What your tummy really looks like after giving birth

Have you seen these pictures that a brave new mom posted on her blog, to show that women's bodies don't just bounce back right after giving birth?

What tummy looks like at 37 weeks and 24 hours postpartum

Julie Bhosale, a nutritionist mommy of two little ones told The Huffington Post UK:

"I really struggled with all the body changes I went through after the birth of my first son. I felt a lot of pressure to get my body back -- and expected that because I was fit and healthy it should be easy"...

..."I also struggled to breastfeed my son and so my confidence in myself and has a women and as a mum was really low. So after the birth of my second son I did this as I thought it may help just one mum not feel so alone."

Isn't Julie a phenomenal woman?! What a brilliant and courageous idea was it to document her post-baby days this way and share it with other women around the world who might be struggling out there? (And how beautiful is this mom!)

As I've shared in my previous post here, I have strong feelings about the media falsely portraying and promoting what post-baby bodies "should" look like. News moms everywhere are not only overwhelmed by the challenges of caring for a newborn but are also flooded everyday with the pressure or are judged negatively to look a certain way (unrealistic is the word that comes to mind) soon after giving birth and this must be stopped. I've always told my girlfriends that it is OK to not look like you've given birth right after you've given birth; that it takes time to recover from all the changes that your body has gone through over the course of 9 months; that you do not need to take unnatural, extreme measures to repair your body the second your child comes into the world. Your baby needs you to be the mommy!

OK. I'm getting carried away now... :^)

Please do read Julie's full interview with The Huffington Post UK here.



(Images from Julie's personal blog; her two boys are just so so so adorable!)