The Shape of a Mother

I always was very thin growing up, 5’6″, 120lbs. My pregnancy wasn’t planned, but was a pleasant surprise. I’m only 20 and my husband is 21, we were scared but excited. I was 124lbs when I found out I was pregnant. It took forever for me to start showing. People never believed me when I told them I was pregnant and couldn’t even fit into a Small in maternity clothes until I was 6 1/2 months pregnant. I started eating tons, hoping that I’d develop a belly, I wanted to LOOK pregnant. I went from 124lbs to 169lbs. I didn’t get a single stretch mark until I was 8 months pregnant, then I just blew up in them. I’m very self conscious about them now.I only have them on my stomach and sides but I hate them. I have a beautiful daughter that I’m so thankful for, but I can’t stand to look at my stomach in the mirror. I went from 169lbs to 148 the day I went home from the hospital, but I haven’t lost a pound since then. I walk daily, and do pilates 2 times a week. I try to watch what I eat, but I admit sometimes it’s easier to get pizza for supper then to cook something. My sister showed me this site while I was pregnant and I just now had gotten the courage to post my pic. I love this site!

this was my original submission

i’m now 7 months postpartum & i’ve actually *gained* 10 pounds since my son’s birth! it’s not fair! i read words like “you’re beautiful” “you gave life” “be proud”, but i just can’t be. i have no problem with my stretch marks; i’m actually pretty stoked about those! it’s the 30 pounds over my normal weight that i’m struggling with. i walk every day, i am eating better – i’ve been a veg*n for 7 years – i have started stretching regularly, but i can’t seem to shed this fat. and then there’s my lopsided breasts. i’m so embarassed to be naked. i can’t understand why my breasts look like they do; my son does not prefer the left over the right, it just happens to produce more & no matter what i do (and believe me, i’ve tried everything) it doesn’t change. i’m considering a breast lift after we’re done nursing. i wish our societal norms were different. i wish that our little girls weren’t bombarded by unrealistic ideals of what a beautiful woman is. it is my duty, as the mother of a little boy, to raise him to appreciate what a woman IS, not what she thinks she should be. i will raise him to be an honest, kind & compassionate man. one that any woman would be lucky to have.

I have gave birth to 4 kids after my frist one I looked better then I did before I got pregent!! But in the end my 4th child is the one who did a number on my body we lost him to a birth defect called holoprosencephaly Now I can’t stand the way my body looks I have try every thing to lose my belly but nothing has worked What really rips my heart out is when some one comes up to me & ask’s if im pregnet again cause I can’t have no more babies.so heres pics of me now 2 yrs after my 4th baby!!

Hi I’m Nita, a mother of one and hopefully another on the way. I had my son two months after I turned eighteen. He’s now fourteen months old and my husband and I are trying to have our second. I stumbled upon the site tonight and I wanted to say thank you because it has helped me with my mama body. I was 130lbs when we got pregnant and for the first six months I had morning sickness so I lost weight but then I gained 15lbs in a month. Needless to say I now have stretch marks but I love them. I’m looking forward to posting my pregnant tummy pictures when we conceive. I don’t have any photos of my first pregnancy but here’s one of me and Aiden.

hello! I am a 21 year old mother of two beautiful girls! I had a c-section with both of them. This is my stomach after a month of just giving birth! I still feel fat! But my Husband makes me feel so much better when he tells me that he doesn’t care about the stretch marks or that I gained weight. Those things happen when you have a baby! I working on losing the weight. I still have a few more weeks till I’m able to work out again! I still feel beautiful no matter what my body may look like!

While having yet another conversation with my preschooler daughter that Pull-Ups were not “cooler” than real undies, she sassed me. Her reply? “You’re just jealous because you’ve had 2 babies and are too fat to wear them.” Never one to back down from a challenge, I showed her! So here I am, a birthmother of two, ages 4 and 2, wearing size 3T-4T Pull-Ups. Yeah, they were snug, but no more so than the “date panties” I used to wear before I was married. You can see in the picture of my front that even though I may be as petite as I was pre-babies, I still carry birth memorabilia around my middle. My middle really does stand out in contrast to the rest of my fit body. One day in the pool locker room I was dressing my younger daughter and myself when I made the comment “Let’s go get sister.” A woman nearby said, “Oh, you have twins? My sister has twins too and she still has the ‘twin skin,'” while gesturing toward my middle. I’m afraid my peals of laughter were a bit uncouth for a response. I told her, “I do have two kids, but they’re two years apart.” She was mortified and I had to wonder why. Why is belly skin okay if you have twins but not a singleton? I have not always had such a loving relationship with my post-pregnancies body. One day a few months after the birth of my second, I looked in the mirror and bemoaned the fact that I still had a huge sagging belly and probably always would. My then-2yo said, “But Mom, that’s where you carry your babies. It’s the most important part of you.” Never have I been more proud of my daughter or myself. (Of course then she added, “And since there’s no baby in it now, could we put some toys in it?”) I’m now newly pregnant with my third child and looking forward to all the changes my body will go through. I know it will be a different body in a year, but I will also be a different woman and mother. A stronger and gentler person, with the body to show for it.