January 30, 2009

Love your Mama body


There is no doubt that we live in a society where beauty and body image are laid out with unrealistically strict guidelines. I'm pretty sure that my body never did fit these guidelines even at my thinnest self. I have always been pretty comfortable with that though. Of course after getting pregnant, my already curvy body got bigger. At this point I have decided that I want to lose some weight and get a little tighter again. For the first time in my life really, I am setting out to change the way I look. As I begin this process, I want to honor my body for all of the wonderful things it has done, not just for me, but for my family. I actually carried a healthy baby for 40 weeks, and pushed him out of me safely after several days of labor. After my son was born I nurtured his needs for sustenance again, with my own body and I continued to help him grow and create the various systems of his body including building a brain, and healthy immune system. It is really quite magnificent.
A lot of women find shame in their post-partum bodies and especially with stretch marks. Just because you no longer fit into the stringent view of a singular beauty defined mostly by the media, don't forget to be thankful for the amazing feat that your body has performed for you and yours.

Bonnie Crowder decided to create the website
The Shape Of A Mother
The website is a journal and photo gallery of women and their pregnant and post-partum bodies. I think we sometimes forget what real women really look like. Even as adult women and Mothers we see so many false body images on TV and in magazines of actresses and models that have babies and "bounce right back". It can be easy for the regular gals to feel ashamed of themselves for not having the same results. Before you set out to try and hide the fact that your body has gone through this amazing rite of passage, be grateful for all that your body has done for you, what ever that might be.

3 comments:

Pink Heels said...

This is an incredibly beautiful post...introspective, honest, and celebratory. I hope that whatever path you take to 'tighten' your body is one that is healthy and honors what you believe to be right for you.

Moonday's Child said...

Thank you! I am just making the effort to do some cardio everyday (on the elliptical) along with my Yoga and I plan to make an effort to indulge myself less often in those delicious, but fattening foods.

Looney Runes said...

venus! (i like your image choice, we were just learning about her...)