Love Letter to My Postpartum Belly

Dear Postpartum Belly,

 Welcome, new friend. Though society would have me believe that you should have left me by now, you, belly, are with me still.  And I am so very grateful you are. I actively refuse to be ashamed of you, or speak ill of you. You are to be celebrated, to be loved. 

 

I love you because…

• You are amazing!  You housed my beautiful baby daughter for 10 awe-inspiring months
• You felt every kick, every movement of her as she grew within me
• You stretched beyond measure, contracted for 22 hours to bring baby into the world, and retracted again (how?!)
• You are womanly/motherly
• You are evidence of my miraculous accomplishment – childbirth
• You prove I am a healthy weight
• You give my baby a comfy seat while nursing
• You remind me of my baby girl even when she is not with me
• You ARE ME, newly formed

So, stay a while longer, if you like. For you are postpartum perfection. You represent the unconditional love of mother & child, the silver cord that bonds us at our cores, the very center of our beings. You are like my mother’s belly, my grandmother’s, and all the glorious mothers of the world – linking me to the greater circle of motherhood. And that is the most precious gift anyone has ever been given.

Sincerely,

The Smiling Mama you made me

_______Though this letter is published already (on the Girls on the Run Alachua site) and I linked to it within my last post, I decided it deserved its own place on my blog.  If you didn't read my last post, please do.  It's a call to join the online movement of moms out there campaigning for real beauty images.  Embrace REAL BEAUTY, yours!, not some airbrushed, fake version that western society is striving to look like.  Only we can change the beauty standard. We must begin to believe we are beautiful, as we are, and teach our children the same.