Episode Details

We're back from summer, and we're doing things differently: for the first time, we're answering your questions. This episode moves through the six-week check and why the conversation stops at exactly the point it should start, trad wives and what that fantasy is actually offering, Rose's summer project born from a chat outside the vet, and a stretch of listener questions that gets more honest than we expected.

Six weeks after a C-section, you're signed off and sent on your way. Bianca got behind the wheel that week and found out exactly how ready she wasn't. We're retiring another term this episode: postpartum recovery is out, postpartum transformation is in, because recovery implies heading back to a previous version of yourself. Bianca also brings the August research on care beyond six weeks, making the case that the six-week appointment is asking the wrong questions entirely.

We get into trad wives via Yesteryear, Caro Claire Burke's novel about an influencer who wakes up in 1855 and has to actually live it. Bianca has worked out what she'd genuinely want back from that era, and it isn't what the algorithm keeps offering her. Rose has her own theory on what those accounts are really selling.

Rose spent her summer finishing her dissertation, then fell down a rabbit hole after a conversation outside the vet with a woman called Joan, who wanted a cat. That became 75 Comfortable, her answer to the 75 Hard challenge, and it's the first time she's talked about it on the show.

Then, your questions. Is it realistic to study within three months of giving birth? How do you hold on to a sense of self while breastfeeding, in what's the most honest stretch of the episode? And what do you do if you're not ambitious after becoming a mother, when everyone assumes you should be?

Send us a question for the next one at hello@matrescenceunfiltered.com, or find us on Instagram at @matrescenceunfiltered.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Rose's Substack: soffelhaus.substack.com
• Our episode with Gemma Folkard of Shape Pilates (17 June 2026) on reconnecting with your body
• Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke