When you?re pregnant, your body becomes public domain?people endlessly comment on your bump and reach out to touch your belly. And after you?ve had your baby, it doesn?t let up: Everyone has an opinion on how to get your pre-baby body back?and now! It?s as though that?s all there is to say to a mother who has just had a baby. It?s not.
There?s a cultural expectation that, after you have a baby, you must erase every trace of it on your body. We?re taught to hate our saggy breasts, protruding misshapen belly buttons, loose skin and stretch marks. But why must women eradicate motherhood from our bodies, as though it?s dirty or shameful"
That?s a question that comes up way too often in my work. For more than a decade now, I have had the privilege of helping women who face excruciating suffering with their bodies. I am a clinical eating disorder therapist, and founder of an eating disorder recovery centre in Toronto. When I speak with women in my practice, I hear about the overwhelming pressures they face to return to their former bodies post-pregnancy?pressures that provoke insecurities and make them feel disconnected from the experience of motherhood and their bodies. Those insecurities contribute to the harmful voices that tell them to restrict their food or exercise until they hurt themselves. And those who have been affected by eating disorders in the past find themselves vulnerable again.
During pregnancy, women develop curvy, womanly shapes ...