Learning to love your body...after BABY!

An open letter to all my fellow Mama’s:

Congratulations on becoming a Mum! This has got to be one of the most exciting, soul warming, joyous times of your lives! There is nothing more rewarding than carrying and birthing your very own little human…an amazing miracle that we are blessed to be apart of!

What isn’t spoken about very often is the daily body struggle you are about to endure… from loving your big round beautiful belly to loathing it soon after birth…no one told you that you will still look 4 months pregnant AFTER having your baby, about the loose skin, the ‘pouch’, the stretch marks, the line (that never seems to fade!).. it certainly isn’t what it used to be about 9 months ago…but it is reality and this is why I am sharing my story with you.

I’m here to tell you that you CAN love your body after baby, you CAN feel like YOU again and you CAN become a role model to your kids from the moment they are born! We aren’t all born supermodels but we are all born with amazing willpower and inner strength – we are mums after all!!

This pic (My bio pic) shows my journey to healthy after being blessed with my 2nd boy, 2 weeks postpartum and 6 months later…so…what happened in between? Hours of hard work and a lot of sweat and tears!!! The path to feeling like YOU again won’t be an easy one, it will be hard (very, very hard), you will give in to temptation at times (…lots of times!), you will want to give up (almost daily), you will feel like nothing is changing (every time you step on those silly scales), you will wish it could happen faster (like it did for that model who is back to her pre-baby body weeks after birth!) and you will want a quick fix (sorry, no magic pills!) …so hang in there, this ‘loving your body after baby battle’ can be won!!!

Always remember why you started and where you have come from…take a before pic (even though it’s the last thing you feel like doing at the time!) and have a support group!

But most of all my Mama friends…nourish your body from the inside out…move daily…look after yourself, make being healthy a lifestyle choice! What seems impossible at first will one day be the POSSIBLE!

Love from a fellow Mama of 2 boys who has learnt to love her body after babies…tiger stripes and all xox

Posted by mamamichelle, 28th February 2014

10 Comments

- - maryphilip said
  - 09 Jun 2015
    12:08 pm
Thanks for your letter Mama….I too are trying to learn to love my body. It is a tough work, even though I start to tell myself that I look fine. When I see people looking at me, all I can think is how bad I should be looking. I still got a long way to go, but I am not going to give up.

- - catgrrl3 said
  - 21 May 2014
    1:02 pm
I had “tiger stripes” before baby, and well, learned to get used to them, rather than love them

- - coppin85 said
  - 12 May 2014
    6:49 pm
its great to be reminded of this

- - kathryn said
  - 30 Apr 2014
    9:23 am
thank you for this – I struggled after having a baby and just reminded myself of what my body had just accomplished!

- - hopefullyheidi said
  - 20 Apr 2014
    4:42 pm
It took me a long time to accept my body the way it is now post birth.

- - fatheroffaprincess said
  - 31 Mar 2014
    8:30 pm
thanks for sharing your story

- - jodie80 said
  - 21 Mar 2014
    9:25 am
my body is horrible now i cant even try to love it

- - yyon4699 said
  - 19 Mar 2014
    12:15 pm
great encouragement ! I am proud to say I lvoe my body more than ever after giving birth to be honest

- - mamamichelle said
  - 28 Feb 2014
    7:07 pm
It certainly is a battle isn’t it and always a work in progress…I truly believe all us Mama’s deserve to feel good in our ‘after baby’ body’s! Here is my photo/journey as I was unable to attach to my story :))

- - aussiemum said
  - 28 Feb 2014
    6:45 pm
I’m proud of what my body has accomplished in giving birth to 2 gorgeous children, but the learning to love bit is a work in progress