You birth your baby. They are the most beautifully breathtakingly perfect thing you have ever seen. They embody every hope, every purity, and every goodness that there is in this world. Then. You look in the mirror. Who the heck is that?!

Sadly, sooner than later it all hits us hard. Shaming this “new” body we have before us, and the intense pressure we put upon ourselves to have it “fixed”. The body after baby lies start entering into our thoughts and vocabulary:

This body is ugly.

This body has hideous markings.

This body is a mess.

This body is fat.

This body needs to be fixed.

Lies. All of them. We start desperately toying with our diets, jumpstarting workouts, and pinning all of the images of tanned and toned bikini-wearing woman onto our Pinterest ‘inspiration’ boards. We torture ourselves. Like a 14-year-old bully of a teenage girl, we call our body every harsh and hideous name in the book. All of these thoughts spin webs into our sleep-deprived minds as we sit in that rocking chair holding our newest creation.  The entire point of this body we are now slamming.

We torture ourselves. Like a 14-year-old bully of a teenage girl, we call our body every harsh and hideous name in the book.

We gave life to the most sweetly innocent of us all. This body provided life to a perfect being. It gave it’s all for nine months. Growing, nurturing, and protecting the most vulnerable human being that there is. It housed the most defenceless and most precious spirit. It was not an easy nine months. It sacrificed all to bring this life to be, the very best that it could. We have a body that birthed a miracle.

Your body will change. Two weeks. Five months. Three years down the road. It will be completely different. The point is to have gratitude each and every day for it. Regardless of how you think it should or shouldn’t look, it is a tool that has done tremendous things in caring for the well-being of another. There is such great and sacred beauty in the sacrifice that the world’s cameras will never be able to capture it.

There is such great and sacred beauty in the sacrifice that the world’s cameras will never be able to capture it.

Believe me, there is no crown that could ever hold enough rubies to support the amount of nobility a mother has. Love your body. Be thankful for this postpartum body, for it is a body not every woman is privileged to get in this life.

The only body after baby truth is that it is beautiful.