Western Culture has beauty standards and these depictions of what beauty looks like and entails, especially prior to pregnancy. We are hard on ourselves during pregnancy, and even harder on ourselves after pregnancy because of western culture and the beauty standards in our society. We idolize the perfect body. Under the impression that after we have our 6 to 8lb baby that we grew inside of us, to snap back immediately. I can absolutely relate to this. After carrying my son, I was referred to as “chunky”, or “damn Kiy your face is fat still”. I heard this from people I’ve obviously known, including my Childs father. Hearing those comments took a toll on me and made me feel even worse, because I was struggling body image essentially. Reflecting back and looking at pictures I now realize I looked so good for a new mom. Not only did I carry a baby for a full 10months. Exactly 39weeks and 5 days, 2 days before the 40 week mark.

I overcame societal opinions and backlash regarding my weight because I had a damn good support system. My family, Drs, and friends made me realize what my body had done and the literal process it goes through, slowly but surely, I became gradiually comfortable with my postpartum body. I was breastfeeding too, in which encourages natural weight loss and aides with internal swelling decreasing. However this was only phase one. Recently I struggled with body image and breastfeeding. Although my breastfeeding journey was beautiful. I struggled with the after effects breastfeeding had on my body like continuous weight-loss, feeling flat chested or like my breast were gone, and just overall feeling disgusted with how I looked in the mirror. I overcame this by understanding that everything is a process and it takes time. I was literally feeding another human being, giving what I had to him, such as nutrients, vitamins, etc. Everything I was consuming, caused me to breakeven calorically so I wasn’t gaining weight, and occasionally losing a pound or two and going that back. Since we’ve stopped, I am now at the process of seeing my weight-gain, filling out, and now looking familiar again to myself, when I look in the mirror. So essentially I am happy, I am overjoyed with my entire journey because going the entire process of pregnancy, the weight-gain, breastfeeding, and seeing all that a woman’s body is essentially capable of is amazing. We are able to bring forth life, nurture, and nourish life with our bodies, that alone is a beautiful process. In this Western Culture we expect instant gratification, instant bounce back, we need to understand everything is a process, and only the beautiful end result is captured in todays society. Love your postpartum and post breastfeeding body, accept your body, and be nice to your body. Your body did and accomplished something amazing and for that you should be proud of your body. Okay mommas chime in, How did you over come your postpartum body image struggle?

For more support and encouragement you can visit the link below:

https://llli.org/body-image-of-mothers/