So, you go through the best part of a year growing this tiny human inside you. You are bombarded with hundreds of photo's of beautiful beaming ladies with their perfect bumps via mummy magazines, pregnancy updates emails, books, maternity clothing sites - you name it. We are all told about the 'pregnancy glow' and the luscious thick hair we are suppose to get (I didn't). I was very 'into' my pregnancy - I went to NCT classes, I was part of (and eventually set up my own) Facebook mum groups, I signed up to every weekly email update going and subscribed to all the online shop 'clubs' (Boots Parenting Club, My Mothercare etc) however even I didn't see many photo's of mother's after they had popped their sprog out. There wasn't much information on what to expect when you are no longer expecting.
Now, I'm not necessarily talking about the nitty gritty postpartum bleeding, sore nipples kinda thing. That's for another day. I'm on about what happens to your belly after the bump. What happens to my skin? Will my body ever be the same? Am I the only one with this many stretchmarks? Questions that aren't that easy to answer without trawling through different forums online and parenting forums can be a scary place full of strong opinions and Googled-medical-advice. Motherhood can be a very lonely place and things like what your body will look like after you give birth aren't often the topic of discussion at baby groups. No one whips out their stomach and shows off their stretch marks in the middle of Messy Play (I wish they did!).
