Mom Proudly Shares Post-Baby Belly Pics After Stranger Assumes She's Still Pregnant
Her side-by-side photos show that post-partum bodies don’t “bounce back” immediately after birth
What our bodies look like before giving birth and after giving birth often present two radically different images. You know, because growing a human being requires a lot of internal organ-shifting and belly expanding.
Mom Anupa King knows this all too well, and recently took to her Instagram account to share her documented changes with her followers.
In a side-by-side photo comparison, King shares two belly shots: one from the day she gave birth to her son, and one taken three short weeks after.
“One of the main reasons I share this, As most of you know, THIS is a marathon/dancer’s body and while that can mean I’ll bounce back in no time it clearly doesn’t,” King writes in her caption.
“Especially now too that my body is producing all of Levi’s food… I really do admire all the mamas out there that say breastfeeding get their bodies back in shape… For me it’ll take me back on the trails for some long distance running to feel like myself again.”
Breastfeeding means burning a crap ton of calories, to be sure, but you’re also increasing your caloric intake to help maintain milk production. Also breastfeeding just takes a lot out of you and we mamas gotta eat to keep up her strength. So using it as a weight-loss plan is, to put it plainly and politely, unrealistic.
King was inspired to share her post-partum photo for another reason: a stranger she encountered recently assumed she was still pregnant.
“Yesterday, I was asked by the baker at my supermarket: ‘Are you having a girl or a boy?’ and that would have really hit some soft spots/nerves with me…I mean I’m not pregnant anymore but I sure do look it… instead I smiled and nicely said I had a boy.”
Ugh, don’t people know by now that unless you are one thousand percent sure that someone is with child, you don’t comment on it or ask? Even the most well-meaning strangers can unintentionally but easily hurt someone’s feelings by making that assumption.
“After I left the supermarket I realised I absolutely love my body and am so super proud of it hence the reason I chose to share this post image with you,” King graciously writes.
“And however long it takes for my body to journey back to where it was once were then that’s fine… I know it’ll find it’s way until then I’ll continue to be kind knowing that it’s doing exactly what it needs to be doing right now for me and for Levi!”
Amen to that.
