Celebrating Post Partum Bodies ✨ I’m currently 32weeks pregnant with my third child and I’m lucky to be feeling good, and to have been given some wonderful opportunities to celebrate my pregnant form. I appreciate that deeply as I haven’t always felt this confidence in my body... yoga has given me that. However as grateful as I am it also got me thinking. As amazing as it is to have photos of our bumps when we’re taut and toned and carrying a baby, (and so we should our body is doing an incredible thing) why don’t we do the same for our postpartum form? What about honoring and celebrating the next (some might say trickier stage) of the Fourth Trimester?? What about these postnatal bodies? Do we celebrate them?? Take photos? Post them on Instagram?
Rarely. Our bodies are softer and squishier, bruised and a bit battered, misaligned and out of sorts. In the words of a friend who’s just had a baby - as if we’ve been run over by a truck! We prob feel sensitive emotionally and physically we still have our bumps- we might still look pregnant even though we have given #birth. Physically exhausted, hormonal and emotional- it’s hardly a recipe for wanting to have your photo taken is it? But in many ways we should because our bodies has just performed the most incredible act. Because they may still be providing milk which is all our child needs to thrive. Because our stripes, lumps: bumps and caesarean scars bear witness to the most miraculous thing anyone can ever do. Even though they’ve been doing it since time began.
This is particularly relevant in relation to a campaign that MotherCare @mothercareukhave just launched. Massive props to them for sharing this series of photos of real women and their postnatal bodies. 🙌🏻 Of course there’s always a tiny bit of scepticism when a big brand jumps on the bandwagon of a hot topic/ “issue” ultimately in the name of sales. But in my mind the positivite message and conversation that will hopefully comes from this outweigh that. I applaud them and it’s refreshing to see👏🏻
Compare this to another big brand @sweatybetty, who have always been a favourite of mine for yoga gear. I was looking for leggings for my ever expanding bump and shocked to see on their website/ social channels that their maternity fitness wear is not modelled by pregnant or post natal women. WTF Sweaty Betty?? 😤
Women who are pregnant or in a postal natal period must be a core demographic of your audience and surely we deserve to be inspired by ‘real women’ who are in the same situation as we are - rather than models. Especially as your current campaign is all about #empoweringwomen... do you really standby your tagline ‘Support Women, Support the World’??? Your hashtags are #womenrule / #iamsweatybetty but I can’t see how not representing pregnancy, birth and postpartum (one of the most life changing and possibly life affirming chapters in a woman’s life) is doing that! I’d love to hear what you have to say about that #SweatyBetty. Rant over! 😡 No rage like a pregnancy rage 😉
