Your body was your child’s home for nine months, love it as your temple forever.

Has your body changed so much, that you can hardly recognize it from the way it looked when you were getting excited about trying to conceive; and using an ovulation calendar to make it happen faster? Every mother’s body, I am sure, is different from her pre-pregnancy body.

My personal experience…

My breasts have shrunk from a D cup to a small C since my pregnancies, and breastfeeding two children. They are also distinctly more saggy than before. I am still the same size I was before I had kids, but there is slightly more flab on my belly than before – and no, exercise will not cure this (or at least, as far as I’ve tried). I have three long stretch marks right around my belly button, and a few more on my bum.

“I love my stretch marks, they are the marks of a mother”, and “I love my saggy breasts, they tell the tale of how I nurtured my baby” are comments I have heard other women make. Despite pregnancy signs and symptoms like morning sickness and insomnia, I love being pregnant. I loved breastfeeding. But I am not saintly or perhaps hypocritical enough to be able to say I love my stretch marks or my slightly saggy boobs.

All womens bodies change  after pregnancy.

I am certain that every mother has noticed some unwelcome changes just like these; whether you started out slender or plus-sized, as an exercise nut or a couch potato. Regardless your age, every woman’s body changes somewhat after she has been through pregnancy.

It is possible to love your post-pregnancy body though!

Those stretch marks might be ugly, but they do fade away with time. That belly might be soft, but it still looks good. Those breasts may look different now, but they’re still your breasts. The key is to stop comparing your current body with your former body, and to love it for what it is now. I may have had bigger and more youthful breasts before I had my babies, but I didn’t have the nice biceps I have now.

What do you love about about your post-pregnancy body?! What were the parts you struggled to make peace with? Share your thoughts below!

Olivia’s blog, Trying To Conceive, offers something for women at all points of their parenting journey. Topics covered include fertility, pregnancy, babies and contraception.

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