Submissions

Hi my name is rebecca, Im 20 years old and married to a wonderful man. He has been through my whole pregnancy till just recently he had to leave to goover seas. I am * months Pregnant. This is suppose to be the best time of our lives and He has to miss it. I just thought i would say going through this alone is going to be hard, but i think knowing that he wont see his newborn baby girl be born has to be the hardest. I will be full term in 4 weeks and she will come at anytime. After she is born i have 6 months to be a single mom. The first time he gets to see her she will be 5-6 months old. Enough about that! About my body This pregnancy has NOT been a nice one. Yes it’s my first and i have had friends go through this and i was there with all of them but Im the only one to get morning sickness, stretchmarks, Acne pretty much everything! Do stretch marks fade? I dont think so but i say there my battle scares… Ill wear them with pride!

I’ve posted before but here are some pictures I recently found. I got pregnant at 16 and gave birth to my daughter at 17. I went two weeks overdue and she weighed 8lbs10oz. I had a c-section after a difficult labor. It was wonderful and painfree (no really!). The first picture is at almost 8 weeks, the second the day before I gave birth, the third 1 week after delivery, and now 3.5yrs later.

I had my first son about 2 months ago, I figured my body would handle pregnancy well, but I was so wrong, by week 32 I started to develop stretch marks that got worse everyday, by the end I just wanted to go into labour so badly so that I would not receive another stretch mark. I wasnt very fond of the body I had before my baby but now that I am left with these horrific stretch marks I would do anything to have my old body back. well almost anything, I love my son so much and I would not trade him for anything. I am trying to come to an acceptance but it is so hard. I hate looking at myself in he mirror each day, if feels as though they will never fade…I have seen alot of people post pictures of their stretch marks and although it is somewhat comforting to know I am not alone, I have not yet seen marks as bad as mine.

We waited a long time for our son. I lost three babies in two years, and then simply didn’t get pregnant again. Towards the end of 2006, we contacted an adoption agency, because after seven years it became very clear that we’d never have a baby of our own. Around Christmas (2006), I became very ill. Christmas eve I was especially bad, and could hardly keep anything in. I thought I had a bug, and went to the doctor to get something for my ‘stomach flu’. Five days after New Year, I still didn’t feel any better, in fact I felt worse. I sent my husband to the pharmacy to get me a pregnancy test. Boy, he was upset! He told me I was just getting my hopes up, and he swore high and low that I wasn’t pregnant! So at 11 p.m. I did the test and to our surprise it came back positive. We went to the doctor the very next day, and it was confirmed with a blood test – I was three weeks pregnant. I didn’t want to get excited, because I was deadly afraid I’d lose the baby. I also refused to bond with it, and refused to give it a name. Once we found out we’re having a boy, I still refused to call him by his name, simply saying ‘the baby’ when I talked about him. In my fifth month I got pneumonia and ended up in hospital. I almost lost the baby, but we pulled through, and I distanced myself even further from the pregnancy and my son. A month later they found placenta previa and it stayed type IV througout the pregnancy. It ‘corrected’ to type II later on, and I decided to try regular labor. Around 38 weeks, an ultrasound showed low amniotic fluid and a ripe placenta. We decided to go ahead and do an induction. Apart from 8 hours of hellish labor, nothing happened. So early the next morning, on 10 September 2007, I was rolled into the O.R. to have a c-section. I had trouble bonding with my son after giving birth to him. He was impossibly small, weighing only 2.5kg (or 5 lbs 6 oz). I didn’t feel anything for weeks after his birth and hated myself for it. Maybe two weeks after he was born, it hit me that he was mine and healthy. I was flooded with love so intense that I started crying. It’s been a great ride since then. I breastfeed him exclusively, despite some difficulties in the beginning. All in all he’s a healthy baby, and I will never regret having him. As for my body… well I’ve been very lucky. I don’t have stretch marks and I weigh less now than I did before I had my little guy. I walked out of the hospital looking like I was never pregnant, although I’m a little flabby around the middle and my thighs are definitely a lot chunkier. Unfortunately my breasts weren’t that lucky, I have stretch marks towards the top, and they’re starting to point Southwards. It’s all good though, I kind of like it… and my son’s worth far more!

Hi I submitted photos about 3 weeks after my daughter was first born back in May and now i am posting a follow up of the gradual changes and healing that has taken place over the past 6 months. I never mentioned in my first post how devasted i was when i first found out i was pregnant. I had Just come Home from overseas and my partner was not willing to follow me as he had studies and other things that were more important at the time of my pregnancy, so you know i spent my whole pregnancy alone without him. I made it though and with each day i enjoyed all the special moments of my pregnancy and tried to make the most of it even though i never had a partner to share it with. The day finally came and he was still nowhere in sight-being 60,000 kilometres away in Canada, and me all the waayyyy down under in Australia. I got induced after being 2 weeks overdue and then had a C- section because i wasn’t progressing through my labour (I put it all down to having a stubborn Taurean who wasnt ready to move!) hah well maybe it was just my body not letting go of the pregnancy! Anyway so i guess on the physical side of things, i never had stretch marks until about 39 weeks and they were very small. but by the 41st week and 6 days they had all just appeared on the front, i was pretty pissed to say the least. I Gained like 50 pounds-although i worked for a part of my pregnancy and i tried eating as healthily but i guess the lonliness caused some excess of chocolate. Hehe but on the bright side of things i got the most Amazing gift my life has ever given me- like all my christmases came at once the day she was in my arms. And since I have been well *single*- but I am Happy with that, aswell as the way i look even though my hair has fallen out everywhere and is thin and spikey (the new growth!) those few extra pounds that are slowly shifting and i run my fingers across my beautiful stretch marks and remember in my minds eye the growth that once took place inside me and i realise that my life is only going to get better with each day that we spend together in our Beautiful Mother Daughter relationship. Sorry if the pics are a bit revealing but hey we are all human and like you know its there… hehe, Thanks for reading and i will update some day, one day when i reach my goal weight and have toned up just to show that it can be done! haha yeah right! Love to you and all your beautiful children. And BODIES!

i was 18 when i found out that i was pregnant.i always wanted to get pregnant but it was to early. i had to quit school because i was really sick all the time and my fiancee at the time had to quit school too ( now we are married).i found out that i was pregnant november 2006.i had a pretty good pregnancy until 33 weeks.i started get contractions and was sent to the hospital stayed one night and was sent back home because i wasnt dilating or anything like that. so aabout one week later i started getting stronger and more painful contractions again back to the hospital this time my contractions were much more closer and i started to dialate and thin out so i was admitted to the hospital.the midwifes were so sure that i was going in to labour i spent three days at the hospital and still nothing so i was sent back home.at 35 weeks i started to swell up in my face,hands and feet. i also got real bad headaches so i went to the hospital and they told me that i preec…. and high blood pressure but they said that it wasnt anything to get worried about and sent me home again…i had pree so bad that i almost died i went three days with headaches and couldnt sleep.on 26 august 2007 was my due date but on august 27 2007 i woke up 8.30 am due to headaches and no sleep and was watching t.v almost the whole morning.then at 2.00 pm i started to feel warm and next thing i remember is that i woke up in the hospital with no baby and nobody around ne and i was scared…sometime later my husband came up stairs holding a baby (much alive) so i asked him if that was our baby and he said yes it was a beautiful little baby girl..3400 gr and 47cm long.i cried with joy to know that all was well. my husband the told me what had happened. he said that suddenly i started to shake so he thought that i was playing a joke on him and then he realise that it was serious so came over to me to try hold me down but he couldnt beacuse i was having very had gramps and my body was real stiff so he call the ambulance and told my dad to hold my on my sides because i was had froth coming out of my mouth and he didnt want me to choke…within two minutes the ambulance was at our place( LIVE VERY CLOSE TO THE HOSPITAL) .they tried to get contakt with me but no response and i husband was scared that i was going to die..within ten minutes of calling the ambulance and reaching the hospital my beautiful litte girl was born by c-section..then the doctors came to me and said sorry about what they had done..that they didnt take action earlier on but shit happens…i love my child but i have always had a problem with my body before i got pregnant but what can i say i have the shap of a mother.the saddiest thing is that i dont feel like i have given birth because i didnt het ti feel the normality of going throught the birthing process because i dont remember anything of what happened but maybe it happened for a reason and now i am blessed with a beauitful baby girl

I always thought 22 year olds were supposed to love their bodies and wear bikinis. Not me. After having two babies I hide my body under my husband’s shirts, and sometimes wear a girdle so people won’t see how my stomach sags. I rarely even let my husband see my stomach, and almost always wear a shirt during sex.

I am a mother of twins, living in Norway. This is my story. We found out we were having twins on the us apppointment in March 2007. The shock was great, but the joy was greater. Friends and family were overjoyed with us. I had had a tough pregnancy until then. With throwing up several times a day for the first 15 weeks, and then being absolutely exhausted the next 5. Then I had a better few weeks before my belly grew so big that moving around was… lets just say, interesting. I felt like a hippo! At 36+6 I was induced for birth because my baby girl were’nt growing as good as her brother. I was induced on a Thursday morning. That night I had continual contractions, but no labour.My husband was allowed to stay at the hospital with me, wich was great help and support. Same procedure Friday, but still no babies. Saturday morning an elderly physician came and told me that I could have a “day off”. He wouldn’t give me the vagitorian pills, but see if my body could go into labour all by itself. We accepted this offer, not knowing any better (we later learned that this never should have happened). The result of this day was absolutely nada, other than I got exema, induced by the stress my body was put through. We were now pretty exhausted, and I just wanted the babies out, NOW! Sunday morning started with new induction, and finally, Sunday evening at about 6 pm I went into labour. The baby boys water was broken at about 7.30 pm. LOTS of water! I had contracti ons all night, and was given both nitrous oxide and epidural as pain relief, but by morning neither of them were any help. By 6 am I had opened up about 4 inches (!) since my water was broke… I was then set up for a cesaerian. And at 9.40 am my twins were delivered. My baby boy was 6.15 lbs my baby girl was 4.74 lbs. Both were healthy and strong. An amazing experience in spite of everything. The twins are now 4 months, growing well and abosulutely adorable.

My son has almost always preferred to nurse from one side. Can you tell which? The picture is not the worst it has been. At one point my right breast was almost completely deflated and it was very noticeable even through clothing. That left breast has nourished my son and I am so proud of that! I’ll worry about how it looks later!

When i was 15 i fell in love. Real love. Everyone would tell me i didnt know what love was, and that i was too young… but only i know whats in my heart. After only a few months of dating we found out i was pregnant. The father pushed for an abortion, after all he was 19, which is a felony. But i knew that this baby would be someone special, and to take its life was wrong for me. Im pro-choice, but its just not for me. I hid my pregnancy until i was 7 months pregnant. I was so ashamed. My once toned and cute body was destroyed. I fell into a deep depression, nothing could cheer me up… except for an ultrasound. Everytime i could see my daughter doing what i felt her doing inside of me i felt so calm, so happy. It felt RIGHT. I gave birth to the most beautiful baby i have ever seen (which is what every mother thinks of their own child) at 10:03 am on August 12th 2007 and named this beautiful girl Isabelle Jeanne. (her middle name is after my mother.) I look at my body and i dont see my old self… but i am not my old self. I am a mother, it’s still taking some getting used to to say that… but i am someones Mom. Since my daughters birth the father left me, and im afriad no one will ever want me again… what 16 year old has a stomache like mine? But since discovering this site i just feel so much more at peace with myself and what i look like. I am not alone. I felt like a freak, my mother has only one stretchmark to show from 12 pregnancies (9 ending in misscarriage and three carried full term.) I thank every woman who has shared on this site for helping me adjust to my new body.