Seeing your naked, postpartum body for the first time can be a real come-to-Jesus moment. I know it was for me. Staring at my fleshy tummy in the brutally unforgiving lights of the hospital bathroom, I remember thinking, “I can’t wait to look like I used to.” Before pregnancy. Before birth.
It’s easy to get caught up in these types of musings, given how as new moms, we are inundated with images of seemingly perfect celebrities who practically sprint out of the labor and delivery ward in skintight spandex.
That’s why photographer Liliana Taboas of Divine Mothering wants women to see different images of new moms, and how they really look postpartum.
But the photographs featured in her new book, “I Will Always Be Your Mother,” are about more than showcasing women’s bodies after baby as a way to suggest it’s okay to look like a real person after birth. No, according to Liliana, it’s about time we shifted our focus from how a woman’s body looks postpartum, to what it just did!
“I want women to feel proud of their bodies,” she told BabyCenter in an email. “I want them to see the beauty that I see in the female form. Mothers are an incredible symbol of love and nurturing. Women’s bodies are so often reduced to their sexuality. I want to remind women that their bodies are so much more than that; they are strong, powerful nurturers and birthers. Mothers need to be proud of what their bodies have done, and it is to bring forth the next generation.”
Here are more candid images that hope to prove just that:
Liliana admits it can be hard to feel good about your body after baby. “Women’s bodies change with pregnancy and birth,” she told BabyCenter, adding “Add this on top of the changes in life, roles, added responsibilities, and stress. It can be a difficult place to be.”
But she says self-love is for everybody, and women should strive to find beauty in all stages of life. That self-love starts when we are children; in fact, her book is actually for kids, to help moms teach their little ones about how your body changes throughout your life, and how we should love and accept ourselves, always.
“It was written from the point of view of a mother speaking to their child about their transportation into motherhood,” Liliana explains. “And motherhood and the bond between mother and child, is forever.”
If one thing surprised Liliana about putting this book together, it’s how many moms wanted to participate. “Women want to talk about this. We want to celebrate something that society has robbed us of, and that is pride in our postpartum bodies.”
Wow. So, so, painfully true.
