Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Elahe Izadi.
Music fans expecting to see Cardi B perform alongside Bruno Mars on his 24K Magic World Tour this fall received some news Thursday night: Cardi will not join the tour as planned. The reason? Earlier this month, she gave birth to a daughter she shares with fellow rapper Offset.
In an Instagram post, the “Invasion of Privacy” rapper explained that she thought that 6 weeks would be enough time to “recover mentally and physically” and that she’d be able to bring her daughter on tour. “I think I underestimated this whole mommy thing,” she wrote.
She added: “Not only am I just not ready physically, I’m not ready to leave my baby behind since the doctors explained it’s not healthy for her to be on the road. I hope you guys understand that this decision has been the hardest to make but I have to do what’s best for myself and my baby!”
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Of course, plenty of mothers in America have no choice but to return to their jobs very soon after giving birth. Nearly a quarter of employed moms return to their jobs within two weeks of giving birth, according to a 2015 report by nonprofit magazine In These Times, which analyzed Department of Labor data.
But celebrity moms are increasingly opening up about the complications, pressures, and demands of pregnancy and raising children. Here’s a list of others who have recently come forward with their own stories of motherhood:
Share this articleShare• Serena Williams delved into the dangers of labor complications: Williams opened up about the frightening experience of suffering from a life-threatening childbirth complication, and even filmed an HBO docuseries about her pregnancy and return to tennis. Her story also highlighted the fact that black women are more likely than white women to suffer from such complications; Williams told the BBC that “doctors aren’t listening to us, just to be quite frank.”
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• Beyoncé returned to the spotlight after twins: The superstar gave birth to twins in June 2017, and returned to the stage this past April at Coachella. “I am so happy to be here. I was supposed to perform at Coachella before, but I ended up getting pregnant, thank God,” she told the crowd. “This is a very important performance for me tonight. I’m happy to be back on stage.” She also explained that her Beychella performance was in part a product of the time she spent carrying her twins: “I had time to dream and dream and dream with two beautiful souls in my belly, and I dreamt up this performance,” she said.
• Whitney Port exposed the difficult realities of being pregnant: Port (of “The Hills” fame) had a YouTube series called “I love my baby, but I hate my pregnancy” chronicling how she was dealing with being pregnant. Previously, she thought pregnancy was “this exciting, beautiful, wonderful, magical thing, until I experienced my own, and it wasn’t all of that,” Port told “Today” in 2017 . “I was feeling all these negative feelings. I thought, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ Why aren’t I more excited? Why aren’t I owning this?’”
• Ali Wong turned her experience into comedy: Wong, a comedian, taped both of her Netflix specials while pregnant, and tells jokes with graphic detail about going through labor and breastfeeding. Her star rose dramatically after the specials and earned her a legion of fans, including many women who finally were hearing experiences they could relate to.
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