All Natural Mommies

I came across a website today that really caused me to step back and think about my body – that of a mother, a mother of two healthy, beautiful baby boys, stretch mark ridden with some extra fluff on the hips and breasts full of nutritious milk from which my youngest son feeds and thrives. Honestly, I have never regreted my children, however, I do yearn for my single digit pant size. Something I could most likely acquire if I took time out to go to they gym, but haven’t done for the pure fact that I don’t want to leave my children to drive 30 minutes up, work out for 2 hours and drive another 30 minutes home. Ian hasn’t been away from me for more than a total of 5 hours – once to get my hair done and one to go eat dinner with my husband. He cried hysterically both times and it made it obvious that he just isn’t ready to be without mom.

Anyway, back to the site I found. I have found myself looking down at my stretchmarks wondering if there was anything I could have done. My once smooth skin now has scars vertically across my belly, hips and boobs and horizontally across the inside of my legs. These were mostly from my first pregnancy – I got HUGE. I found myself just today looking in the mirror and wondering how much it would cost to “fix” my body….and then this…. The Shape of a Mother (be aware that the site contains nudity). I can hostly say that I was brought to tears by the courage and beauty on this site. I think the most captivating for me was a picture of a naked mother, with stretch marks and breasts that were obviously used for nursing….holding a naked child on her hip. It is the most beautiful photo I have ever seen. In a few words and photos, i suddenly have a new impression of myself. The self that has provided me and my husband with two children and fed them. The self that i would sacrifice for my children and the image of my body that I would happily sacrifice again knowing what a mothers bodily sacrifice offers in return – a lifetime of love and joy – no stretchmark could even continue to compare in value and the cost of those stretchmarks now seems unimportant.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

One Response to “The Image of A Mother”