The Beauty of the Postpartum Body
Gorgeous, beautiful, perfect…
After giving birth, my body did not look the same as it did. I was prepared for some changes before I became pregnant, but I wasn’t prepared to not even recognize my own body. I wasn’t prepared to not feel comfortable in my own skin, to not feel like myself. I feel as though my self-esteem was thrown out a window, and run over by a semi-truck. I am absolutely in love with being a mother, and what I was able to accomplish while going through labor, but as I look at my physical self, not so in love. I know that other moms feel this way, and I want to make sure everyone knows that you are GORGEOUS, you are BEAUTIFUL, you are PERFECT!
Everything women go through emotionally after birth is bad enough, when you add low self-esteem it gets much harder. Never being able to find an outfit that fits right. My old jeans are too small, my shirts don’t fit right, and I’m stuck in adult diapers for the first 4 weeks after birth. Whenever I go to the store and try to find something that fits, I can’t find anything. I still have extra skin around my stomach. So any pair of jeans I try on I can’t button them, even if they are way too big around the legs. I end up not buying anything, and if I do, it’s a baggy, oversized men’s T-shirt.
What usually happens when I try to look nice for a special occasion is; I find the outfit, put it on, look in the mirror, absolutely hate it, and change. This repeats 3 or 4 times before I completely give up and resort to jeans and a T-shirt, like usual. And inevitably, my self-esteem drops even more, if that’s even possible.
Stretch marks are another thing I wasn’t totally prepared for. I have stretch marks covering about half of my stomach now. It’s really hard to love my stomach now that it’s covered in red and purple marks. Everyone tells you what to expect when you are pregnant, but people don’t usually tell you that you won’t recognize yourself afterward.
Throughout the past 3 months, I’ve slowly started to get used to my new body. I’m starting to embrace my stretch marks, my extra skin, and the amount of hair I am losing. Instead of changing into baggy clothing, I’ve started to wear what I want, and not worry about my body. I am looking at myself every day and telling myself I am just the way I need to be. God created me, and that’s good enough for me. There are so many things that I wasn’t prepared for postpartum, but every day I conquer the negativity and embrace my new body. I didn’t expect all this change, but at the end of the day, I AM IN LOVE with being a mother and I wouldn’t give it up for anything.
So ladies, our bodies after birth may not look like our own, but God has helped us create life! And he created us as well, so we need to remember that every flaw is perfect in its own way. And no matter how low your self-esteem is, you are gorgeous, you are beautiful, and you are perfect.
