” k c a b y d o b y b a b “preGetting your
is not what Mother Nature intended BY LOUISE HURLEY
Personally, I’d like to delete the phrase “get my/your pre– baby body back” from our society’s vocabulary. It’s a goal that many mums tell me they want to work towards, and in general it means feeling the pressure to get back to the same weight, the same clothes size or the same body shape as they were pre–pregnancy. In my opinion, I believe that it’s an unfair expectation and can actually be damaging to a mother’s physical and mental health. Here’s why… A mother’s body goes through significant physical changes when growing and birthing a baby. Her internal organs rearrange themselves to make room for her growing baby, her uterus had to stretch to 500 times its pre–pregnancy size and the joints in her pelvis had to become wide enough for her baby’s head to fit through (even if she had a c–section birth, her pelvis would still have changed) Whilst some changes, such as pelvic floor dysfunction, are temporary (when the correct rehabilitation route is taken), other changes are longer
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O N T H E C OA S T – FAM ILIES
lasting or permanent, for example, hip width, thickness of connective tissue, breast shape, shape of abdominal muscles, internal and external scarring, skin elasticity and skin texture. With all of this in mind you can surely see how unrealistic the goal to return to a pre–baby body is Being a parent is HARD WORK most days, and for a lot of mums there’s a pressure to always be on top of their motherhood game (wearing clean clothes, hair done, not looking tired when actually they’re exhausted, taking their little one to all of the baby classes, making healthy meals, and so on). Throwing in the unrealistic expectation that they should look like they haven’t had a baby is going to add extra strain to a mum’s mental load and become one more thing they feel that they’re not doing well enough. It was never Mother Nature’s intention for mums to bounce back and look like they haven’t had a baby. A mum’s body is meant to look different to what it was, because it IS different. If there’s one thing I hope that you take away from this article it’s that different is not the same as bad or worse. Different is just different. So why do so many women feel that they should be working towards getting their pre–baby body back? Here is what I’ve noticed from working with mums
over the years and being active on social media: In today’s society and our typical western culture, there’s a lot of pressure in the media to “bounce back” or return to pre–pregnancy weight, shape and size. This message may not always be obvious, but think about all the cellulite creams, firming lotions, stretch mark treatments and weight loss products that are advertised with mums as the target audience All too often we see “before and after” posts on social media. The way a person is posing for the photo, the lighting used or filters added are all used to enhance the illusion of the “after” photo, making the goal of matching up this standard extremely unrealistic The language people use can have a big impact. The words “you don’t even look like you’ve had a baby” are often given as a compliment (I
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Throwing in the unrealistic expectation that they should look like they haven’t had a baby is going to add extra strain to a mum’s mental load
