Via: Ultrasound Technician
Showing posts with label mother. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mother. Show all posts
post-baby body
At 34, I have four children. I stopped triathlon training when pregnant with my last baby. I have always been fit, and always put on between 15 and 28kilos for each pregnancy. I never cared so much about weight, I believed that I was the incubator for my baby and just let my body do what it needed. I was in the hospital coffee shop with a girlfriend and my baby one day after my last caserarian delivery, we were approached by a mother and her two teenage girls, the mother congratulated my girlfriend on the birth of her baby and I was asked when mine was due....it set the tone for comments over the next eight weeks. I was in a chemists shop and the pharmacist asked me when my baby was due - I was holding a week old baby!! I could be pushing my brand new baby at the shops and strangers would ask me how hard is it to be pregnant so quickly again....It sucked, I stopped counting those comments after I reveied 14 unsolicited nasty remarks from strangers. Nobody wants to be large after the birth of a baby, if supermodels get six weeks to get back into shape, can't I , an ordinary working class woman, with a career, study, home and children take just a little longer???? It is not women who put pressure on themselves, it is all of the jerks and thier dreadful rude comments. A sleep deprived new mother does not need to be told anything other than "you look wonderful, your baby is beautiful" etc. If you don't have anything nice to say....P.S. My latest baby is almost four months old and I am still a size twelve, I feel unfit and unattractive, I have veins, stretch marks and sagging breasts, I don't have time to dye my grey hair or apply eye cream, I also have four beautiful children and a wonderful husband who loves all of me, for my real body and the life that it has given. I will lose the weight, in the june mid semester break I will have more time to exercise and nurture myself, until then I am thankful for my health.
welcome!

Well, the Today show was a hit and I hope some of you had a chance to see my spot. The show put up a really great article about the research:
I'll hopefully have some video to post soon. For any new readers, I invite you to send me photos of yourself pregnant and post-baby in order to celebrate what 'real' mothers look like. I'll post them on the blog so we can share and compare (and not be judgmental!). If you would like to share your own experiences of having a 'bump' with other mums-to-be and mums-already, email your story to me on babybumpproject[at]yahoo.com.au and I will post your message for others mums to read and learn.
Feel free to include any handy hints for coping with the pressure (body or otherwise). Make sure to include images of your bump or your body during pregnancy or postbaby so we can all share in how everyday mums look and feel. If you have a Flickr account, join our group The Baby Bump Project and post yourself in the Bump Gallery (otherwise send me your images and I can post them for you).
Feel free to include any handy hints for coping with the pressure (body or otherwise). Make sure to include images of your bump or your body during pregnancy or postbaby so we can all share in how everyday mums look and feel. If you have a Flickr account, join our group The Baby Bump Project and post yourself in the Bump Gallery (otherwise send me your images and I can post them for you).
you have got to be kidding.

Seriously, I need to stop having these 'only in America' moments. Apparently, the ABC (an American network) is premiering a new mid-season replacement television series (12 April) called 'Notes from the Underbelly'. This is a show aiming for a humourous take on the 'politics of pregnancy' as a young couple (Andrew and Lauren) have just found out they are pregnant and can't keep it a secret in the first episode. On the official series webpage, it notes that Andrew will be narrating the episode "giving his wry and often sarcastic interpretation of the events that are going on around him". Isn't that interesting how the man gets to tell the pregnancy story? I mean how many more times do we need to hear just how 'hard' it is for men to 'deal' with their pregnant wives? Gosh guys, it's really pretty labour intensive for you to haul yourself to all of those o/b appointments (because god forbid, any network would even consider showing an alternative form of prenatal care) and laughing to yourself about your wife's cravings, mood swings and weight gain. Ha. ha. Ha. I mean are you the one who has to create new life at the same time you are carrying out your own? Is this really comedy? Saying that pregnancy is harder than parenthood is such an overblown and old stereotype. Keep it coming. It's like Blah blah.. Pregnancy is so hard. Men have it so tough...blah blah.. Women 'lose' their bodies forever. Andrew even "has to deal with the fact that (*shock* horror!!) Lauren may be getting stretch marks, but Andrew has to pretend that he doesn't notice them". Yeah because Im sure she is so insecure that all of her self-esteem is enmeshed in what her husband thinks of her pregnant body and if he even mentioned that he noticed a mark their entire relationship would be ruined. Kind of reminds me about the so often overplayed 'Do I look fat in this?'-woman-in a dressing room-with bored out of his mind boyfriend- who has to pander to his girlfriend's insecurity about her own looks. Boys, we can feel insecure all on our own without your help, thank you.
Can you believe this absolute crap? I'm sure the actress playing the pregnant part will have a nice little contained 'bump' strapped on to her waiflike Hollywood hyper-feminine figure and look perfect throughout the series. Im sure some hot designer maternity wear will be prominently displayed for all of the 'average' American mothers to look at and want to cry. And you know what the worst part about this whole show is? I actually want to watch it....but damn it, living in Australia we don't get anything until a freaking year after it airs so I will have to read the reviews and gently coax my mother in America into watching it for me...
Oh and just a random fact, the actor playing the character 'Eric' (Sunkrish Bala, the first guy in the picture from the left), another expectant father who is friends with Andrew, was also on Grey's Anatomy playing the one night stand that Meredith picks up at Joe's bar, only to find that he um..can't lose his excitement for her..literally...the next morning when he shows up to the hospital. I can't get that scene out of my head when I look at him now.
This is the website for the show:
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