Author: Bonnie (SOAM)

I am so happy I found this site, I felt very shy about showing my stomach since I have had my son. He is 21 months now. I gained about 55 pounds during the pregnancy which was very difficult for me to go from being 105lbs to having all the extra weight to carry around. I have tried to work out and eat healthy and I am now down to 127lbs. I would love to be able to tighten my abs back up but it is taking some time. I am very lucky not to have gotten any stretch marks on my stomach although I do have some on the backs of my legs and on my butt. I just try to think about the love i have for my son and the love and joy he brings me every day and I feel better :)

i am a young mom at 20. everyone around here always gives me dirty looks and everything because of it. when i was pregnant the doctors said he was only going to weigh like 5 pounds because i only gained 27 pounds while i was pregnant. the day i had him everyone was shocked because he weighed 8 pounds and 3 ounces and was 21 and 1/2 inches long. he was huge. i am proud of my body now even though it has changed a little bit.

This is my story: When I found out last year I was pregnant I was petrified! I had no clue what I was going to do and to top it all off the father whom I had been seeing for almost a year decided he wanted nothing to do with our child and wanted me to have an abortion. Luckily I have the most wonderfull family in the world. I made the decision to go thru with this without him but with the support of my entire family. Most of the pregnancy went fine. A few bumps in the road but everything was great. I didn’t really enjoy being pregnant physically. I loved knowing what was growing inside me but hated the physical pain that was comming with it. Unfortunatly I wasn’t one of the lucky ones who was saved from stretch marks. They in my opinion were horrible!! Two days before my due date they decided to induce my labor. I had been having pain in my stomach and hadn’t been able to keep much food down. They couldn’t seem to find the problem so they decided they wanted to get him out. They started inducing me at 8 am on a thursday morning. All day long i was slowly progressing but with terrible pains and bleeding too. They told me this was normal. That night, they insisted I take some sleeping medication to get some rest for the next day. So I did and actually had a couple of doses during the night. The next morning at about 6 am they woke me up to check my progression. They told me I was a little more than 6 centimeters and I could have an epideral. So around 6:20 the guy came in the give me the epideral. That wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared. I turned to lay back down and in doing so my water broke. Good news! Well bad news it was full of blood. They didn’t seem to concerned about this. While laying in the bed I was feeling pretty good. Feeling no pain at all. Then all of a sudden the entire hospital was in my room. Everyone was yelling at me to breath. They had put an oxygen mask over my face because I had stopped breathing. My son had “fallen off the monitor” and they couldn’t get him back. Before I knew It they were rushing me down the hall into another room. I had no idea what was happening. The last thing I remember is someone pinching me and asking If I could feel it. I told them yes and they they yelled “Put her out”. A few hours later I woke up and my family was standing around me looking like they just finished crying. I asked my mom what happened and was he ok? She said yes and I had to have a “crash c-section”. She said that my placenta had seperated and my sons heart had stopped beating and I had stopped breathing and was bleeding to death. I still wasn’t really understanding what had happened because of all the drugs in my system. Just to give you an idea how fast everything happened.. I had the epideral at 6:20 am and at 6:52 am my son was born. Finally at 11:30 am I was able to see and hold him for the first time. I love my son with everything in me but I can’t help feeling like I was cheated. I wanted to have him naturally and be able to hold him when he first came out. Instead all i’m left with is a horrible scar (vertical incision) and nasty stretch marks. I feel terrible for saying that. I just really hate the way I look now. But, I am thankfull to God that my son is alive and doing wonderfull. He didn’t even have to go to NICU. He stayed with me the entire time. I am so amazed with him every day. I know that I will eventually be ok with my body, but there’s part of me that wonders who would ever want someone with a child and a stomach that looks like mine. Well its been 3 months now. My son is amazing!! I never knew I could love someone so much. I absolutley love being a mom.

I am 22 years old and have always had a great body and been small built (5’3 and 105lbs)before becoming pregnant with my son. Although I lost the weight – I am at 109lbs today I guess my body was just too small to gain 63 pounds. That or I shouldn’t have ate quite so many chocolate chip cookies. haha Anyways – now I suffer from feeling sad about my post baby body everytime I am around my hot 22 year old friends and their bikinis!!! Sickning.

I’m a 25 year old mother of 2 boys a 3 month old and a 9 year old. Although I love my boys dearly I battle daily with my self image. I know I should be proud of what my body has done, it has nourished and delivered 2 beautiful babies but often what I see is a reflection of a body that should not belong to me. Its disfigured and not that a vibrant, young 25 year old and it has brought me to tears so many times. I find it hard to accept compliments because I know if people saw what I try so hard to keep covered they would think differently. But stumbling across this web site has really helped me realize that I am not alone and being a woman/mother is beautiful, sexy and empowering! I’m not saying that I’ve come to terms with my body but I think I am making small steps at accepting motherhood in its entirety! So thanks all of you who have shared your wonderful stories and beautiful pictures and to the creator of this website!

I started out my pregnancy at close to 100 pounds. During the 9 months of pregnancy I went from 100 to about 163. Trying to lose it has been hell, but I am finally starting to accept my “mothers body”. I don’t ever want to be 100 pounds again now. I am about 7 pounds from hitting my goal weight of 120 :D

I just gave birth to my first child a few weeks ago. She ended up being a c-section after over 24 hours of natural (NO PAIN MEDICINE) labor. I rubbed vitamin e oil on my tummy every single night before I went to bed and after each shower. I thankfully ended up without any stretch marks but I have a lovely scar and some extra baggage in the belly. I am looking forward to getting back in shape and having another one! Motherhood is wonderful!

As you can see, even after 7 years after delivery I was never able to get rid of the baby fat (can I still call it baby fat?). Although I have minimal strechmarks, my abdominals are completely relaxed (they asked me when am I due for quite a while after delivery) and my breasts are huge and absolutely sagging. I see my body like that of a grandma (no pun intended) just now I’m no quite forty yet. Bottom line, I find myself disgusting and repellent. There’s so much work to do on “real” women’s image …

My previous entry was “I almost want to cry (Anonymous)” and now I am very happy with my body image! Although I would love to be the size 12 (Australian sizing) that I was before kids! so I have a way to go yet. I now see a dietitian and she helps educate me with my food intake and how much I should exercise according to my body mass etc – totally recommend this option! its no fad diet or anything, and I feel great being able to have some time to myself to talk to someone about my emotional eating as well! Because, in all honesty I can’t just blame the 2 pregnancies or months of breastfeeding alone that turned my body inside-out its all the emotional eating! hormones?! This is a fantastic site, I thank you for this ! It boosts my self-confidence every time I look at it. My kids are happy and healthy and thats what is the most important thing to me above all else! xx