The Shape of a Mother The Shape of a Mother The Shape of a Mother The Shape of a Mother The Shape of a Mother

Katherina

My name is Katherina and I am a mother of three beautiful children, ages 7, 4 and 3. All my births were natural and I breast-fed all three of my babies. Like most women, I intended to gain the recommended 25- 30 pounds with each pregnancy, but I ended up gaining 50+ pounds each time. [...]

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A letter to my body 1 yr PP (Emily)

Age: 23
1 pregnancy, son is 12 months old, 1 yr PP
Dear body,
Thank you for all that you have given me and others. I am sorry for what I used to think of you, I was wrong you are beautiful. I promise to never be ashamed of my body anymore. I promise to love this body [...]

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I Remember… (Mary)

~Age: 27
~Number of pregnancies and births: 1 pregnancy, 1 birth by c-section
~The age of your children, or how far postpartum you are: 5 months
I remember being 4 and 5 years old and looking down at myself in the bathtub and thinking I was fat.
I remember being in 2nd grade and looking down [...]

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I wear my baby stripes with honor (Karyle)

Age: 22 Years old
Pregnancies: 2 happy little girls
Childrens ages:
18 month old and 3 months old
To me, these scars to not make me ugly or disfigured. To me, they are reminders of what we as women go through to bring our children into the world. Any man who thinks stretch marks are horrible should try having [...]

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Mirror, Mirror on the wall….who’s the most damaged mother of them all? (Mary)

“Look at those ugly stretch marks!” the mirror sneers as I hurriedly change my clothes. No matter how hard I try, my eyes always seem to wander to my disappointing reflection staring back at me, “You’re disfigured and they’ll never go away you know. Never.” [...]

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Natural Beauty (Anonymous)

Feeling down about my not so picture perfect body I decided to take some pictures of myself. Not from flattering angles, not sucking in, not standing up. This is me, with my belly hanging out, my stretch marks, my soft bottom and legs, and less than perky breasts from feeding my child (and still am). [...]

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My Mother Body (Lisa)

During a recent discussion among a group of women friends in which a few of us were taking pot-shots at ourselves about our post-baby bodies, one friend in the group passed along a link to this website. I spent some time reading submissions posted to the site and looking at photographs, and it all [...]

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Ode To My Scar (Colleen)

I posted when I was 3 weeks postpartum about my feelings following a cesarean, and I wasn’t planning on posting again until I’d made some progress on my body, but I have had some thoughts that I would like to share (especially considering I’ve read several dissatisfied Cesarean mommy posts lately).
As much as I [...]

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All (Karli)

All
by Karli
I am 26 years old, divorced, with two daughters ages 4 and 7. I am proud to be a mother, and proud to be a woman.
Originally posted here.
* * * *
Standing naked in front of the mirror, I started with my toes. I love you, toes, I said. I like the way you’re shaped. [...]

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Postpartum Beauty (Anonymous)

From the time I was 13 years old, and experienced my first stretch mark on my suddenly grown breasts, I have been ashamed of my body. I was a chubby teenager who would hide my body under large sweatshirts and jeans even in the dead of summer so that no one could see my rolls [...]

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There is Beauty in My Flaws (Melissa)

so here is a picture of my two sons and myself…my lovely tummy after the damage of having two children in under a year..exactly 11 months to the day apart to be literal. To my boys, I am the most beautiful mommy in the whole world and when they ask me about my stretch marks [...]

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Love Your Belleh!

FANTASTIC YouTube video:

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My thoughts on being a plus-size mom to be (Anonymous)

I have been overweight my whole entire life. I always joke that the “thinnest” Ive ever been was at birth - 6 lbs. Funny, but true. At one point, I got up over 400 lbs. Then I made a decision that changed my life completely. I had lap-band weight loss surgery in Dec. 2005. The [...]

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Triplet Belly

This is a timeline of my belly from 7 weeks through 36 weeks, 3 months post partum, and my babies at 6 weeks old. I gave birth, at home, to my three beautiful babies at 37 weeks. Though this pregnancy changed by body forever, I loved every minute of it. Being a mom of triplets [...]

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