There’s something about your body postpartum. It doesn’t always bounce back. You don’t always get right back into those pre pregnancy jeans. The stretch marks don’t fade right away. Instead of having that cute curvature, your hips have turned into a big square. And that number on the scale isn’t lowering like you expected. 

All these things, as unpleasant as they are, are more understood and accepted at the beginning of that new baby’s life. When your baby still fits in a ball on your chest. When they still do the newborn scrunch. It’s more understood that, yes, that mama just birthed a baby. It’s alright that her face is still swollen from labor and delivery and her stomach still has a little pooch. 

What I have come to realize is that all those unpleasant things feel less understood and accepted when that baby turns a year old. Or two years old. The baby grows up. But mama’s body doesn’t go back to the way it was before.

We feel as though the belly pooch should just go away, like all the jitters you have when you bring your baby home as a first time mom. We think all the extra weight will shed right off, as we learn to parent our sweet child. We tell ourselves, “It’s been a year, you shouldn’t still look like you just had a baby.” But sometimes the weight stays.

Instead of hating our postpartum bodies we should be celebrating them. They built and nourished life. A new human being was formed inside. And that human being was brought into this world through a beautiful yet strenuous birth. What an honor. 

I wish we could normalize postpartum bodies. The bodies that change and stretch and grow to accommodate the growing baby. The bodies that are still being cared for and nourished in the best way possible. The ones still getting the exercise and movement they need. The ones that just aren’t the same as before the baby.

Sometimes the weight stays. And that’s okay.