New Mom's Side-By-Side Pics Show Why She's Not Concerned With 'Bouncing Back'
Fitness guru has a “realistic timeframe”
Emily Skye is an Australian health and fitness expert whose online training program, YouTube channel, and Instagram account have millions of followers. Recently, her fans watched as she progressed through her first pregnancy. Now, as the mother of a two-week-old, Skye is sharing her post-partum body and talking about the myth of “bouncing back.”
Four days ago, Skye posted an image of herself holding her new baby. Next to the photo, she wrote about the effect that pregnancy had on her body and her approach to getting back into “fitness expert” shape.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdDEacelFXw/?taken-by=emilyskyefit
In her post, Skye talks about the expectations she had about how she would maintain her fitness during her pregnancy versus the sore, bloated reality: “My pregnancy was not how I thought it would be, I thought I’d be exercising regularly the whole way through but that did not happen as I was sick a lot of the time and had back pain that made it hard to just walk around the house.”
Word.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcwYUmRFFPl/?taken-by=emilyskyefit
Now that she has delivered her baby, Skye is learning what most moms already know — you think being pregnant was rough on your body? Wait until the first month after you give birth. “I currently live in what you could call ‘granny undies’, it hurts to do much with the stitches from my episiotomy, and feeding is extremely painful – I had no idea it would be this bad! My back is still really sore and when I walk around it literally feels like my insides are going to fall out. I also had diastasis recti that was 3 finger widths apart the day after giving birth.”
Word again.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BVkOoy8FwZ1/?taken-by=emilyskyefit
But then, Skye’s post goes from one we can commiserate with to one that inspires us — not to lose the baby weight within weeks and run a mile the day after delivery, but to be patient with ourselves. We’ve been fed too many stories about women who walk out of the hospital looking like they were never pregnant, and of women walking down runways in lingerie weeks after giving birth. That’s not the norm. This is the norm, and Skye wants her fans to know it: “So many people told me I would ‘bounce right back’ after giving birth like a lot of other fit women do. Well, that’s definitely not the case for me! It’s only 5 days after I gave birth to Mia and I look about 6 or so months pregnant.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc4iyYZl2p2/?taken-by=emilyskyefit
Skye’s career is built on her body looking a certain way, but she is not allowing that pressure to interfere with this precious time with her newborn: “…get[ting] fit and strong again…it’s not my priority right now — spending this time with my daughter is. Getting my ‘body back’ can take a back seat for the time being…I’ll get there in a realistic time frame & I refuse to put pressure on myself to get there. I am SO blessed and beyond happy…I feel completely content. I look at her and start crying because of the overwhelming love I have for her and I love my body SO much for growing this precious little person.”
To see someone who makes their living off of being in tip-top physical condition preach post-partum self-love is a beautiful thing. Congratulations, Emily!
