Loving my Lines | Stretchmarks are Beautiful | #Motherhood #KeepingitReal

Every time a friend, family member or a fellow mamma says, “Oh how lucky you are – to not have too many stretch marks and loose belly” - there’s something inside me that doesn’t always feel right. In fact, I consider such conversations and remarks absolutely “platonic” and “senseless”, because it breaks my heart - there is a part of me that wants to sit them down and say all that I have penned in this post.

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I am lucky because I have these stretch marks – however few, however many, however patchy and however shaped. They tiny jiggly lines tell the most beautiful and life altering story of my life – They make me beautiful beyond all standards what-so-ever.

A few weeks after my daughter was born – everyone started “prepping” me on how to get back to my pre-pregnancy figure. Even the fellow mammas – would ask me about my weight loss plan and what was my “timeline” of fitting into my old jeans.

At first it was overwhelming. These conversations made me feel like “damaged goods”. As if my value had somehow reduced simply:

-Because I couldn’t fit into my old clothes

-Because I couldn’t make random plans with friends in the spur of the moment

-Because my body changed, in more ways than one.

-Because my body looked and felt different

-Because I would have tiny human cling on to me for a while

-Because I didn’t fit into the conventional image of an “aspirational” “desirable” woman

-Because my sleep cycle was fucked and I had dark circles bigger than my face

-Because my body experienced a surge of hormones

-Because my “issues” were going to be different than most others

And I am not going to lie – I did get carried away with all these notions. I did get blinded by quite a few of these.

But today – 15 months after becoming a mother, I am able to see clearly. I can see how glorious my body is… How hard my body has worked to nurture and nourish another human. And not just any human – but one of the coolest tiny human EVER!

I don’t understand why we as a society want to hide away all possible physical signs of pre-creating another life. Believe me when I say this, pregnancy has been the most liberating experience of my life so far. I never knew what my mind and body was capable of – until I had 2 hearts and 2 minds in my body.

There are women who wish they had the pregnancy scars and stretch marks… Women who are  willing to endure so much, and so much more just to feel those kicks from the inside.

So doesn’t that make me super-lucky? Lucky to have experienced something so many womxn wish they did? Why is saggy belly not cool? Why are stretch marks not beautiful? I don’t know – maybe I lack some level of perspective that the world sports. But if that’s the case, then I am happy being ignorant.

Today – I don’t feel like “Damaged goods”. I don’t feel “ruined”. Rather – I feel like a tigress who earned her stripes ;)

To everyone who made me doubt my body and dwindled my confidence, all I want to say, is “Just because I have acne, tummy rolls and chaffing thighs – I DON’T NEED TO BE FIXED.”