(And any woman who has carried a child)
- Your body has done tremendous work, whether you gave birth vaginally or c-section, 2 hours of labor or 42 hrs, epidural or completely natural, home birth or hospital birth.
- Your postpartum body is beautiful. I know, it’s not what the world will tell you is beautiful. I know it feels a little foreign – no longer carrying a baby and not like before pregnancy, but you have a GOOD body that did GOOD work. To shame it is to insult the Creator who designed it. Just as He planned how you would carry a baby, He planned how your body would recover from it.
- “Getting your body back” should be a phrase that is extinguished from our vocabulary. You HAVE a body that, visible or not, has been forever changed by carrying a child inside of it. It’s ridiculous to think that won’t affect us, to have your skin and muscles stretched out, perhaps multiple times. If it looks forever different, there is NOTHING wrong with you! If it’s got stretch marks, stretched-out skin, if it carries a bit more weight or weight in different areas…let our goal not be to “get our body back,” but to be healthy in body, mind, and spirit so we can serve and love with our WHOLE selves.
- You are postpartum whether your child is 1 day old or 30 years old. There is no such thing as a timeline you should be expected to reach a certain goal. Live your life. Hold your baby. Take naps when you can. Nurse, pump, bottle-feed. Play games. Teach them. Read to them. Go for a walk. And each time you look down and want to shame your body…thank God for it. For you had the great privilege of carrying a child inside of it.
- The VERY BEST THING you can do for your postpartum body is to BE KIND to it. Move it out of kindness, not out of striving or shame. Choose food that is beneficial but not restrictive. Restriction isn’t kind.
Mommas, let’s stop striving. Stop thinking you need to look a certain way in a certain amount of time. Stop shaming yourselves when you don’t get there. Be PRESENT. Be WHOLLY in your Body. Love those around you. And get on with your abundant life.
