by Becky Vieira posted in Parenting

In the months following my son?s birth people would see my post-baby body and ask me what diet I was on or how often I exercised. When I say I?d done neither I?d hear something about how I was ?genetically blessed? or a crack about my husband being lucky.
I don?t consider rapid weight loss any kind of a blessing, nor am I in the camp that believes my body is in any way related to my husband?s fortune. I also don?t determine my worth based on my weight. In this case it haunts me.
This is the body of postpartum depression. I'm not proud of this or sharing because I feel like I accomplished anything. Instead, you are seeing this because I hope this story will help someone else.
I hesitated even taking the after portion of my "9 months in, 9 months out" photo. I'm not naive, I recognize what my postpartum body looks like. The number on my scale is lower today that it was before I became pregnant.
I feared that sharing this would make other moms feel less than amazing. I?d hide my body or downplay it. I almost felt like it would be insulting to anyone struggling with post-baby weight. But that's the thing, I?m struggling, too. It's just that no one ever wants to hear someone say they can't keep weight on, even if it's due to PPD.
After my son was born my body felt foreign. It wasn?t weight, it was the swelling of feet and breasts. Postpartum night sweats and leaking nipples. I felt as if I was wearing a stranger's clothing, nothin...