My Postnatal Body

There is so much hype surrounding women and how quickly they should 'get back into shape' after they give birth. The truth of the matter is that you do put on weight through pregnancy and your body does change and this is completely normal, you need those extra fat stores to establish and sustain healthy breastfeeding while your body recovers from the marathon effort of giving birth. No matter what, physically, mentally and spiritually pregnancy and birth will change you and every pregnancy and birth will be different and bring different learning experiences.

Despite my knowledge of this I must admit that until today I have at times felt a little less than sexy. Half my clothes still don't fit me, I have stretch marks, a round belly, and my hips have disappeared but today I decided to hold my belly with the tender love that I did when I had a baby inside me. And guess what? I was suddenly flooded with a new sense of love and total awe for my beautiful body and its ability to grow and birth another human being.

At a time when women choose to hide their bodies or hit the gym with an unhealthy obsession I'm showing the world my body. I'm choosing to embrace the beauty of my soft round belly and show that even with stretch marks and a bit of extra weight a woman's postnatal body is beautiful.