Being a new parent is one of the hardest things in the world. You have to get used to a new norm: A crying newborn, waking up in the middle of the night, and changing more diapers than you can count.
On top of everything else, you now have a new, completely unrecognizable body. After carrying a baby for nine months, of course you’re going to be hanging on to some extra skin, clothes might not fit the same way, and you may get a few eyebrow raises from people.
Many women deal with postpartum depression, sometimes due to their weight pain after pregnancy. It can be hard to get used to their new body, one they may not really like.
But here’s the thing—they just created and birthed a human. Your body SHOULDN’T look the same as it did before. If it did, that’s just strange!
After having her daughter, one woman named Hana knew she looked a lot different than she did prior, but she was just so elated with being a new parent that she was trying not to think too much about it. Until she had a run-in with someone she used to know who told her “Whoa, you gained a lot of weight! Do something about it so you are attractive again.”
After coming home, I spent a while looking into the mirror, evaluating my postpartum body and suddenly, I was feeling very unattractive. I was comparing myself to all the skinny girls out there (although I was never considered skinny even before pregnancy),” Hana said.
After mulling over it for a bit, she decided to do something about it. But not what you might expect. She didn’t start to choke down kale salads and smoothies—she embraced her post-baby bod.
“I decided to take photos of myself to overcome the negative feelings I suddenly had about my postpartum body and also to show others there is nothing to be ashamed of,” she said, adding, “I also decided to give them a ‘motherhood touch.’
What does she mean by that? She took photos of herself doing similar poses as Victoria’s Secret models, but flaunting her postpartum body. And they are amazing.
The only problem was, she didn’t feel like they were amazing right off the bat. “After checking my own photos, my first thought was, ‘Gosh, I am fat, I have to do some post-editing to make myself look skinnier, to make my skin look smoother, I have to retouch the dark circles under my eyes, I have to erase the second chin, etc.”
But then she remembered why she was doing these photos at all—because it’s okay to look a certain way, especially after giving birth.
“It is ok to look however you want – as long as you are healthy and happy with yourself. You are beautiful exactly the way you are. Just stop comparing yourself to others. It is incredibly hard, but once you are able to manage it, you will suddenly feel happy and free,” she said.
You can check out all of the amazing photos here!
How great are these side-by-side photos? If you’re a mom, how did you feel about your postpartum body? Would you have been brave enough to take pictures like these?