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by Katie Hodgkins

Let's Talk Stretchmarks!

Written by Amy Hignett for her blog, My Baby & Me.

You can follow her on instagram here!


So… Stretch marks. Deep, purple, white, thin, visible, faded, wrinkly, big, small there all different but seem to cause the same emotions; disappointment, consciousness, ugliness, sadness, embarrassment, self hatred.

It is so damn hard to accept these marks & loose skin even though they’re from creating something so beautiful and your firm skin just couldn’t stretch enough. How these marks affect women and how they think of themselves is crazy including myself. These insignificant marks cause such an effect of negativity, these silly marks take over people’s minds!

They need to be normalised and accepted, you don’t even have to like them, just accept them even if you don’t find them beautiful, appreciate them because they are from carrying your child and your skin simply couldn’t stretch far enough! It’s no deeper than that.

I once seen a comment online by someone who was talking about stretch marks and if they received them would just simply have them lasered and fake tan would cover them in the mean time. I just felt this was the wrong approach, shouldn’t we be normalising them? Shouldn’t we be showing them more to help others see majority of us get them?

Of course if you don’t like them it’s completely fine to get them lasered or cover them if you feel you want to, but the way it was put took me back and made me feel sad… I couldn’t afford mine to be lasered just like that and I should cover them in fake tan. People with a large following sometimes don’t use it to their advantage to help, inspire and make a difference to others and that comment made me feel down! It probably was never meant this way but I just realised and thought wait a minute… why should we encourage others to cover them up? If you want to that is fine, I certainly do but it’s for reasons like that and social media I do it!
We should be saying so what! Yeah if I get stretch marks who cares! Don’t cover them up or feel ashamed of them -it’s a few silly marks. It doesn’t change anything about you other than you’ve become a mother. Our bodies change, we should accept that and embrace it. If you’re worried men or others will find them ‘unattractive’ then you’re trying to impress and attract the wrong people. Decent people won’t look twice at them never mind not accept them! It is part of life we carry and produce little human beings which means we have to sacrifice our bodies. There is no harm in wanting to improve them or try to get rid of them. I just feel we shouldn’t really promote it in this way because it has a huge knock on effect on society and women.

We get loose skin, stretch marks and tummy rolls, it is part of life ladies… love the loose skin you’re in and embrace it! 

…Which leads me to the fact there is a lot of stereotype around the term ‘yummy mummy’.

But what even is one???? One that doesn’t have stretch marks and loose skin? One who bounces back? One who has good skin? Styled hair everyday? Full face every day? These things are what come to my mind and this is due to social media!

Some of us are praised for being yummy mummies, we should be too because we created a life! Not because of cosmetic work or physical appearances. Lots of people call me a yummy mummy but I simply whisper to myself, ‘you’re not, they can’t see underneath your clothes’. They say ‘wow you don’t even look like you’ve had a baby’! But what does that look like? They say wow you have bounced back! But I certainly haven’t. But these lovely compliments don’t make me feel good about myself because why should they? What should I look like? And why should my stretch marks and flabby tummy determine if I am a yummy mummy?

I’m sure they wouldn’t be calling me a yummy mummy on the days I don’t even wash my hair or get dressed properly and spend the day with baby sick and dribble all over me and having my hair pulled out! They’ve caught me on a day I’ve had time to put a little concealer on and a nice top to cover it all!

So does a yummy mummy look glamorous and like it’s all easy? I truly don’t know what people see through their eyes when they see me but when I look at others all I see is a yummy mummy because no matter how you look physically I see a beautiful glow and love bubble and the way you love your baby and the way you look at them makes you a yummy mummy, the fact you carried them makes you a yummy mummy!

Stretch marks and baggy skin give you a yummy tummy!! You created a full human and your body received all these things to make your body stronger for your baby! Your baby obviously needed more room so it stretched your tummy for some more! We are all yummy mummies no matter how many bags under our eyes, flabby tummies, stretch marks, they’re all part the journey so let’s embrace them and celebrate that you’re a yummy mummy for creating a life! We all have good days, pretty days, lucky days but also have bad days, ugly days and shitty days. That’s okay, your bad days and spotty days and the days you don’t wear make up and make an effort don’t make you any less a beautiful mummy, because them things don’t make you a beautiful mummy! Just being a mummy makes you so beautiful.

What do we do to deserve the title? What award to we receive? Well I’ll tell you the answer… Your beautiful child. They make you deserve the title, they are the reward, they make you a yummy mummy.

Be wise and knowledgeable with what you see on social media, high waisted tights and pants and dressing well can be deceiving in a sense that their post partum body looks perfect. Majority of us all have rolls and stretch marks, it’s just part of life and being a mummy. Obviously we all dress well to feel good and look good but just don’t let it put you down! There is not such thing as a perfect post partum body or mother, so let others inspire you!

I want to change my stretch marks and loose skin so so bad but what for? It does not have an impact on any other areas of my life other than my own perception of perfect and wanting to look like others who don’t have them! We need to stop thinking others are lucky if they have’t received them, we need to stop feeling ashamed and gutted if we do! If you didn’t/don’t get them great. If you do, great, so what? You’re just as worthy and as a good as the mother who didn’t receive stretch marks and loose baggy skin.So STOP hiding your stretch marks and loose skin NOW! Embrace them! Normalise them! They make you a yummy mummy.

Let me know what you think by commenting on here, visit the contact me page or my instagram x

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Katie Hodgkins Image
I'm Katie, and I'm a mama, wife, and freelance content creator for Bump, Baby & You. I also help to run our thriving online community over in our Facebook support group, as well as volunteering for my local branch of the National Childbirth Trust. I'm a busy bee and enjoy keeping active, cooking, writing, and fun days out with my little family. My special topics of interest are... autism (as me and my son are both autistic), science, all things parenting and pregnancy related, and The Handmaids Tale!
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