Saturday 2 March 2013

Pregnancy and body image

This has been on my brain a bit lately as I have many many friends who are currently pregnant or have recently had children. Body image. It's something a lot of us struggle with from a young age and it never seems to go away, it just changes.

I know that there is the occasional woman out there who totally embraces pregnancy with confidence, feeling gorgeous and not worrying about her size, weight, or whatever else is happening to her body. But for a lot of us it's something that bothers us at least a little. People start commenting on how large you are, asking if you are carrying twins or act shocked when you tell them your due date. Yeah, it's not exactly a confidence booster!
Many of us also have the joy of dealing with stretch marks, swollen hands and feet, and stuffy or bloody noses. Doesn't exactly make a girl feel beautiful.



My belly is getting big. I'm in week 29 of pregnancy and that precious baby boy inside me currently weighs anywhere from 2.5-3 pounds (so my app tells me.) He is floating around along with a bunch of other extra things adding to the weight like water, placenta, blood, etc. I'm not worried about my weight gain as it's still sitting around 12 pounds. I had no problem losing it last time and I plan to do whatever I can to lose it again this time.

I got stretch marks from Noah at the very end of my last pregnancy, around week 38/39. Then I had gallbladder surgery and received a few more scars including a larger one around my belly button (and the gallbladder problems were due to pregnancy in the first place.) This time around the marks I have have gotten darker and because of my operated on belly button area I have already gotten new stretch marks around those scars. If I end up having to have a csection from this little guy being breech I'll have another scar added to the collection.

I know skin eventually tightens up after pregnancy and there are exercises/stretches to help with it, but for most people it never fully goes back to the way it was. It'll always be looser then what it was.

What's my point in all this? I've just decided not to care about it so much anymore and embrace it all. Yes, I'm getting large. I'm suppose to. I'm growing a human being inside my body and it's no easy task. The scars aren't fun to see, but I'm considering those my battle scars. They represent what I've accomplished and what I'm doing. So what if I never wear a bikini again! My husband could care less and still thinks I'm beautiful, even in a one piece. Would I trade my children for a smaller tighter hotter body? Never in a million years!!!

So next time you see a pregnant woman, do her a favour and avoid commenting on her size. Tell her how beautiful she looks growing that baby. Believe me, you'll make her day!




1 comment:

  1. so sweet Carolyn, you look gorgeous in all your pictures, for real!

    ReplyDelete