Chrissy Teigen + mesh underwear is the postpartum real talk all moms need to hear

She’s talented, she’s glamorous, she’s standing in her kitchen in mesh hospital underwear.

We love how Chrissy Teigen keeps it real on social media, and right now, just a few days postpartum after the birth of baby Miles, she’s about as real as it can get.

She posted a pic comparing her visible mesh underwear to the mesh wrappers Asian pears come in, a shout out to fellow mama and comedian Ali Wong, who makes the joke in her Netflix special, Hard Knock Wife. In the special, Wong describes her postpartum underpants as being the “same material that they package those fancy Korean pears in.”

Pretty much.

Mesh underwear may not be pretty, but Teigen’s kitchen selfie is. A real mama, holding her baby while a toddler plays nearby, not caring whether her mesh underwear is showing—because when you’re taking care of a newborn, you don’t always care about visible panties.

Mesh maternity underwear is (obviously) not designed for looks, but for practicality. It’s comfortable, disposable and keeps your pad in place as you deal with postpartum bleeding.

It’s recovery underwear because our bodies need time to recover from the very big thing we just did.

Photographer and blogger Amanda Bacon made headlines in 2016 when she also posted a selfie (well, technically it’s her husband’s selfie), showing her naked except for mesh undies, in her hospital room after giving birth. The photo is just a real, raw, candid moment, but it’s one we hadn’t often seen in media depictions of birth, and the internet went crazy for it.

“We all should try and educate, empower and embrace every aspect of childbirth, including moments like this. And do it while having a sense of humor. Nothing says welcome to motherhood like an adorable squishy baby, and a giant mom diaper,” Bacon wrote at the time.

The Cut once called mesh postpartum undies “the secret, magical underwear that only moms know about”, as writer Edan Lepucki described moms’ affection for the ugly underwear like this: “Whether they had a home or a hospital birth; whether they had a vaginal delivery or a cesarean; whether their cesarean was scheduled or emergency; whether they refused an epidural or requested one; whether they resented their birth experience or celebrated it: they all loved this underwear.”

Thanks to Teigen and Wong, mesh undies are no longer a secret. They’re a normal part of the postpartum period, a necessity for new moms, and so comfortable (even if they do make us look like fancy pears). Embrace the mesh, mamas.

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