Postpartum Body Image: Reimagining Bounce Back Culture

Of course I am stretching.

Did you think I’d stay the same?

Do we really expect any mother could go through all this and remain unchanged?

To change quietly? Privately?

Buried under some kind of shame?

Would everyone truly prefer mothers kept their head down and their growth quiet?

Not me. This growth is quite honestly becoming the most fascinating thing to and about me.

With all my heart, and my body, I’m invested.

I’m invested in imagining a world where the stretch is okay. More than that. A world where the stretch is honoured as god like. As sacred.

I truly live in that world now. Decide to join me. There is room for us all.

Oh, world. Of course I am stretching. Of course we mothers are stretching. In our brains and our hearts and our skin.

And the only thing that benefits from our collective silence and smallness and shame is the one thing we simply cannot afford - a world where it all stays the same.

A world where we all ‘go back to normal’ serves no one.