A brilliant movement has popped up on Instagram and it offers a refreshing reminder of how differently women’s bodies respond to having babies – and that every body is amazing.
This Is Postpartum was launched by blogger Meghan Boggs who lost a lot of weight prior to falling pregnant – but then struggled to come to terms with how having a baby impacted on her body. Now mum to a baby girl named Macy, Meghan told parenting site Babble body acceptance was a toughie in the months after Macy’s birth.
“Even though I worked out and ate healthy until I was 36 weeks pregnant, I still gained almost all of my weight back, putting me right back at square one. I didn’t have any complications throughout my pregnancy, but I was feeling frustrated with my body for gaining the weight back despite my efforts.”
Noting that plus-sized mums were often left out of the conversation about how bodies look after birth, Meghan started a hashtag-led movement to include women of more diverse body shapes in the postpartum body chatter.
“I wanted mothers to feel less alone and see someone similar to them who they can relate to,” she said. “I wanted this to spread in a way where others would join in, so that the mother out there who was feeling how I felt would open up her Instagram and feel like she can love her postpartum body too.”
Meghan’s idea took off really quickly and now there are over 200 images on Instagram of women sharing their bellies, stretch marks, lumps and bumps and celebrating the bodies (and little people that got them there!)
“The truth is, I felt very alone in what I was sharing as a plus size mother,” Meghan says in the tag’s first post.
“I quickly realized why moms like me weren’t sharing about this topic openly on social media. So even though I knew there would be criticism, I knew it was important for me, and for others like me, to share my story. And to post the photos and talk about this. Because this is postpartum.”
Meghan hopes starting a dialogue about the value, vulnerability and variance in post-baby bodies will help women feel more supported and less alone.
“Our journey is meaningful,” Meghan writes. “Every part of our postpartum experience is normal and we all fall on to some part of its wide spectrum. So today, and from now on, let’s share. Let’s stand up. Let’s embrace our postpartum bodies together. Whether you’re plus size, full of loose skin, stretch marked up or scarred. All of it is postpartum. All of it counts. All of it means something. Because all of it is part of you. And you, mama, are worthy.”
