The body that experiences motherhood is a vast subject… Last year, one of the most liked photos on our Instagram account generated many comments and made us want to discuss it further with you. How to live your body before, during and after pregnancy? Should we give in to the call of “body positivity” or find a more personal path?
- As many stories of relationships with the body as there are women
In one of our latest posts on Instagram, we invited you to share your feelings or experiences about motherhood and the relationship with your body. If we all agree that all bodies, thin or fat, able-bodied or not, damaged, abnormal or not shaved have the right to exist, to be seen and celebrated, the reality is however very different when it concerns us personally. "I always talk about it with my guests in my podcast Nouveau Chapitre and I notice that there are as many stories of relationship with the body as there are women... For my part, I would say that it is a long road to accept this new body" (@jolibump).
The pressure on appearance remains at the heart of many women's existence, and what about after pregnancy? Is it absolutely necessary to love this changed body? "I find that there has been a lot of pressure for some time on the fact that we must manage to love our body, whether it is fat or thin or "well built", whether it is marked or not... All this because it is the woman's body and even more so when it has given life. And if we find this body ugly (ours or that of another), we have the right, right? And if we find it ugly, that we nevertheless try to work on it either to improve it or to love it like that, but we can't do it?" (@chez_madame_so). For many of you, acceptance is the "key word" (@les_deylires_daudrey). It involves finding resources that are both specific to each person and universal to achieve this. What if love was part of it?
- Learning to love your mommy body
Far from the ambient dictates, it would seem that it is up to each of us to find the key to taming with kindness the shapes, the marks, the extra or less kilos linked to motherhood. "I understood that one woman is different from another in every way. There is no model, no charter, for any of us. Beauty, radiance and self-acceptance is generally the fight of a lifetime" (@agnesckldi). In short, "each one does as she can" (@chloelouiselina). The key may be in one word: love. "As a mother of 3 children, there are days when I find myself beautiful, and others, much less so. But the main thing is that I am full of love, for them, for him, for me, for the world. So, maybe all this love overflows a little!" (@celiaa3amours). One thing is for sure, motherhood changes us and reveals us, just like all those mothers who had to wait to be mothers to decide to love themselves, finally. "My journey is so different from many stories. My pregnancies (especially the first one) reconciled me with my body" (@thebrunein).
- The Beauty of Motherhood
If the idea of body positivity only half inspires us, we can count on the universal beauty of motherhood to help us tame this body that carried and gave life. "I personally really liked the recent posts of @gangderouquins, amazed by her frankness and touched by the beauty of motherhood. For my part, the acceptance of my new body is still on the way but I love these women, these shapes, these lines..." (@tajinebanane). Because deep down, what matters is above all to celebrate life. Its strength, its fragility, and its magic, too. "We pass through life, carried by a body that we did not choose but we move forward thanks to and with it, housed in its protective and warm envelope; we always want it to be shiny and cutting edge, we threaten it with scalpels and diets, but despite everything, it accompanies us wherever we want and if one day it complains, it never leaves us. Everyone is there inside, that's where everything has to grow so that through this body vehicle, eyes lean over and see the beautiful person who has settled there.” (@veromamzelle) In short, to use the words of Camille (@gangderouquins): “Come. We love each other and we tell each other so. Because each of you deserves it” ♡
To continue exploring the subject, you can also listen to the Mises à nu podcast which was shared with us by several of you!
Text: Pauline Louis
Photo: All Womxn Project