One mother publicly shared photos of her post-baby body to show the realistic changes many women face after pregnancy.
Julie Bhosale, a blogger and nutritionist from New Zealand, documented her body for 14 weeks after giving birth to her second son. She shared her story in a blog post titled "My Real Postpartum Body," along with photos showing the noticeable changes on her stomach.
Her aim is simple: to counter all the unrealistic goals media sets for women after they give birth. While some women are able to get back into shape quickly, many others (including the mother who launched a bathing suit line to hide her pregnancy scars) aren't able to do so.
“You live in a society that pushes images at you every day of women who have given birth and just ‘bounced back’ – great for them (truly, that is great, Kate Middleton you are amazing!). But this is such a small minority,” she wrote. “For most of us, our bodies change, and change a lot. It is scary, it is hard, it can be downright disgusting and upsetting, but it is real and normal.”
She added: "Although I am a qualified health professional, I am also a mother, and my body has also not just ‘bounced back.’ We are starting to see a shift in the media and online with more women sharing the often hidden and unspoken realities of child birth and the effect on your bodies."
View the photos below and please SHARE with all the women you know!
24 Hours Postpartum
"Regardless of how you birthed your child (aka watermelon), you can still look and feel like you have a watermelon (or two) inside you. It is often sort of lumpy and squishy too. There’s only one way that thing is coming down….hello excruciating uterine contractions…may as well go through labour again," she wrote.
2 Days Postpartum
"Sleep…I could count the hours on one hand but am just too beyond exhausted to remember. My body is experiencing a horrendous hormone withdrawal."
1 Week Postpartum
"Back at home. Still rocking my pjs. Still got a lumpy, squishy watermelon belly. Still got the granny style undies and thunder pads. I am glad to be home but surely it is illegal to be responsible for two other little humans when in fact you are a walking zombie?"
2 Weeks Postpartum
"In case you are wondering – that lovely scar down my belly is from some major abdominal surgery I went through as a 21 year old. Was split open 6 times after an appendix operation went wrong. Two pregnancies has morphed and stretched this. Never mind, it just becomes the ‘feature piece’ of my stretch marks."
10 Weeks Postpartum
"Now that it has contracted down, my swollen tummy is a bit more of a jiggly tummy, still rocking preggie clothes, and sporting a moon boot from fracturing my ankle – my body so broken from the last few months my leg just snapped like a twig when I rolled off a curb trying to walk an unsettled baby. Where did the last 8 weeks go?"
14 Weeks Postpartum
Her advice: "You may not look like the next Victoria’s Secret Underwear model, but focus on how you feel. Be kind to yourself and your body, you will look like how you are meant to when you feel good. It may take some time. It took me a lot longer to feel good following the birth of my first son then this time around. There is no one to compare yourself too. No one is walking in your shoes, deals with what you deal with. You will be judged. I am judged everyday and there will be people judging me right now. Doing what is right for you and your family takes courage, takes strength and as a mother, you have both."
Please SHARE her powerful message with all the women you know!
