Update

eighteen months postpartum with baby #2 and 100 pounds lighter (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Breasts, Postpartum, Second Pregnancy, Submissions, Surrogacy, Update 14 Comments

My entire life I have hated my body. And because of that hatred, I had no desire to take care of myself. I gained weight, lots of weight, and teetered on the edge of 300lbs. Then in my quest to become a surrogate mother, I started reading about beautiful women who hate their bodies because they cannot carry babies.That really put things into perspective for me. After two children, and a lot of soul-searching, I finally was able to take charge of my life and start appreciating my body for it’s function instead of hating it for it’s appearance. I’ve still got a long road to go. But I’m on my way to being healthy both mentally and physically. Right now, I’m putting my weightloss aside to persue helping another couple have a baby. At eighteen weeks pregnant with my surro-babe, I am truly grateful for my body’s amazing ability to create and sustain life. Beauty fades, but my children are my legacy, and the joy they have brought me will last my whole life long. When you really think about it, what’s a few stretch marks and extra pounds, when you’re getting the chance of a lifetime to be expirience carrying your own child?



Updated here.

Update: 11 Months Postpartum (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Postpartum, Second Pregnancy, Submissions, Update 5 Comments

hi all i posted before here. just thought i would do you an update. I’m still breastfeeding, im still padded and probably will continue to be until i stop breastfeeding. I am however at peace with myself.I will get back to be being in shape again, but until then i have a wonderful husband that love me the way i am and two very gorgeous boys whom i love with all my heart. I was so miserable and insecure before but now im happy with myself.It can be done.To all the mothers every where, you are all beautiful!




16 Months Postpartum (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, First Pregnancy, Piercing, Postpartum, Submissions, Update 10 Comments

This is my body now…16 months after my beautiful child was born. I weight 211 at the time of her delivery and was 170 by 1 months post partum. At 6 months post partum I was still at 170lbs. At that time I decided enough was enough. It took me several months but now Im at 123lbs, which is almost 40lbs lighter then my pre pregnacy weight. I still struggle now, eventhough I know Im slim. I breastfed my daughter for 13 months and between pregnacy and weightloss I am left with small hanging breast and a loose abdomen. As each month goes by I try to learn to love everything about myself. Its a difficult task but one Im committed 2. I want my daughter to love herself so I think the best way to do that is to teach by example. I hope she never struggles with her body image because she’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! My original submission is here.



My Body Before and After HBAC (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Breasts, Cesarean, Homebirth, Postpartum, Pregnant, Second Pregnancy, Submissions, Update, VBAC 18 Comments

Previous post here.

I had my first child via C-section after a long traumatic labor when I was 21. I was told that my pelvis was misshapen, very small, and that I wouldn’t be able to birth a baby bigger than 6 lbs. Four years later, I birthed my second child into my own hands in a pool of water at home. (He was 8 lbs. 4 oz., by the way!) Cradling him as he left my body and entered this world was the most amazing experience of my life, and was worth all the stress, stigma, and emotional upheaval of working to achieve a vaginal birth after a C-section. I feel like I can do anything now. I am so proud of what my body did, and how it proved everyone wrong who told me I would never do this. The first picture is me at 39 weeks with my second pregnancy. The next two are me today at 1 month postpartum.





Updated here.

19 and insecure (Tamara)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Submissions, Tattoo, Teen Mom, Update 30 Comments

my name is tamara….im 19 years old. i have a nine month old son…he is beyond the greatest thing that could have ever happened to me….seeing how i have no family…hes def the only guarantee in my life and hes my world….through all this before i had him i prlly had a playboy body lol as i may say….i still had insecurities…but now…i would give anything to have those insecurities back rather than the ones i have now…i have stretch marks from the top of my stomach all the way to the bottom of my knees!!! it just crazy to think the rest of my life i will NEVER be able to just wear shorts… or a bathing suit…not even a one peice!!!! its crazy to think this way…i hate summer now cz i have no choice but to wear sweats and tshirts….it kills me when i go shopping when i see shorts and skirts even jeans that i used to be able to wear…i dunno very depressing…i dont know what to do…one thing is i cant accept it…its just too much to handle…







Updated here and here.

3 Months After 10lb 10oz Baby (Berni)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Breasts, Cesarean, First Pregnancy, NICU, Postpartum, Submissions, Update 17 Comments

I’m 18,I live in London England with boyfriend of 2.5 years. I recently had my first baby, a boy I named Caden. I had a traumatic labour, I had an emergeny c section, after my baby became distressed. He had opened his bowels whilst still in the womb and swallowed the poo. He didn’t breath for 4 min after he was born and he was whisked off to intensive care. Caden spent a week in SCBU. If this wasn’t bad enough the staff would rude and not vert helpful. I was never told if he was going to be OK, when we were likely go home, if he proggressed. On day two I was offered the chance to hold him and I hesitated (I was scared because all the tubes wires etc) the nurse made it very clear she thought I was an awful mother. Caden made a rapid recovery pulling out his breathing tubes and refusing to have them put back in the nurses relised he was breathing by himself.After that he never looked back and everyday got better until day 8 we were allowed home. I’m 5’8 and put on about 50 lbs during my pregnancy ( 10lb 10 oz was Caden lol) I lost about 43 pounds by the tim e he was 3 weeks old. However I’ve been left with a saggy tummy and stretchmarks.I also breastfed for the first 3 weeks and now my boobs are saggy and empty. Sometimes I’m ok with this but other days it upsets me. I completed my A levels when my son was 2 weeks old and plan to go to uni to study Fashion journalism next year but don’t know if I’ll feel comfortable around loads of fashionistas with my new mummy body. I also dabbled in modelling before I had my son and think thats another reason I find it hard to accept my new body. But I know my body did a great thing by carying my 10lb 10 oz beautiful boy.But I won’t be wearing a bikini anytime soon!! ( I think the pics don’t show the true extent of the damage – it looks better in pic(not sure why) )






Updated here, here, and here.

Twins (Kasondra)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Pregnant, Second Pregnancy, Submissions, Twins, Update 8 Comments

Original entry here.

i first found this site right after i gave birth to my son 2 years ago. i of course was a little skeptical about putting photos of my once toned now scarred body on the internet for the world to see. after looking at the site more and seeing the confidence it had obviously brought to its other participants i decided to put my pictures up. my son was 16 months old by this time…and my body was still scarred….but i was proud of what those scars meant and was ready to share them with the world.

well like i said my son is now turning 2 … and i am currently 15 weeks along in my second pregnancy. the shocker in this one however is that we are having TWINS. i had begun having a few complications in the first trimester and had to have a sonogram…and low and behold…there they were….my TWO beautiful little peanuts!!! =)

though i didnt mention it before…my husband is an identical triplet…and therefore his family is thrilled to death we are having multiples….though his mom seems to think i should have just had all 3 at once….lol. CRAZY!!!

we however are extremely excited and trying our best to prepare for the birth of our 2 new babies due february 14th of next year!!!

the pictures i have added are of me pregnant at 15 weeks (huge already i know….)…..a sonogram picture of my babies…..my husband and his brothers when they were born and the little family we have now awaiting our new arrival. i will continue to update you as i progress in my pregnancy and of course once the babies are born.

i want to thank you for this site and thank all of the beautiful women that have participated so far!!!

thank you

Updated here.

2 Babies, 23 Months Apart (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Hips, Postpartum, Second Pregnancy, Submissions, Update 5 Comments

I’m 28.. I have two daughters who are my life. One is just about to turn 3, and my baby just turned one. I gained and lost 30 lbs with my first, and 40 with my second.. I was thrilled when I found your site, it shows pictures of real women.. It makes me realize how unrealistic the the pressures that I put upon myself are..however I can’t stop myself from wishing my strechmarks, and belly were gone. I admire those of u who are able to see the beauty in such, and want to teach the same to my girls. So here is submission to this cause. Thanx.




Updated here.

2 Months PP (May)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pregnant, Submissions, Update 13 Comments

Hi everyone, I had posted here before and I just thought I would update. I got a lot of comments on my first post saying to not worry so much about my weight and I definitely took that into consideration. I think stressing about things make them worse often times. I am now two months postpartum and exactly 6 pounds away from my prepregnancy weight. I’m back into my 3’s and 4’s but not my 2’s yet. as you can see I still have a pudge on my stomach but it’s going away slowly. My baby boy is growing SO fast, he’s grown 3 inches taller in just two months! He’s exactly 24 inches tall now and a handful of lovliness :) Thanks to all of you guys for the kind words on my first post, it really did help me with my self image. – May.







Calm Acceptance, Compassionate Understanding and Unconditional Love (Natasha)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pregnant, Submissions, Update 5 Comments

Initially after giving birth to our precious daughter, I was so overjoyed, that my body was not even a consideration for days – I simply didn’t care what I looked like. However after a few weeks I started to feel like me again; my tunnel vision widened so that Anna stopped being the one and only thing that I could think or care about and, among other things, my interests broadened to encompass considerations such as what my husband thought about my new naked body, and whether I’d feel sexy, or attractive, or beautiful ever again. I was still completely happy with my baby daughter, and the changes to my body still seemed a minuscule price to pay, yet I couldn’t help but wonder these things about whether I’d ever look the way I used to, or what my sex life would be like from now on….. And for a while it got me down – I believed that I would never tone up my jelly-belly, and that my stretchmarks would never fade, and that I would never be the young, slim and attractive woman that I was pre-pregnancy. Now, though, I have reached a place where I feel a kind of calm acceptance, compassionate understanding and unconditional love towards my body, and this is why: Looking at my body materialistically, my breasts are now large and loose, I have gained a lot of weight, a couple of stretchmarks and some bagging and sagging here or there. However, looking at it from a level penetrating skin-depth, my body has done a terrific and wondrous job; from nothing more than the merging of two cells, it has created, nurtured, protected and delivered a complete human being! And I feel so proud to be the woman I am right now, because from me has come something so perfect, and pure, that I can barely believe she is real! I look at my stretchmarks, and my remaining ‘pouch’, and my leaking, sagging breasts with their sore, chapped nipples, and I am proud. I look at my body, and I see evidence of my fertility, and I am reminded of the miracle that it has partaken in… I truly am in awe, and cannot believe the utterly amazing process, which I have been a part of. At the moment, all I can feel for my body is love, respect and pride – This is truly all I feel; there is no negativity even in the tiniest quantity, despite the fact that my body is now far less ‘attractive’ or ‘acceptable’ than it has ever been before, and it is overwhelming. Every mother should be proud of their body, because no matter what it looks like – indeed WHATEVER it does look like – it was the incubator that created and nurtured their baby until it was ready to expel it into the outside world, and every wrinkle, stretchmark or bit of saggy skin is proof of that fact. So here it is, my body, and I’ve never been more proud.







Updated here.