Having a baby is one of the most exciting moments of anyone's life, but it's also challenging.
Not only are labor and delivery hard on a mom's body — the next few days, weeks, and months are also tough.
Some especially lucky women's bodies "bounce back" immediately. For most other women, it's a long journey of getting comfortable with a new, postpartum body.
One mom, Tiffany Burke, knows exactly how it feels to go through postpartum changes.
Tiffany has given birth five times: to three of her own children and to two babies as a surrogate. Now, with her fifth baby, Tiffany is sharing a powerful message about her body.
On October 18, 2017, Tiffany posted an intimate photo of herself holding her young daughter. The photo quickly got a lot of attention. Within just five days it had almost 2,300 likes on Instagram.
See what Tiffany had to say about her postpartum body below.
[H/T: ScaryMommy]
Tiffany wrote:
Not an easy share: This is what 70 lbs overweight looks like.
This is what exclusively breastfeeding yet gaining weight looks like.
This is what a working mom, with no make-up and no time for self-care looks like.
This is also what my happiness looks like. What my body looks like does not determine my happiness or my success.
My body is my temporary shell. My life is truly beautiful.
I have given birth to 5 babies (3 of my own and 2 surrogate babies). But my body was at a “healthy” weight before getting pregnant with baby #5.
My body does not look like this "because I've had 5 babies." Currently, I can't workout hardcore like I have in the past or I will lose my milk supply.
I am also eating all the food because I’m just starving. Some weeks I eat so healthily, other weeks I’m downing a sleeve of Oreos and feeling giddy. I work a lot and choose my free time to be with my kids.
My body can wait a bit and I'm proud to make that choice. It's mine to make. They won't be little much longer and I will have missed it all.
My body is the home I keep. And like my home, it ebbs and it flows as the seasons of my life do.
My home is sometimes messy, sometimes clean, sometimes both. Our bodies ebb and flow in the seasons of our lives.
From the season of when junior high starts and we are questioning everything about our bodies, to the season of no time for self-care, or the season of IVF injections for so many years.
Or weight gain from pregnancies of angel babies lost and our bodies not willing to let go just yet. The season of a divorce, or depression, eating disorders, a death, addiction or toxic relationships. So much affects our wonderful shells.
We must give grace, find ways to self-love as often as we can.
We must be the inner voice that we should have had growing up. Our thoughts have great power over our daily lives. Our bodies are important to love, but not so important to invest so much hate into.
SO MUCH MORE MATTERS.
Be healthy, be strong, make a change when you can, be you, be unafraid. Ignore the rest.
It’s okay if someone thinks I’m not pretty. I’m not here on this planet to please their eyeballs.
I am worth so much more and so are you.
Please SHARE this article if you agree with Tiffany's message!
