conducted in 2024–2025 with students students of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Łódź. The research material comprises one hundred and twenty postpartum stories. The aim of the article is to present the postpartum period as an experience that remains marginal within the social distribution of knowledge and to identify signs of the gradual breaking of the silence surrounding it. From a phenomenological perspective, inspired by the concept of Alfred Schütz, the author analyses the mechanisms through which common-sense knowledge about the postpartum period is transmitted and their impact on women’s experiences during this time. The analysis of the narratives reveals that mothers often enter the postpartum period without prior points of reference that would allow them to interpret their own experiences. At the same time, a gradual increase in the social visibility of the postpartum period and the development of new forms of experience-sharing among women can be observed. The author pays particular attention to intergenerational transmission, peer-to-peer transmission, and medical discourse.