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All my life I saw my mom as a beautiful woman. I didn’t notice her stretch marks from bearing 4 children until after I became pregnant with my first. I had no clue what pregnancy and breastfeeding does to a woman’s body, but all I ever wanted in life was to become a mother.

I was unexpectedly granted that wish at the ripe age of 19. I was a college freshmen and dating a Sailor. We learned we were expecting 2 months after dating so imagine the shock there! I started the pregnancy at 130lbs and ended at 156lbs, a weight gain totaling 26lbs. It killed me to see the scale creeping up, but I knew my weight gain was totally normal. My breasts only went up to a DD from their original D cup during pregnancy. It was afterwards that I was falling out of an E cup when breastfeeding!

I had a normal pregnancy with my first daughter, except the few bouts of dehydration that landed me in the hospital with IV fluids. I gave birth to a 7lb6oz baby girl a week after my due date and a week later I had lost all 26lbs of the pregnancy weight. Of course my body was now shaped differently but that number on the scale meant so much to me. I kept losing weight, eventually getting to 108-110lbs (depending on how ‘full’ I was with milk) at 9months PP.

I nursed exclusively for the first 8months of my daughter’s life and at 5months PP I started working out. I did yoga 3x/week and worked out about 2-3days in addition to that with my sister. I loved seeing my body shrink smaller than I was prepregnancy but still had that extra skin and stretch marks on my stomach. My breasts shrunk back down to a D and lost their perkiness but it was okay because they were my daughter’s favorite thing in the world until she was 20months old. I married her father when she was 9months old.

When she was 14months, I became pregnant with my second daughter. I started that pregnancy at 120lbs and ended at 160lbs, totaling out at a 40lb weight gain. I kept telling myself that so long as I didn’t get past 160lbs I could lose the weight easily. I gained weight in my stomach, in my butt, my legs, and my back during my pregnancy but nowhere else. I gave birth to my second daughter on my due date and she weighed 8lbs11.3oz. Her labor and delivery were easier than her sister’s and I only had one slight tear afterwards. At 6weeks PP I weighed 135lbs, hating seeing that I was above my prepregnancy weight by 15lbs. However, I did not dwell on it and stuck to nursing and enjoying my beautiful little girls. My breasts swelled up to a DD and are now back down to a D.

I am nursing my second daughter like I did my first and at 5months PP I weighed my prepregnancy weight again. I am now 2lbs under my prepregnancy weight at 8months PP but am still left with my extra skin around my stomach. I have stretch marks on my breasts, stomach, back, thighs, calves, hips, and arms. I know which stretch marks came from my first daughter, and which ones are from my second and I run my fingers over them daily. (It may appear as though I was so concentrated on my weight gain during pregnancy, but I was not focusing on it all the time. Just as a woman who is hardly 5ft1in it is hard to see the numbers on the scale go upwards.)

I am not working out actively at the moment because I just do not have the time to, but I would not trade my body for anything! I am 23years old with a mother’s body and I couldn’t be happier about it! Here are pictures of me during my first pregnancy at 27weeks and 38weeks. Then of me during my second pregnancy at 30weeks and 36weeks. Following those are two pictures of me at 8.5months PP after baby #2 and a picture of my beautiful girls ages 2.5years and 7.5months. I do not have any pictures of me with my swollen pregnant belly at either of my due dates because I felt I was monstrous and I regret that.

I’ve been lucky the first time around. My first pregnancy went very well with little difficulty. The delivery was hard work, but I was able to do it unmedicated, and gave birth to a beautiful 5lb. 12oz. 19″ baby girl: Ruth. She’s named after my grandmother, a beautiful and dedicated woman, who taught me the value of using your mind, being skilled, remembering family, and giving generously. I hope that baby Ruth will be able to stand against the current of image-obsessed culture, and, like her grandmother, help to foster in others a sense of beauty and contentment.

(If you would like to see more of this poster’s work, check out her photography website here.)
www.studiomathewes.com

I am a 25 yr old mother of 3 beautiful children. I had my first one at age 19 and jumped right back into my size zero. Know with my 2nd child it took me 14 months to get get to were I was happy. Know with my 3rd child I can not seem to loose any weight at all. I am now 18 months post partum and still have 18lbs to loose. but am activly working on it. the first picture is 4 wks pregnant with baby #3

I became pregnant at 18 and gave birth at 19. I was very excited but didnt know I would be so ashamed of my body after. Before becoming pregnant I was 112lbs and was 175 before I delivered. I thought hey my mom got no stretch marks or sagging tummy and she had 4 babies then I probably wont either. WRONG I had stretch marks that were like road maps and after I had my son my belly sagged. I thought i was gross. Now im okay with my body image and am down to 130lbs which isnt a bad wieght still losing though. Even if the saggin never goes away I will be fine with it. My boyfriend thinks its soft and loves touching it. wierd but he likes it so its fine hehe. My son is almost a year old now and I wouldnt take back anything in my life!

I gave birth to my first child, a daughter, on July 20, 2006. I was 22 years old. Before I became pregnant, I did yoga and pilates for up to five hours a day. I was about 135 pounds, but was solid muscle and super lean. I LOVED my body. Then I got pregnant and although I only gained 29 pounds and didnt get a single stretch mark, my body will never be the same as it was before. Then, when my daughter was ten months old, I found out I was pregnant again. After the birth of my first daughter, I lost 45 pounds and was ten pounds under my prepregnancy weight… I gained 40 pounds with my second pregnancy and delivered my second daughter on Feb 3, 2008. I am now 10 weeks postpartum, and have (so far) lost 26 pounds… I was blessed to not develop any stretch marks on my belly or hips, although i have a few on my thighs. They are so light, i have to look at them with a flashlight just to see them… but i know that they are there. I will never be the same again, and know that my body is not nearly comparable to what other women are left with… but its hard to adjust to this new body…

Updated here.

The first photo is 36 weeks pregnant with twins. The second is 37 weeks with singleton, the third and fourth are 7 weeks postpartum from my final baby.

I used to be a very superficial person. I used to think that my character was based upon the things I had, rather than the things I am. After having children, I understood that my life is not worth less than the person with the brand new car, huge house, or several flat screen TV’s. I may not have all of that but I do have a loving family, fabulous children, a wonderful husband and a roof over my head. On February 22nd, 2005 I gave birth to an angel. She was born a when I was 20 weeks pregnant, a loss due to an incompetent cervix. My body literally failed me. I had a tremendous amount of guilt over something I had no control over. I did nothing to make my cervix incompetent, nothing to make me dilate to 3 cm and my water to break. It took a long time before I truly believed that. 6 months later, we found out we were pregnant again. With twins. While I was immensely happy, I was scared out of my mind. My cervix cannot support the weight of one growing baby, how was it supposed to support TWO? Thanks to a little miracle procedure called a cervical cerclage, I carried my twins to 36 weeks. They were both very breech and born via c-section weighing 7lbs 3oz and 7lbs 6oz. My body made me very proud. Then, I discovered the joy of having “twin skin”. This is the hanging belly of extra skin. The consistency of bread dough. I could actually kneed it. But my body made me proud. When my twins were 15 months old, I found out I was pregnant again. We had planned this pregnancy, but didn’t expect it to happen so soon. Again, I had a cervical cerclage placed. Who would have thought I would go to 39 weeks and deliver a 9lb 10oz baby girl? Again, my body made me proud. Our final baby was born on the 3 year anniversary of our first baby’s death. February, 22nd 2008. Our family has come full circle. What was once a very sad day, has become a joyful one. Society in general is very superficial. Things matter, looks matter, clothing size determines your worth as a person. I hate this. The stereotype that a fat person is unclean, lazy, stupid, etc really makes me angry. I am overweight. I have been my whole life. I am not unclean, I am not lazy (I have 3 kids under 3, I cant be lazy), and I am far from stupid. I hope to raise my children to be loving, caring, and compassionate members of society. I don’t want them to grow up thinking that one needs to have a $900 handbag in order to be successful. Simply untrue. I am a mother, a wife, a lover, a teacher, a cook, a daughter, a sister, an accountant, a maid, an entertainer, a comedienne, a taxi, a personal shopper, a story reader and a boo boo kisser. But most importantly, I am ME. My body makes me proud.

First of all – kudos to the creator of this page and to all the women who posted their stories! Here is how my story goes: I got pregnant after 2 years of trying, fertility treatments and one round of IVF. Got blessed with boy/girl twins, whom I carried to 38 weeks. They were born at 6 lbs 9 oz and 5 lbs 2oz. Unfortunately I don’t have any digitals of my pregnant belly, but it looked like it was attacked by the angry tiger. Even my stretchmarks had stretchmarks! What can you do – bad skin elasticity! I am 5’7” and was around 130lbs when I got pregnant at 29, gained 65 lbs and lost it all within a year. I looked great in clothes but my tummy looked like a deflated baloon, something that even 90-year-old grandma won’t claim as her own, and I was constantly getting infections in my belly button (or what was left of it) because it got closed. I’ve contemplated plastic surgery for years, and finally when twins were 4 I went for it. People thought I was crazy, so I had to lift up my shirt to prove my point. :o) The surgery went very well, and recovery was pretty easy for me, but my skin is being my skin – it scars very badly. I knew it going in though. So almost 4 years after the surgery my scar is still angry red/purple and wide. It is starting to fade in spots though lately. Since I had stretchmarks way above the belly button, they are still there after the surgery, and while it looks ok standing up – if I bend the skin still wrinkles and sags. Or well, at least if my shirt rides up, the site doesn’t induce vomit reflex in onlookers. :o) I am almost 38, and even though I thought I was done with having babies, I think I am getting a baby fever. the thought of what the pregnancy will do to my body is frightening though. So most likely – no more babies for me.

I am unable to post a picture. I am also unable to use my name. But I wouldn’t want record of this dark time in my life. I used to be 110 lb and very athletic. I could run a marathon without worry. Now after having kids, I weigh 330 lbs. and struggle to find clothes even in the plus sizes. I am depressed and miserable. I cannot walk, let alone exercise. I am in terrible pain all the time. Physical and emotional. I love my beautiful children. Not only are they gorgeous!!! But they are smart, strong and kind. People call me a super mom. But the loss of my physical abilities causes more depression and more weight gain. I have tried anti depressants… but the numbness that follows causes me to ignore my children. I would rather my children remember me as fat… than a zombie. I try to rejoice in the lives I have birthed and the children I have fed…

Hello My name is Nancy, I was so self concious about my body, then I came across this website. It has made me feel better about myself. I had two babies back to back they are 10 months apart! I love them so much, but my body went through heck! LOL. My youngest is going to be 2 in august 08. I weighed 115 in highschool and went up to 237 with my 2nd pregnancy, i am 25 now and these pics were taken today and i wiegh about 218 (i’m working on that) Thank you for all your pics and post they help me cope :D I really want to post better pictures but my digital camera is dead so these are taken with my camera phone, you can’t really see my stretch marks in these pictures to much but they are there, all over really, on my stomach, thighs, back and boobs :( The only thing I do hate is that I still can pass as 7 months pregnant, with my shirt down. I want to get a tummy tuck but I still want more children so thats gonna have to wait. SO for now I have to be asked if i am pregnant everywhere i go :(

Its me again…I just thought that I would add some updated photos of my stretch marks that have since faded tremendously! I am now 5 months PP. Im still struggling with my “pooch”. It bothers me alot..Im not sure Ill ever lose it..and I do have some extra skin that is wrinkly on my lower belly and then I have the little white stretch marks all over my tummy..those havent changed a bit..but I am very excited that the big purple ones on my hips have faded! See my first entry here.