Seeing Beyond Size
Bigger-bodied moms need more than just plus size nursing bras to feel included.
“I felt very invisible when I became pregnant because I just didn’t see anybody who looked like me.” Mia O’Malley of Plus Size BabyWearing is certainly not alone when expressing her feelings about being excluded from the world of pregnancy information. This is understandable when you realize the products and marketing out there are nearly void of women in bigger bodies like hers.
“I was just so desperate to find myself somewhere in this. To know what I would look like and all of that.” People assume that every woman who’s happily pregnant will relish in the attention of others pulling out chairs, opening doors, and giving up seats for them. But, for plus-size women, that is simply not the case and they are looking for change.
I spoke to three prominent voices in the plus size pregnancy world, Jen McLellan, Mia O’Malley, and Erica Edwards Mason, to learn how that change could start. They all said the issue of inclusion in plus size pregnancy is yet another way people of size are marginalized. It’s only thanks to Instagram that plus-size women can now see themselves pregnant and nursing or pumping and wearing their babies. Currently, there are more than 81,000 photos when you follow the hashtag #plussizepregnancy. But, when it…
