Ten months ago I found out I was growing a child and almost six weeks ago I birthed that real live human child. To say that my body has went through some changes is a bit of an understatement, anyone who has been through this experience can back me up on this, men you will just have to take our word, luckily.
I’ve been wanting to put my thoughts, about this experience, into words for a while, but I have been finding it hard to coordinate the sleeping baby, me being awake also (but not in the shower or doing the dishes, or folding the laundry.) So I have managed to make the baby sleep, and ignore the rest of my to-do list (for now), just so I could get this specifically done. Cheers!! (but quietly, the baby is sleeping!)
Now if you have read this title and thought to yourself that this would be the typical sentiments women have about their body after birth you are wrong, sorry. You might not agree with what I have to say. That’s okay, feel free to click away.
Let me just start at the beginning. Somehow I got pregnant in the first place. My body pumped hormones into itself that made it sick, to grow a baby. I GREW a baby. I didn’t have to tell my body “okay it’s time for you to nourish the baby.” or “okay, it’s time to give the baby this hormone.” or “this week we are going to really focus on developing the brain of the baby”. Nope. My body just knew what to do, and then just did it. That’s kind of amazing, right?
My body created an extra organ. Like on it’s own. My body stretched and grew and changed on the inside. My existing organs (not the brand new one, the other old ones) moved and squished and made room for this tiny baby, that isn’t SO tiny when you think about it being a parasite that takes up room in your body, and somehow has to come out. My body went into labour and knew just what to do, to get this baby out, and it did that all on it’s own without the guidance of anyone else.
Labour is not the most glamorous thing that I have ever experienced. It hurts, but no more than some of the emotional pain I have endured. The pain wasn’t that bad, honestly. The pain is just bad enough that you don’t mind a room full of people looking at your privates. Birth on the other hand is the most amazing high you could ever experience. And again, my body did this all on it’s own, without any outside help telling it to make a contraction or to push or to stretch.
It could be that after having a room of people, come and go, watching me birth a child, that I no longer care what people think, or it could be that this whole experience has given me a new sense of confidence.
Throughout my pregnancy I was prepared for my body to look different and be bigger afterwards. I figured it was just part of my mom badge. My body HAS changed. It doesn’t look the same as it once did. Regardless, I feel grateful for my body.I feel blessed to have a body that is so good at knowing what to do, and then doing it. I feel confident in my body’s abilities. I have never felt more like a woman, than I do as a mother, and that makes me feel sexy.
It really isn’t about how my body looks, it’s about it’s “talents”, “skills”, and abilities. Pre-baby my brain knew that I had a desirable body, but I didn’t always feel that confidence. Post-baby my brain knows that I should be ashamed of my body, working out, and trying to lose weight, but I feel confident anyways. My clothes don’t fit the way they used to, but it’s not my clothes that make me feel good, it’s my body. It’s my naked body. As i experienced these new feelings of confidence I realized that you aren’t supposed to feel that way. In fact I feel embarrassed by my confidence sometimes. Maybe I am not like other women. I am not sure why I don’t buy into the lie that we should be embarrassed by our stretch marks, or that our squishy tummies should be covered up. My body did that FOR ME. My tummy is jiggly because my body grew me the baby that I prayed for. My breasts have stretch marks because of the milk my body made for my baby. Why shouldn’t I be proud of my body’s accomplishments?
crazycarefreelife 