Here’s one of the most troublesome concerns for all pregnant women after delivery:
How can I bounce back from my postpartum body after delivery?
Most of us prepare ourselves with tons of information about pregnancy and childbirth. What we usually miss out is how our body would change after childbirth and how we can deal with it.
Thanks to social media, most of us are even pressured by how celebrities and influencers nowadays slim down in such a short period of time. Not to leave out the stretch marks and scars after delivery.
Rather than putting ourselves in despair, we should acknowledge that our postpartum body takes a much longer time to heal.
Let’s look into 4 easy yet powerful alternatives on how you can be confident about your postpartum body.
4 Ways to Embrace Your Postpartum Body
#1: Be truly clear about how your body is changing after delivery
Besides reading and researching about pregnancy and childbirth, we should also look into how our bodies change during the postpartum period.
With this, we will be able to seek professional support and help and more importantly, we can avoid unnecessary anxiety.
During the first few weeks of postpartum, it is common to experience vaginal and afterbirth pain, vaginal discharge and changes in hormonal levels. This will further lead to exhaustion, mood swings and even postpartum depression.
Feeling overwhelmed, some of us will suffer stretch marks, hair loss and even postpartum pelvic floor issues, such as peeing a little when you sneeze, laugh or exercise.
Worry not; we can bounce back gradually with professional help and therapy.
Consult the doctors on how you can deal with the physical changes of your body (for instance, vaginal pressure) and unstable emotional state. Consult a physical therapist to look for appropriate exercises of strengthening your pelvic floor muscles.
You should be concerned about how you move during your daily life too. Whenever you wish to pick anything, squat down, exhale, engage your abs and then stand up using your leg muscles.
#2: Redefine your self-worth
Do you ever define your self-worth after the delivery on the measurement of your waist? Do you ever define your self-worth after the delivery on the “belly pooch”?
Or do you define your self-worth on how amazing you are by giving birth to a new life?
All of us struggle from time to time looking at our bodies after delivery, but it does not indicate we should not accept it with love and grace. Give yourself some time to bounce back, even it takes a year or two.
And never define your self-worth with your current body image. Instead, be proud of your new identity as a mother and take pride in nurturing your newborn babies.
However, this does not mean that you should fight alone.
Seek help from your partner or other family members so that you have better sleep.
Getting enough sleep and staying active will certainly help you to build a more positive self-worth than condemning yourself by comparing with others (particularly celebrities) who show off their slim postpartum bodies just after months of delivery.
#3: Replace negative thoughts about your body image with positive self-talk
This is a “must-know” fact, not only during your postpartum period, but for your whole life!
You are what you believe yourself to be.
If you think and talk negatively about yourself, you will eventually become just that. Stop this self-destructive behaviour at all cost and commit yourself to positive self-affirmation!
To ensure that you constantly immerse yourself into positive affirmations, write them down on a sticky note. Then, post the note on places where you will see it several times a day. It can be on your mirror, wall, computer and even in your journal.
To have better results, say the affirmations out loud whenever you can.
These are 5 powerful and positive affirmations for your postpartum life:
- I honour my body as it has nourished and created my gorgeous baby.
- I will not compare my postpartum body with any other moms’ postpartum body and measure the speed in which others are losing their “baby weight” against my progression.
- I will not be obsessive about the number on the scale and calorie burning. Instead, I will approach my weight loss as a healthy and natural progression.
- I will not be ashamed of my postpartum body and I will give myself time for losing the weight.
- I will take good care of my body so that I can have the energy to care for my baby.
On top of this, always be grateful about what you have done to create, grow and deliver your child. Appreciate your amazing body too for creating such a wonderful miracle you are holding in your arms.
You will find yourself bouncing back easier when you are being compassionate with yourself and your body.
#4: Strive to be healthy while feeling at peace with your postpartum body
Embracing your postpartum body does not mean that you do not commit yourself to an active and healthy lifestyle. We need to regain our energy so that we can provide good care to our babies while thriving in our career.
More importantly, we need an active lifestyle to feel connected to our body and to boost our mood, keeping any negative emotions at bay. We can start slowly with some gentle stretching and moderate cardio.
Then, you should also look into some core strengthening workout to build up the muscles of your torso.
Here’s why.
During our pregnancy, our rectus abdominal muscles are stretched. This makes it impossible to exercise them during the pregnancy period. Therefore, we need to include some core strengthening in our postpartum workout to bring the muscles back together again.
How about those stretch marks on your belly, thighs, hips and bottom where your skin is stretched during pregnancy? Worry not; they might not disappear right after the delivery, but they do fade over time.
To gain better results, you can apply ointments recommended by your doctor after your childbirth.
Look into how you can deal with your postpartum better with these nutritious food.
Embrace And Honour Your Postpartum Body
Motherhood has never been an easy journey since day one of pregnancy.
Thus, what we truly need is positive self-affirmation that we have been doing an amazing job in nurturing and giving birth to a new life. Make peace with your postpartum body; it is fine to take a break from your pre-pregnancy body shape.
Be the one who embraces your body!
You have been and will be strong and resilient in whatever size you were and are in, your body has done an impressive job in creating new life.