There are certain life events you simply can’t comprehend until you’ve experienced them—as Cardi B recently discovered when she gave birth to daughter Kulture Kiari Cephus on July 10. Since the blessed event, Cardi has reluctantly cancelled her tour with Bruno Mars, and in a recent series of IG stories, explains exactly why new mothers shouldn’t be expected to “bounce back” immediately after childbirth.
“Like, I’ve met my match ... [Kuture Kiari] is very demanding; I can’t believe I have a boss. Like, I really have a boss,” she says, later adding, “There’s this feeling, that as soon as my baby came out that I had, that it’s just like, I can’t leave my baby ... It’s so hard, because I wanna be with my baby every second.”
It’s a common story that few who haven’t experienced motherhood can relate to. But Cardi also gets real about the physical effects of childbirth: “I thought six weeks was gonna be good enough ... No, Bro. My ass is broken. Yo, this baby broke my ass ... she took all the strength from my body. ... My body is extremely weak right now, like so weak.”
She also confesses that postpartum effects can take a real toll on the psyche: “I just wanna say: I respect mothers more than ever now; I see things differently,” she says. “I don’t even know how people with twins do it. If you have twins, goddamn! How can you do it?”
That said, despite being in full new mommy-mode, Cardi hasn’t stopped working. She’s featured on several upcoming singles, and as of Sunday was heading back to the studio to keep things current. But we admire that she’s being open about both the challenges and the cherished moments of new motherhood, as she admits:
“I just have to take my time to do certain things, because my body really can’t take it ... and I really love my widdle baby—she looks like me, of course; she look like her daddy, and she looks like [Cardi’s younger sister] Hennessy. ... She just melts me.”