Can I start this off by saying that I love the trend we’re seeing on social media with postpartum moms? A mom shows off her real, stretched out belly days after birth and it goes viral again and again.
There’s a push for realness, acceptance and a push against unrealistic expectations for women who have just grown humans inside their bodies. I love this, I applaud this, and yet embracing my postpartum form didn’t work for me.
My last two pregnancies have been emotionally traumatic. My youngest child was diagnosed with a life-threatening urinary tract disease. At times, I wondered if he would be gone at the next ultrasound. I had weekly appointments to monitor his health and would eventually have fetal intervention surgery prior to delivery. I lived in constant fear.
Two months after he was born, I made a joke on social media about trying to lose the baby weight while still trying to consume wine and a fellow mom (who I adore) commented, “Be kind to yourself.”
I thought about it and realized I was being kind to myself. We all have our ways of healing. For me, it meant saying goodbye to the postpartum phase as quickly as possible.
Every time I looked at my still rounded belly, it was a reminder of the nightmare the last 9 months had been.
I couldn’t erase what happened, but losing the weight was a way for me to move on with my life. I didn’t want to wear the maternity clothes that housed my hurting soul for so many months; I wanted to feel like myself again.
With each pound that came off, I felt my confidence reemerge and it wasn’t just because of my appearance.
For months I was in a crisis with no control over the outcome. Losing the weight was something I actually had a say in. In a time where my life was still run by doctors’ appointments and fear over our son’s condition, not to mention just the act of transitioning to a family of five, it was a way for me to focus on myself.
I felt my strength come back through the process; physically, mentally and emotionally.
Whether your pregnancy was traumatic or not, there’s a healing process for every mom after bringing new life into this world. A new chaos ensues with each child we add to our family, we struggle to find our new normal, while also trying to soak in a time that goes by all too quickly.
For some postpartum moms, healing means just being and not adding the extra stress of losing weight. For others, it means diet and exercise, and for others something else entirely.
The point is—to find your recovery; a recovery that is absent from other’s opinions and entirely your own.
Interested in losing the baby weight? Here’s how I did it after baby number one.
