Pregnancy and childbirth is a joy, but it's also an incredibly painful end exhausting experience. While many people know and talk about the pains of actual childbirth, less think about how carrying a small human in your body for most of a year can affect you.
In fact, pregnancy changes a lot about your body, and some of those changes can carry on post-partum.
In many cases, people who undergo pregnancy will have stretch marks due to the stretching that happens in the stomach area.
If you (or you partner) have never had a baby, you might not realize that the baby bump (which is responsible for stretch marks in the first place) doesn't go away right after childbirth.
While a baby bump can begin to shrink within the first few days of giving birth, it can take 6 to 12 months for it to go away completely.
That's why moms like Danisha Lestaevel (who goes by @mama3x__ on Instagram) are so important. Lestaevel uses her platform, including her TikTok account, to show what a body looks like after giving birth.
With things like snapback culture and the shame many women carry when their bodies don't look the way they did before pregnancy, Lestaevel is showing the world a more normalized look through her own perspective.
"Initially, it was extremely hard for me to show the world my postpartum body due to the fear of what others might think..." she told BuzzFeed.
"...as I posted, I started receiving positive feedback that made me feel so honored to be a voice for women and showcase what postpartum can look like and that it’s completely normal."
One video where she showed her body two weeks postpartum raked in 1.5 million views, as well as comments with people both sharing support and thanking her for normalizing how bodies look postpartum.
One commenter wrote, "thank you for showing what a REAL postpartum belly looks like! mine looks the same I'm tired of celebrities showing flat bellies 2 weeks after birth."
"I want people who don’t have children to know that not all bodies are the same and that snapback culture is extremely toxic, as it puts unrealistic beauty standards and expectations on a high pedestal."
