The Shape of a Mother

Two babies in less than two years. I’ve always had a small frame, average breasts. My pregnancies were hard – terrible nausea and vomiting requiring IV fluids and zofran. I managed to gain 20 lbs with my daughter, but only gained just over 6 lbs during my son’s pregnancy. I started my procreation years at 118 lbs. I was 127 before Wyatt’s pregnancy and 133 the day I delivered him. My babies were on the small size to start, 6 lbs 3 oz and 6 lbs 4 oz. They were both c-sections and I’ve keloided each time. Wyatt is over 15 lbs now at almost 6 months. I’m currently 110 lbs. I’ve done nothing other than breastfeed exclusively and try to eat “regularily” between a busy toddler and a happy-at-the-boob-all-day boy! I’ve been to the gym twice, but haven’t made it back in quite a while. I’m actually ok with my postpartum body. It’s the crookedness of my spine that bothers me when I see myself. I doubt I’ll have anymore children as my husband considers our family complete. I’ll nurse wyatt until he self weans as I feel slighted in that I had to stop nursing his sister at 15 months when I started having complications with my pregnancy that ended up with me on bedrest from weeks 27 until 36 and then an emergency delivery at 37 weeks. I’m currently on the road to becoming a lactation consultant (IBCLC) and love to see pictures of babies at breast and the changes women’s bodies go through for their children. It’s important to be realistic about our bodies as they change. Lactation completes the final stage of development in a woman’s breasts and it’s a beautiful thing for a baby to be at breast. I’ve always taken pictures of my children at breast because I think it’s important for them to know that they were breastfed because I wanted the best for them. I want them to grow up knowing that babies are born to breastfeed and that it’s the norm and not the exception…

Although I did get a lot of stretch marks right at the end of my pregnancy (of course!) I can say that they have slowly faded in color and size over the past 19 months after having my daughter. They are still there, but you have to look pretty closely to see them. There is hope that stretch marks will fade with time!

my son was born at 7 lbs 9 oz on may 4th, 2007 and after a looooooong 9 months, every minute was worth it :) before getting pregnant i weighed about 125 lbs at 5 foot 5. during my pregnancy, i got up ti 169 lbs and now weigh about 152 lbs. im hoping to get back to my pre-preggo weight but im not holding my breath. there are many aspect of my body i dont like anymore (most of them) but before my little one, i had no hips, which i do now. as much as everything sags and jiggles when i walk naked, its still all worth it. we created a life!! what an amazing feeling. before pregnancy i was comfortable with my body after being with my boyfriend for 2 yrs and i knew i was beautiful to him and thats all that mattered. i even showed it off every now and then! im sure it will be a long time before i ever let anyone besides myself or my boyfriend see my body but im ok with that. 8 wks after his birth, im just enjoying him and havent done much as far as exercise yet. i still dont have my energy back because i hemmoraged after delivering him and lost a lot of blood. the pics ive included are of me at 24 weeks pregnant, 30 weeks pregnant, and just shy of 38 wks pregnant. the next 3 are my body 8 wks post partum (stretch marks and all, which i didnt get until about 35-36 wks preggo) and then my gorgeous little man, owen douglas at 8 wks old. glad to know im not the only one with a post baby belly that has become more of a jelly belly !

I am 25 and a proud mother of two boys 3-1/2 and 2, I am currently expecting another baby boy. This will be my fourth pregnancy but only my third healthy baby. I am still in the process of getting used to my new body, and this site has helped so much. I have always had body image issues, and have struggled with a silent eating disorder that pregnancy has seemed to intensify. Because no matter how much I eat, or do not eat I can not change the way my body looks to me. With my first pregnancy I weighed about 120-lbs, and had gained 9-lbs. We concieved again about 4 months later and I weighed 129-lbs in the beginning. I told myself I was going to gain as little weight as possible without putting the baby in danger. I ate as healthy as I could and only gained 29 lbs. But I got terrible streatch marks. I gave birth 5 days early to a 9-lb 7-oz healthy baby boy. I was in my regular clothes 3 days after I gave birth. With my third pregnancy it was a completely different story. I had gotten down to 114-lbs after having my son, but I gained weight so much faster with this pregnancy, and had to wear maternity clothes a lot sooner than I had the last time. I ate the same as I had with my second pregnancy, but I gained 37-lbs.I didn’t get any new streatch marks, but it made the ones I had even deeper. My second son was born 2 weeks early and weighed 8-lb, 2-oz. It took me a good month before I could even think about wearing my regular clothes. After that pregnancy my ED became very hard to control. I felt huge, and I got down on myself for putting that much weight on. My breasts lost all of their perkiness, and I went from a 36-C to a 34-A. I had always had small breasts, but I was a normal B. Now I had nothing. We weren’t planning on having any more children, and we had just sorted through all of our baby things, and put them into our garage sale pile. Two weeks later we found out that we were expecting again. We were shocked to say the least, but also very excited. At the beginning of this pregnancy I weighed 123-Lbs, and so far I’ve gained 17-lbs. I am 21 weeks today. My midwife has told me that I’m on course to gain about the same amount of weight that I did with my last pregnancy, and I’m freaking out. I am not in maternity clothes yet, because they are still to big. So I don’t know where I’m gaining the weight at. Probably my Butt!! I am however trying to focus on growing a healthy baby and eating right, not on the weight. But it’s getting to be extremely hard. I just want to add that I am so thanful to all of the brave women who have shared their stories and pictures. It really has helped me see that I am not alone and I am more normal than what the media portrays.

I am now 8 months post partum, but I took these pics back a few months ago and I am 1 size smaller than I was before I got pregnant. Have been since a month after I had my son. I love my son and wouldn’t trade anything for him. I look back and can’t remember a time when I didn’t have him in my husband and my life. We love him very much.

In the summer of 2004, I was happier than I had ever been with my body. I’d gained just over 40 lbs. a few years earlier when I went on Depo Provera. Now, almost 2 years after coming off of it, the extra weight seemed to be melting away before my very eyes. I went from a size 11 to a size 8 in only a few months, and I was STILL shrinking! I could wear ANYTHING I wanted, and I loved to show off my flat tummy and nice legs. On November 7, 2004, I found out that I was pregnant. It was completely unplanned pregnancy, and I was single. About a week later, my size 8 jeans, that had been getting big on me, were suddenly too tight. I took my first pregnancy photo at about 10 weeks, and kept on growing! By the end of my pregnancy, I looked like I was having twins, and I had gained close to 90 lbs. At 220 lbs., I could not believe I’d gotten so big. I’d been eating very healthily all throughout my pregnancy, and while I wasn’t on an exercise routine, I was reasonably active, including working TWO jobs for 6 months of my pregnancy! A week after my beautiful son was born, I’d lost about 20 lbs. I didn’t lose another pound until he was almost 6 months old, and started eating solids. Then, I lost 10 lbs. in less than a week. The next time I lost weight was when I went back to work, when he was 11 months old. Again, I lost 10 lbs. in a week. I did some research, and found a link between Depo, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. That link is Progesterone. It seems that it completely slows down my body’s metabolism, so that nearly every calorie I eat gets turned into fat. My son weaned at 14.5 months, and just this week, my milk supply finally stopped. So now, nearly 2 years after my son was born, I am hoping that my body will start to shrink again. However, there is not much that can be done about the extra skin and stretch marks. Being single, it is hard to feel good about my body right now, and I am lacking in self-confidence. Thankfully, this site is making a HUGE difference to me, as are my bellydancing classes! I hope to one day see my postpartum body as a badge of honour for bringing my perfect little boy into the world. No matter what, he was DEFINITELY worth it!

My name is Erienne and almost 2 years ago I gave birth to my daughter Gentry by C-section. I started my pregnancy at a fit 130lbs and ended it at a heavy 180lbs. Now almost 2 years later I still weight 180lbs. I miss my body, my husband misses my body. It doesnt matter if I eat nothing, I just seem to stay here. I dont want to be a super model but I would like a little tone and definition to myself. I dont have time to really “work out” but I do walk everyday. I work 50-55 hours a week and I have a household to run and a toddler to chase. We are trying to have another baby and the thought of gaining another 50lbs scares the bejesus out of me! I am thankful to know that I am not a freak and that not everyone except me looks like Kelly Ripa after kids. I dont have any pics of my body, but here is a before and after of me.