First Pregnancy by Cesarean (Tsvetelina)

Hi there. My name is Tsvetelina fit the 23 from Bulgaria. My English is not very good, but I hope you understand what I write. 4 months ago I gave birth to baby girl – Anna. 3.200 kg, 50 cm Pregnancy passed me slightly, the first two months my slightly sick , after 7 months began acids. My term was for July 28, 2012.It’s been two days and my doctor decided to put me in the hospital to induce labor. In the evening I look at ultrasound. It was a normal birth. In the evening the doctor saw that the umbilical cord is wrapped around the baby and that I am prepared for cesarean delivery. It all happened very quickly. I was very scared. But Anna was born 30/06/2012. I was in the hospital six days. I restored quickly from surgery. Everything is fine now except the abdomen does not want to go. It saddens me. I have stretch marks on the side of love handles. My breasts hung than breastfeeding. I give a milk of me – 40 days and stopped my milk because Anna is eyelid ptosis, and I was very worried. At 2 months of Anna navel operate as it turned out that there granuloma navel. From these concerns stopped my milk. Now Agim calm, do crunches to get my belly. Before I got pregnant I weighed 50 kg. I gained 17 kilograms. At the hospital I lost 6 kg. and for four months I lost 4 kg. I have not trained anything. Now I weigh 57 kg. I hope to get my weight soon.

The first two pictures are from 22/11
Picture with the big belly is 22/07/2012
Photo by Annie is 13/11/2012
The photo of the sea in the summer of 2011

Over Two Years Later and Another Baby – Update (Anonymous)

Original post here.

It has been over two years since my first submission/story was posted on this wonderful site. My amazing son will soon turn five years old and he is still more than I could have ever hoped and wished for. My husband is still active duty in the Marine Corps and we endured another combat deployment, this time to Afghanistan. It was even harder than the other deployments for a few reasons. One being the communication was almost non existent. We went over a month with no contact due to his location. The second was that I was pregnant during the deployment! We had no clue the day he left, but about a month into the deployment I found out we were expecting. I could hardly believe it. I had to then wait and wait for a rare phone call to finally tell him the news! At my first Dr appt. we calculated that we must have conceived within 7-5 days before he had left! During the second trimester we then found out we were having another boy. Due to some re enlistment/time left on contract issues they had to send him home a few months early (hey no complaints here!!!) I was so beyond relieved to have him home and so happy he would get to be around for the last part of the pregnancy and birth!

I did a bit better with weight gain this time around. Started at 150 lbs and was at 186 lbs day of delivery. Unfortunately I delivered via repeat c section even though the Dr had given me a 75% chance of successful VBAC. The delivery was awful. I had mild Pre eclampsia and they wanted to induce me at 39 weeks. I ended up getting food poisoning/bad stomach virus a few days before my induction date. I was so sick and dehydrated that it was causing me to contract. They admitted me and gave me fluids & anti nausea medication. Then proceeded to start pitocin. Within the first 15 min or so of getting the pitocin the baby had a drop in heart rate severe enough that they told me we HAD to do an emergency cesarean. At that point I was so exhausted that I didn’t even want to talk about it. To top it all off, my spinal did not fully take. I wasn’t “numb” completely and ended up feeling some of the pain from the surgery. They wanted to put me under with a breathing tube but I freaked out on the table and pleaded with them. They instead gave me very strong meds during the rough parts. I felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. It was loopy, scary, weird and painful all mixed together, but I was awake to hear his first cry. I was able to see his face and kiss my beautiful baby boy, and that I am grateful for. It was love at first sight. He looked just like his big brother! 7 lbs 1oz and perfect from head to toe!

His 1st Birthday was just a few days ago and I still find it hard to believe he is ONE! I love my boys and I love how they interact together.
As for me and my body these days… I still have work to do… But as I’ve gotten older and possibly wiser lol, I realize that I am not ruined or unsightly. I am a Mother. I am Unique. I am strong, and I am filled with love. How can I hate those things?? I am on the right path I believe. I am now at 156 lbs, with a goal of 140 lbs and 21% body fat. I plan on adding more weight training to my fitness and am excited to find out how my body will react to it.

I’m not sure if I gained any new stretch marks or not.. To me it doesn’t really look like it. Although I do think I have a bit more loose skin now… The wrinkle under my belly button is still there and I have an “apron” when I bend over lol.

I keep saying this lately: “Love conquers all”. I truly believe it too… For whoever may read this far.. All I ask is to love yourself, love who you are, you are one of a kind!

~Age: 28 (will be 29 on Nov 28th)
~Number of pregnancies and births: 2 pregnancies and 2 births
~The age of your children, or how far postpartum you are: 4 years old and 1 year old, 1year postpartum.

I’m still alive, but we lost our precious daughter. (Maureen)

Age: 32
Pregnancy/birth: 1
Children: 1 angelgirl in heaven, passed away 3 days after birth

Title: I’m still alive, but we lost our precious daughter
Name: Maureen, Proud mama of Chloë*
Country: The Netherlands

On Monday evening the 25th of July 2011 I was brought to the hospital by Ambulance, because of serious belly ache. I passed out several times. By the time I arrived in the hospital I was in shock. I was rushed to surgery to get the baby out. The doctors thought of a placental abruption. But in surgery they found out that I had an internal bleeding, I lost about 3.5 liters of blood. At 23.59h our beautiful daughter Chloë was born. The moment she was born she was not breathing, so they helped her to get her breathing right. Her heartbeat was stable.
Later that night Chloë was transferred to a specialized hospital because the doctors worried about her brainactivity as a result of the lack of oxygen.

After surgery I was brought to the Intensive Care, where I was kept asleep and on the respirator. My condition was stable at that time.

My sister in law and my husband went to the hospital where Chloë was taken to. She was brought to the NICU. She was also on the respirator. Her tempature was brought to 33.5 C to minimize brainactivity and braindamage.
While my husband was with Chloë, he got a telephone call from the other hospital that I was brought to surgery again because of another bleeding…
My sister in law brought my husband back to me. In surgery they found out that I had another 2,5 liters of blood in my belly. When I was back from surgery, I was brought with a mobile intensive care unit to the same hospital as Chloë.

Chloë wasn’t doing very well… 2 brainscans showed no activity, this was caused by the lack of oxygen. Probably caused already on Friday when I had some belly ache also. I was doing better and after my condition was stable enough I was able to see my daughter for the first time on wednesday. Later that day we were told that there was nothing the doctors could do for Chloë anymore. On
Thursday they would stop the treatment.

On Thursday 28th of July, Chloë stayed with us the whole day and we could even hold her in our arms. But at 19.00 h the respirator was stopped and at 21.00 h she passed away in my the arms of my husband…
We kept Chloë with us until Sunday, then she was brought to the mortuary. I was doing better and after in total of 4 days of intensive care and 3 days of medicare, I was transferred back to the hospital closer to home on Monday, were I stayed until Thursday.

Together with our family and friends, we said goodbye to our sweet little princess on Saturday the 6th of august when she is cremated.”

We’re so proud to be the mommy and daddy of Chloë, but it hurts we had to let her go after 3 days…
We were so looking forward to have a child to take care of. We love her, we miss her… But she will always be our little girl.

The scar that I have confronts me every day. It’s a negative memory, it reminds me extra that we have lost our baby girl. But it is also a positive memory, as I’m still alive and we have a daughter now, although she is an angel in heaven. Since that scar we are a mommy and daddy. We love you, Chloë. You are our little princess. ? ? ?

I even can’t remember how my belly looks like without the scar, this is now who I am and in a strange way it makes me also that I’m blessed.

It will mean a lot to me if my story will be part of the ‘The shape of a mother’ community.

Learning to work at my body and love how I got here. Wanting to give hope to other mommies out there. (Kelly)

I am a 31 year old mother of 2 little girls ages 5 and 2. Before I had my first daughter I weighed about 135lbs and I am 5’9″, I was athletic and in great shape…..with my first daughter at the time I thought I looked horrible and worked very hard to get back to my pre baby weight. When I delivered her I was 212 lbs I did it in about 9 months and was pretty close to looking like I never had a baby :) When we decided to have our second daughter, I had been through a lot emotionally and was about 145lbs, still healthy for someone my height (I have a small slender frame even though I am tall, I wore a size 2 my senior year of high school) my second pregnancy I had gestational diabetes and was so lethargic and tired all the time from it that I was not able this time to work out during my pregnancy……the day I delivered her I weighed in at 245 lbs! I had a 3 1/2 finger ab separation and had undergone a c section…..I have been doing light workouts from the time the doc gave the ok, focusing on training my core muscles back together, until about a year post partum…..I upped my workouts a little more but since I still had about a 2 finger ab separation I was limited to certain workouts otherwise I may have done forever damage to my abdominal wall. About 6 months ago I increased my workouts to 6 days a week which included about 30 minutes cardio and an hour of various weight training…..I am currently about 170lbs and hoping to lose another 25lbs in the next 6 months…..my main concern is the wrinkled skin and extra fat on my abdomen which with the help of Argan oil treatments and tons of ab workouts seems to be diminishing little by little everyday and I also have 0 ab separation at this time and my core is stronger than ever (so for those of you out there with the same problem, I am living proof that an ab separation does NOT always mean surgery) I have attached a pic of my tummy from about a month ago, I don’t have and did not take pics of before 6 months ago because I was sad and ashamed so I don’t have a comparison for the look of it now but trust when I say it looked like a deflated balloon and hung a little over my panties…….I will try to update on my progress if I can over the next few months but I do believe with hard work and discipline I will look again like I did before my babies came along……:) Oh and I have completely changed my diet, I am not on a diet, but I eat very healthy and drink tons of water…..without this I don’t think that I would have made the progress I have made so far…..I have read about other mothers who have stuck to the old fashioned patience and working out and they have had the success I am looking for, so keep plugging along and love yourself for the beautiful miricle you have brought into this world……

Finally happy with myself; it wasn’t easy, though! (Susan)

age 26

I have always had issues with my weight, so I didn’t think pregnancy would have a huge effect on my body.

I gave birth to my son via emergency cesarean in September 2005. I quickly realized my stomach was sagging, even at my highest weight my stomach never hung, and my stretch marks were VERY dark.

My breast had always been symetrical, but after my second child, a daughter, was born in September 2010, my left breast started producing milk at a much higher rate. Causing my daughter to nurse mainly on the left side.

By this time I was totally used to my stomach, but the huge difference in breast size took me a long time to get used too.

I recently started blogging about obesity and parenting, and I think your site is wonderful! I have been treated so horribly over the years because of my weight, but the worst came when I tried to join play date groups. Its amazing to see I am not alone!

Finding support in others who understand that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes has helped me so much. My boyfriend has shown me that it doesn’t matter what others say, I am a good mother. I carried two babies 9 months, fed them each for 2 years with my breasts (almost there with my daughter, although we’re practicing self weaning with her), and no matter what I am beautiful.

So now with a 6 1/2 year old and a 20 month old, and a new found self confidence, I’m proud to share my body including my D and B breasts.

Photo 1: 20 months PP with #2 weight 250
Photo 2: 20 months PP with #2 Weight 250
Photo 3: Breasts Left D cup Right B cup
Photo 4: Cesarean scar(had infection after 2nd, but nothing serious)
Photo 5: 20 weeks with #1 weight 182
Photo 6: 37 weeks with # 2 weight 261
Photo 7: My beautiful babies, they make it all worth it

Loving My Mommy Body (Raven)

My name is Raven, I am 20 years old and I have one son that is now 18 months old. I had him via cesarean section.

I had a lot happen to me after I had my son. I had just assumed since having a baby was one of the happiest and greatest things that could happen to someone that nothing in life would be bad after having a child. It did not take me long to find out how wrong I was. I love my son more than I could ever put into words but the year after having my him I suffered with such horrible depression that I didn’t even want to live anymore. It’s embarrassing admitting that and openly talking about my depression because I always fear people will view me as a bad mother but now, after everything is said and done, I am so grateful that I had to go through that. I had the choice of going on anti-depressants or changing my lifestyle which meant becoming more active and eating healthier. I had always struggled with my weight and body image so I thought why not make a change for myself instead of having to take medication. After my son’s first birthday I started eating a lot better and working out regularly and now I really do love my body. Sure, there are things I am shy to show others but overall I love everything about it. I have a pooch at the bottom of my belly because I had a big baby. My boobs are not perky any more and they are much smaller, but being able to provide my son with all the nutrients he needed with them is a fair trade. I have stretch marks all over but let’s be honest, who doesn’t have stretch marks? I have a nice big five inch scar from where my beautiful baby boy was brought into this world and guess what, I even love that too! Knowing that everything that is “wrong” with my body was caused by creating my wonderful son really allows me to embrace everything about myself and I love it.

My pictures are of me now, 18 months PP and a nice big close up of my c-sec scar and stretch marks :)

Struggling With the Changes (Anonymous)

I found this website in a moment of weakness I was having with myself over issues with my body and I decided that since reading everyone’s stories and seeing their pictures that I couldn’t resist posting my own photos/story to maybe help someone else. I am 20 and actually planned a pregnancy (with my boyfriend of 5 years) due to the worry of infertility with age from issues with my reproductive organs. Anyways, I was very excited. I weighed 159 pounds (the most of my whole life) when I found out I was pregnant. I didn’t have a single stretch mark until I was 8 months and 2 weeks pregnant and then it seemed I got one with every breath I took. I was ALL belly which I thought was a good thing. My pregnancy was very rough on me, I lost over 20 pounds within the first 5 months from being so sick, then I finally gained some weight and kept gaining. I got pre-eclampsia at 38 weeks and was put in the hospital. I never progressed even with early labor and being induced therefore I had to have a cesarean (which I so DESPERATELY did not want!) It was very hard on me, it traumatized me but I had my baby, whom I love with all of my heart. My child never breastfed correctly so I pumped for four months and my milk literally dried up over night (yet another unexpected disappointment.) Anyways, I weighed 172 pounds the day I had my child, then while pumping I got down to 139, and now I am back up to 160! I don’t understand! I got on Nuvaring and it seems to be the best birth control of my life (the others gave me clots, gain weight, etc.) I’m not sure if the ring, stress, or negative body image is making me gain weight but I need help. I am struggling so much with my body image. I feel 6 months pregnant. My legs and arms need toning of course, but my breasts seem deflated and my belly just seems like a large (LARGE) unattractive lump that hangs over my jeans! I am sure that the way I look at myself doesn’t exactly turn my boyfriend on – which causes issues also. I just feel like I’ve never been satisfied with my body even when I weighed 100 pounds and I’ve never had a flat stomach but I am young. I want to be able to take my child swimming (which means me in a bikini – not happening.) I am not crazy about the stretch marks but I at least try to feel okay knowing that I got them from carrying my amazing child – yet the flabby jiggling belly is just wrecking me. I am just ashamed.

The first picture is 37 weeks pregnant.
The second picture is frontal stretch marks 8 months PP.
The third picture is my belly from the side, also 8 months PP.

C-Section, Droopy Tummy, & the Bright Side (Anonymous)

Photo 1: PUPPS rash and stretch marks at 7 months pregnant
Photo 2: 38 weeks pregnant. 1 week before my delivery
Photo 3: 4 months PP boobs and stomach (front view)
Photo 4: 4 months PP stomach (side view)
Photo 5: Close up of stretch marks
Photo 6: Close up of C-Section scar
Photo 7: Postpartum booty. Not too shabby

~Age: 32
~Number of pregnancies and births: 1
~The age of your children, or how far postpartum you are: PP 4 months

Me and my husband of 3 years are the proud parents of a 4 month old baby girl born in October 2011. She is amazing and truly one of a kind. No really, she is a rare one. She weighed nearly 12 lbs at birth! I called her my sumo baby. I was really just happy to get her out since I had one hell of a pregnancy. I had morning sickness for the first 6 months. Not necessarily puking my guts out but just nauseous and dizzy more often than I would have liked. I also had ridiculous heartburn, sciatic nerve pain and round ligament pain the entire time which woke me up every hour of the night. In regards to the heartburn, I really got sick of hearing “Your baby is going to have a lot of hair!”. Then I got the dreaded PUPPS rash which covered my arms,legs and stomach. It was the worst thing I have ever experienced. I wanted to burn my skin off it was so itchy. I thought, things couldn’t get worse than this. The bright side, baby looks great and healthy with each screening. Yay! Another plus, I passed all gestational diabetes screenings. Then, I go in for my 36 week ultrasound. The baby is measuring almost 10lbs at 36 weeks! I have also developed some high blood pressure (146/90). My Obgyn sends me to a high risk clinic for further testing. Ummm…now I really have high blood pressure, haha! So, I go to the high risk clinic and have a more in depth ultrasound. Again, baby is measuring almost 10lbs. Eek! And again, my blood pressure is high so they diagnose me with Preeclamsia and want me to go to the hospital. Double Eek! I spend 4 hours at the hospital getting my blood pressure monitored. Again, baby looks perfect. My blood pressure finally goes down to normal so they send me home. Now back to the Obgyn. She strongly recommends scheduling a delivery via C-Section. She says my pelvis is pretty narrow and is afraid if the ultrasounds are even close to being right there is no way I can push that baby out. After much debate, I finally cave into scheduling the C-Section at 39 weeks. I should also point out, my stomach was massive! People thought I was carrying twins in that bad boy. I gained 40lbs during my pregnancy which is about average but I swear every pound was in my stomach. I was stretched to the max. My stomach was so hard. I steered away from sharp objects for fear I may pop, ha! Paired with being covered in stretch marks and the PUPPS rash, it looked like a mangled creature in a horror movie or a burn victim. Horrendous! I had a feeling my stomach would never be the same after childbirth. I was certainly right. So, here comes week 39. I go in for my C-Section scared to death since I have never had surgery in all my 32 years. Hell, I didn’t even know how to put the hospital gown on. Clueless! Everyone is super supportive and they hook me up to the monitors. The nurse asks if I have experienced any real contractions. I say “Not that I am aware of.” Then she proceeds to tell me “Uh, you are having some pretty good ones right now!” Well considering my stomach was so stretched and hard as a rock, it would be very difficult to feel anything until they became painful. Thank goodness they scheduled me today. Phew! The C-Section went great aside from the 8 attempts it took to get the epidural needle in. Talk about uncomfortable! They kept thinking they were hitting bone but it was just my hard ass ligaments. Lucky me! The only other discomfort I experienced during the C-Section was the uncontrollable shivering. My arms shook like I was on a vibrating bed. It was really annoying. Other than that, I didn’t feel a thing. Out comes the baby! Whoa! That is what I hear from everyone on the other side of the curtain. She is huge and has a full head of hair! I guess the heartburn myth was right! I see her adorable plumpness for about 10 seconds before they whisk her to the weighing station. 11lbs 11oz! Holy crap! She checks out healthy except with all big babies her blood sugar is low. So, she is sent to the NICU. It was actually kind of funny visiting her in the NICU. Here is this giant baby surrounded by all these premie babies. If a baby death match broke out, we wouldn’t need to worry about her. Anyways, her sugar stabilized after 3 days but we couldn’t leave until I passed gas. OMG! It was the worst pain ever being so full of gas and not being able to release it. Even my shoulders hurt from it. Finally, I let out the best fart of my life! Still full of gas for a couple weeks after but at least I got to go home and be with my baby. The first couple of weeks being first time parents were a bit scary but after that we adjusted. Let me just say, I thank my lucky stars since we were blessed with a baby who likes to sleep. By 6 weeks, she was sleeping an average of 6 hours at night then by 10 weeks sleeping an average of 8 hours at night! I think God gave me this gift for having such an awful pregnancy. It has been 4 months now and I couldn’t be happier. Our marriage has gotten stronger and we have this beautiful little girl. She is now at an average weight for her age and is the cutest thing ever. The only thing I am not happy with is this sorry excuse for a stomach I now have. I know it has only been 4 months but it is frustrating when you drop all 40 pregnancy pounds within the first 2 weeks following birth but still have to carry around this relentless growth in front of you. I look fine in clothes and feel great when people compliment me but it is a whole other story when the clothes come off. That droopy thing just stares up at me snickering. My boobs are sagging a bit too but they aren’t that bad. I think it helped that my boobs were super perky before hand. I keep looking at the bright side which is my backside. Haha! I am pleased to say my ass still looks nice. A little bigger but nice. All I can do is keep on working on the tummy and eventually will see some progress. I need to keep telling myself, your stomach looks damn good for being stretched to the max and giving birth to a giant baby. I have a loving husband, a comfortable home, wonderful friends and the most beautiful baby ever. I am loving life so suck it droopy tummy! Quit raining on my parade! :-)

Turning Trauma into Triumph (Raashida)

Age: 26
Pregnancies/births: 1/1
1 year post partum

I am so glad I found this website! Here is my story: I had a petty easy and uneventful pregnancy. I had few to no pregnancy symptoms. Food craving, a little emotional and hypersensitive sense of smell but that’s about it. I was active duty military when I had my son and towards the end of my pregnancy I had a routine appt with a really rude and nasty, insensitive doctor. I call the commander and told him that I did not feel comfortable having my baby on base and begged and cried (literally) to be referred to an off-base hospital but they did not refer me and when I went into labor and showed up to the hospital that same horrible doctor was on call and it all went downhill from there. He talked down to me and told me basically that I didn’t go to medical school therefore I didn’t know what was going on in my own body. I was talked into getting an epidural and pitocin which put my son in distress and after 23 hours of labor I was rushed in for an emergency c-section (by a different more awesome doctor)

I was horrified and traumatized by the whole event not to mention this is my first baby and for a while I didn’t want anymore children. I filed complaint against that doctor and wrote him several letters letting him know how his terrible bedside manner forever changed my life and my view on doctors in general. For the first few weeks I did not feel connected to my baby because I was so distraught over having to lay on the bed and have him cut out of me when it could have been avoided. I felt very alone and depressed. Eventually I came out of the cloud and now I wouldnt trade my baby for all the stars in the sky :)

I struggle with my post baby body and disfiguring c-section scar and the painful memories that come rushing back every time I look at it. I don’t think I look horrible but I definitely don’t feel sexy anymore. I haven’t really worked out consistently since having my son so I know I could look a lot better with a little effort. (I am in the process of getting a personal trainer) I did bind my belly immediatley after surgery which helped tremendously in weight loss and shrinking my belly back down. I also breast fed.

Update (Elivert)

Original post here.

PP: 9 MONTHS
AGE: 21

After my first post I have had many changes in my life, I have a beautiful baby I love and a wonderful husband that every day brings more smiles and joy in my life and supports me unconditionally with my new body and outlook on life , because we are now parents and husband and wife.

I feel changes every day and sometimes I feel as sexy as before my pregnancy, but I look in the mirror and says, “wake up from that dream, hellooooo” and so are sometimes but I say, every woman has her charm and I’m happy with my life, my husband and my daughter that changed my life forever. Thank God Dagny is a healthy baby from birth, and it was what she loved most in my pregnancy and measures the effects on my body and so what would happen next LOL My fatty national of 10 Lbs. cesarean and every day agradesco for my baby and my husband to make me really alive and forget for a few hours of vanity. Of course the inside completely changed my life and my body is part of it too, as time goes by my appearance is improving and I am more satisfied and used to my stretch marks, I’m almost at my pre-pregnancy weight and a longer maybe lose more before another baby, but I’m still terrified, I think it will wait for the next 5 years LOL

Mothers here I leave my recent photos of my wonderful body hahaha LMAO Just kidding, but it has served to give life and show it proudly :)