Three years ago today, I created the first post for this website. I agonized over whether this idea would succeed or if it would fall flat on its face. I begged my friends to submit photos and to pass the word on. And then within a month, I was receiving thousands of hits daily, had done an interview on Canadian radio, other interviews for online magazines and was absolutely floored to have been featured in the London Guardian. The immediate success of the site speaks volumes about how desperately such a source was needed.
I am honored to have been a part of this and honored that you all have been on this journey with me. We have made a difference already in this world, but we have a lot more work to do. So today, as a present to this website, say something nice about your mama body. You don’t have to mean it yet – that will come later – you just have to get the words out of your mouth. After all your body worked hard for you and your babies. Give it some thanks and admiration. Leave me a comment here telling me what you said and then pass along the link to this page to all your mama friends.
Here’s to another year and many more!
(Thanks to Dave Flota Photography for use of the photo!)
I’ll start!
I love my breasts. I love the thin, papery skin. The textures it makes when I lay down, like the finest fabric, pulled taut and wrinkled. They are nearly old lady breasts and I ADORE that. After all, someday I will be an old lady, and frankly, I am glad for it.
Happy birthday, SOAM! Thank you, Bonnie! This site was *desperately* needed!
I love that my breasts have nourished four children. I love how soft the skin is on my belly. I love the texture stretchmarks give my skin. I love the strong shoulders I’ve developed from carrying my children over my 8+ years as a mother. I love the crow’s feet and gray hair I’m starting to get; I’m thankful to have lived 33 years and to experience the joy of watching my children grow.
I want to love my body, in part because I want my children to have a mom who does. I’m still working on it, but this site helps.
My body made two awesome people and continues to nourish one of them with the most nutritious food for babies and toddlers.
I am less at odds with my body, my anatomy, my weight and my place in the world than I have ever been.
Happy birthday, SOAM!
:) :(
I love that I was able to make a happy, healthy little boy. I love that I was able to give birth with no medical intervention beyond my midwife’s watchful presence. I love that I was able to breast feed for as long as I did, even though it didn’t feel like it was long enough.
I love that after nine months of lugging my infant around I have muscular arms and can effortlessly rise from a sitting position even while holding him.
I love the look my son gets on his face when I go in to greet him in the morning.
Hi!
I´m from Sweden (Sverige) and found this site after reading about it in the daily paper.
I´m glad I found out about this site and payed a visit cause it made me feel a little bit better about my self. It´s a comfort to know that marks on the body after childbirth is more comman than you think.
here goes…
I love my fuller breast and wider hips.
I love my c-section scar cause it gave me my baby girl.
There is nothing to dislike about my body. It has done everything I ever asked it to, and more – it’s nourished 4 children, from fetus to toddler, and it’s nourishing another right now. All the dimples and stretch marks and extra skin are part of who I am now. I don’t need the teenager me back, because back then, I wasn’t a mother. I wouldn’t trade my body for anyone’s even if I could.
Birth Day Post
Nerves set stages
built upon prenatal skin
New birth, blood, instinct answers
and forms something new
something knowing
something planetary
an extra layer spreads
atomic upgrade
Love that, Deb!
I am honored to be a mother. I love being a wife. And I especially am grateful that I am able to have children; not matter the outcome of my body.
Daughter 21 months, Son due in Oct.
Thank you SOAM!
I love my breasts! Ten years and two kids later, my husband still loves every bit of me.
Thank you so much for this website. I recommend it to all of my friends that are new birth moms, so that they can see that whatever pregnancy has done to their body, they are never alone.
Here’s to many more years and many more Moms celebrating their bodies!
I love my wider hips, the confident jiggle that always catches attention & I the new strength in my arms & legs that can only come from having carried a sleeping toddler, 2 grocery bags and/or a basket full of clean laundry up 2 flights of stairs on more than one occasion. And I would like to thank my vagina for putting up with everything I’ve put into or pushed out of her.
Glad you’re here, SOAM. Love you, Bonnie.
Hi Bonnie! I live in Argentina. I found this website after having my first baby and I could fell much better with my body and mind when I read so many stories similar to mine.
You can never imagine what is really going to happen with your body and life when you are pregnant. For many women, this website is a wonderful way to express feelings about this changes in their lives. Then, you realize than having a baby is much more important than any other thing in this world!
Thank you and congratulations!!!!
I love my breasts. They are large and full of milk. They have nourished babies for over 11 years now. I still have an “hour glass” figure, even after six kids, though it’s a bigger hour glass than it used to be…but I love that. I am curvy and womanly, not a stick insect.
I don’t mind my stretch marks at all, though some are very deep…I used to think I looked like a burn victim…but I don’t even notice them anymore.
I have given birth naturally, five times now. At home. I am more proud of that than anything else I have done in my life.
May I just share something soul-baring.
I read and re-read your post for a few hours July 5 and was hoping I could find words to write here and then I wrote them out finally and erased them.
When I came back they were written all out by another Alicia (with all due respect to this wonderful momma)and I cried for a while because its every word by someone that spells her name exactly like mine who has had 4 beautiful children like my self over 8+ years and is in her 33rd year. How on earth would I have ever encountered such a stunning experience with out the brave women who share on your site?
In addition I am beginning to love my ceserean scar that has been a mark for all 4 births, and the rest of my body for bearing the sorrow of losing 3 children. I love the inches that my husband caresses with tenderness and the warm snuggles my soft body embrace from my adoring children. These stretchmarks will be forever known as flames of passion igniting a whole new era of a life worthing every effort living.
Original post;
“Happy birthday, SOAM! Thank you, Bonnie! This site was *desperately* needed!
I love that my breasts have nourished four children. I love how soft the skin is on my belly. I love the texture stretchmarks give my skin. I love the strong shoulders I’ve developed from carrying my children over my 8+ years as a mother. I love the crow’s feet and gray hair I’m starting to get; I’m thankful to have lived 33 years and to experience the joy of watching my children grow.
I want to love my body, in part because I want my children to have a mom who does. I’m still working on it, but this site helps.”
Happy Birthday SOAM, this website is a sanity saver! We are all beautiful and thank you for allowing us to come together and embrace what motherhood has gifted.
I love my rounded stomach…more for my husband to hold on to. I love my flabby arms…more for me to hold on to my family with. I love my fuller face…more of me for the world to see. I love my stretch marks…different colors for the eyes to behold.
Blessings to you all!
I used to dream of the perfect body, until this site helped me to realize this IS my dream body! It has given me my dreams, and helped me to turn another’s dream of motherhood into reality as well. Every stretchmark, line, wrinkle, and roll of flesh has been earned. They are my badges of honor, more precious than any other. And I can’t wait to get a few more!