Friendly reminder: Childbirth doesn’t ‘ruin’ your body

I haven’t given birth yet, but I will be soon—less than seven weeks until the due date! And there are a lot of unknowns still:

I don’t know when I will give birth.
I don’t know how I will give birth—vaginally or c-section.
I don’t know how long it will take.

Childbirth is not going to “ruin” my body…no matter what I look like after.

I don’t know if I’ll lose all the baby weight.
I don’t know what my body will look like for a while.
I don’t know how the healing will go.
I don’t know a lot.

Related: An overlooked tool in pregnancy and birth? Breathwork 

But I know one thing for sure—childbirth is not going to “ruin” my body…no matter what I look like after. And you know what? I just want a healthy baby, and I want to hold him in my arms, and take him home with us forever—that’s what I want.

Women are praised while they are pregnant for their beautiful, incredible bodies, but they aren’t praised before or after.

They aren’t praised if they struggled to get pregnant.
They aren’t praised if their body changes just in the trying part.
They aren’t praised if their body changes for any other reason than pregnancy.
They aren’t praised after they give birth, unless they “bounce back” quickly.
They aren’t praised unless they look “fit” and “toned” and fit the description of what someone decided is “beautiful”…

Related: 12 celebrity mamas get real about their postpartum bodies 

But here’s the thing. You are beautiful. Your body is beautiful.
Regardless of whether you’ve ever been pregnant or not.
Regardless of whether your body changed or not.
Regardless of it all.

YOUR BODY IS BEAUTIFUL. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. PERIOD.

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