The "Bounce Back".

Any woman who has experienced or is currently living through postpartum life has more than likely heard of the dreaded “bounce back.” This is the familiar, yet completely unnecessary, reference to getting one’s body back after carrying a baby (or babies) for 9+ months. While this should be one of the last worries on our mind, it still somehow finds its way to making it as a top contender for one of the most stress inducing to-dos. But why?? Well, society seems to think that pregnant moms-to-be are beautiful, but as soon as the baby is out, the ideal of what is considered beautiful changes pretty quickly.

In the image above there is a picture of me from my first pregnancy (on the left) and a picture of me from my second pregnancy (on the right). Though these pregnancies ended very differently, I experienced the same postpartum body shame for both. One of the saddest parts of this is that when I personally see any mom (no matter how different the shape or size), I recognize her fiercely miraculous body as beautiful, but when I see my own I continuously put it down – and that is after essentially being pregnant for two years straight. It is so easy for us to criticize every inch of our bodies, and boy, are we good at it.

Can we just take a moment or two to recognize not only the insane exertion and magic that our bodies performed to produce a child (or children), but also the overtime that it is putting in now, postpartum? That’s the thing though, it ISN’T “magic”, it’s very real, very intensive, entire body WORK that we put ourselves through while pregnant and postpartum. Our bodies go through absolutely wild changes during pregnancy, then once we have the baby they don’t just “bounce back” to what they used to be. During postpartum you are healing from giving birth, your hormones are at an all-time high, and you are completely sleep deprived. You’re likely not eating properly as you struggle to find the opportunity to get any food down, let alone find time to make healthy and nutritious meals. Many are going through the challenges and even discomfort that often come with breastfeeding. Add a dose of postpartum depression, long-term pain/damage/difficulties from a C-section surgery or tear from natural birth, and oh yes, of course -- keeping a mini human (or humans) alive and you can consider yourself a tad bit pre-occupied when it comes to “bouncing back”.

So, let’s at least try to make this commitment: We will recognize that our bodies are not the same as what they were pre-pregnancy, and that’s OK. We may want to work on our physical health and appearance, but we might not have the time or energy right now to do that, and that’s OK. We will appreciate the hard work that our bodies have gone through and continue to go through, understanding that they may never be the same as what they were before, and that’s OK. We need to be patient with ourselves, we need to be kind to ourselves, and we need to recognize how resilient we are as moms and as women in general – we do NOT need to “bounce back”.