Moms, how do you feel about your bodies post-baby? Do you embrace your 'battle scars' or pine for your pre-pregnancy shape? Unfortunately, according to a poll of more than 3,000 moms on Today Moms, as many as 31 percent of us hate our bodies after the babies. A third. How sad is that?
“I hate my body after four kids and four C-sections,” said Liz Capra Whitby in the article. “No time or energy to do anything about it, and I'm so sick of people saying ‘make time’ or ‘prioritize.' That's just not reality. I love my kids, hate my body.”
Our body worries include fearing that our partners don't like our new and not-so-improved physiques, not to mention the Hollywood moms who bounce back quicker than you can personal trainer.
“We live in a culture of judgment, and a culture that really expects women to be perfect and have perfect bodies no matter what else you have going on in your life,” says the founder of CT Working Moms blog, Michelle Noehren.
“Sometimes I just wish I could put those pants [I had before pregnancy] on and wear them to work and feel comfortable again," laments Noehren. "My husband tells me I’m beautiful all the time, but sometimes I worry that I’m not as attractive to him as I used to be.”
When she’s got the body blues, toddler mom Noehren reminds herself that her "successes in life, how hard she’s worked, and how she treats people with kindness" trump her physical appearance. She's also conscious of her daughter inheriting her mother's body image hang ups.
Not surprisingly, the tummy is the trouble spot. More than half of us loathe the damn muffin top. But when you consider what that part of your body went through for the best part of a year, it's kind of amazing that it reverts at all.
Sad but so. Most of us are divided when given the choice between a perfect baby or perfect body for a month. While two-thirds of us would eschew the "super-romantic gift" from hubby in favour of dropping five pounds.
Are you proud of your child-bearing bod or wallowing in pre-baby nostalgia?
Printer-friendly version