Mum Shares an Important Message About Her Changing Body Sparking an Amazing Response

One of the things about becoming a mother is dealing with the fact that your body doesn’t look or feel the same as it did before growing, carrying and birthing your baby. It could be something small like a few extra stretchmarks or it could be major changes like weakened pelvic floor muscles or a caesarian scar.

We know going into it that we will never be the same again, but it still comes as a shock sometimes.

Laura Mazza, Australian mum and blogger over at Mum on the Run, has shared a side by side of her body before and after having three children. She explains that she was so proud of her thin body beforehand, and how she has come to terms with her changing body.

She writes:

I want to show you how much children change your body.

I remember this guy said to me I had a “tight rig”… I never ate much, I glorified my thinness… I felt like a valued person. I was thin. In my mind, I was valued. I was funny, I felt pretty. I fit into whatever I wanted.

I met a guy, we fell in love and we wanted babies. 

Three kids, two vaginals, one caesarean, muscle separation, postpartum depression, antidepressant weight gain, and life later, this is my rig.

I hated it. I would say it was broken.

The stretch marks, the scarring, The weight gain… it’s not the person I valued anymore.

Other people noticed it too… “wow remember your body before kids?” “Oh hun, can I tell you about this weight loss supplement that I’ve been taking, I can send you a sample now that you’re done having kids” (three days after I gave birth to my now 5 month old) I was no longer valued. In my mind. I was no longer valued.

Then someone asked me, what would I say to my daughter about body issues…  and I said that she should never base her worth on her body. That she should always value herself no matter what the scales or her body looked like. I said that. But I didn’t believe it.

I felt like, I’m the same girl on the inside if not way more so why did I stop feeling valued? Why did this “new rig” that has been through SO much, stop deserving love? Why was it this new body would recoil at my lover’s touch or cover up and hide in intimacy? Why is there so much fucking talk about going back to what you were before kids? Or only being valued when your body is unmarked with the sketch of a child.

What would I say to my daughter? That she is only as good as the number on the scales?

I want to show you how much children change your body, but I also want you to know that they changed everything for me.

They gave me the balls to fight through my depression.

They made me want to finish my degree and study a masters.

They taught me empathy and kindness and how wonderful life is helping others.

They made my life worth fighting for.

And they made me realise that my body is important, even now, because it made the three most beautiful things that could have ever happened to this rig of mine.

So my body may never be the same, it’s changed a lot, but so have I, and I am more than okay with that.

For all the women who have ever felt less than, not valued, or felt the harsh words of someone wanting them to get back to what they were, your body tells a story of you, of your life, of how far you’ve come, of what you created and what you’ve loved, and in my mind, that is so much to be valued.

Laura’s honest post has gone viral in the few days since she shared it, reaching thousands and thousands of people who have responded with their own perspectives on our changing mum bods.

Certainly food for thought isn’t it? No matter what you look like after motherhood hits, you deserve all the love in the world, without a doubt.

Source: Facebook/Laura Mazza – Mum on the Run