It’s been less than two days since the 2026 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show premiered live inside Sony Pictures Studios, where one Angel descended upon the star-dusted runway — not once, but twice — just six weeks postpartum.
Clad in a dainty pink negligee and a studded bodice, Barbara Palvin stormed the catwalk as if she hadn’t given birth to her newborn daughter over Labor Day weekend, or undergone endometriosis surgery just a little over a year ago in June 2025. Not far behind was Elsa Hosk in a sand-colored corset, who, like Palvin, had recently given birth to her baby girl, and still found the strength and mental determination to take the stage.
The runway appearance of both Hosk and Palvin has set the internet aflame, with awed viewers commending the new moms and calling attention to the indelible power of women. “Women are capable of anything,” several comments read next to videos of both women walking.
Meanwhile, Palvin reduced the accomplishment to simply “returning to work,” though anyone would argue going back into the office and starring in a televised runway show in your underwear require a different kind of mental and physical preparation — but both beget their own challenges. Yes, the average maternity leave in the U.S. may fall somewhere between six to 10 weeks, but is that truly enough time to make a full recovery postpartum?
“It’s important to remember that postpartum recovery is both physical and emotional,” Dr. Kathleen Green, an M.D., board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology, told WWD. “Your body is healing, your hormones are shifting dramatically, you’re often sleep-deprived, and you’re adjusting to an entirely new role. And baby is too, they aren’t used to living on the outside.”
All of these changes, and more, take a toll, whether a new mom is immediately aware of it or not. For that reason, Dr. Green likes to remind her patients, “It took nine months to grow a baby, so give yourself at least that much time to recover, and sometimes even longer.”
For many mothers, especially in the United States, taking nine months of leave isn’t an option. That doesn’t mean they should be expected to “bounce back” on someone else’s timeline. “As a pediatrician and mother of five, who has experienced this firsthand five times myself, I understand the insurmountable amount of energy and time postpartum recovery requires,” Dr. Maya Levy candidly said. “The pressure to return quickly back to work, regain that pre-pregnancy body, and appear put together can increase the stress, fatigue and feelings of inadequacy a woman feels, which in turn negatively affects her mental and overall psychological well-being.”
And at what point does the pressure to perform and return to their previous sense of “normalcy” become too much? “Take care of your baby; be the best mom you can be, but also exercise, eat healthy and get back to work soon,” society says. And when will this laundry list of egregious expectations finally be shredded, so we start giving women the space they need to make a full recovery on their own timeline?
“The postpartum period should not be viewed as a race to return to normal body, normal function and a normal state of what you were before the pregnancy,” Dr. Levy said. “Life changes after having a baby, relationships change, and the support you need has increased. Once society understands this, and allows mothers to properly take care of their own physical and emotional needs, they will then be more available to take better care of their babies, and other family members, which will then have a positive ripple effect on the families overall well-being.”
Palvin herself has acknowledged that returning to the runway doesn’t mean she is fully recovered. “I’m still healing,” she told “Good Morning America” after the show, adding that “everyone’s healing journey is different.”
What Palvin and Hosk accomplished deserves applause, but their timelines shouldn’t be the expectation for every other new mother. There’s no universal deadline for postpartum recovery, and there shouldn’t be pressure to meet one.