A woman’s body is always up for scrutiny, especially when she is pregnant.
To redefine societal expectations, one woman in the US shared a photo of her unfiltered postpartum body. What started as an innocuous post snowballed into a social media movement soon after, with many new mothers sharing pictures of their ‘honest’ bodies.
Meg Boggs, the creator of the #this_is_postpartum movement, told CNN that she was struggling with a negative body image and “felt as if my postpartum journey and body didn’t count.”
Boggs started with an Instagram post where she wrote she was searching for the key to self-love and reaching out to other new moms who can’t look in the mirror to tell them that, “you are seen, you are worthy and you are so much more than the way you look.”
To CNN, she added, “ To my surprise, my messages flooded with positivity and things like ‘I needed this today.’”
Boggs then asked other mothers to join the movement and soon the hashtag #this_is_postpartum saw women of all sizes and stages in their pregnancy/after-birth sharing pictures of their body. The hashtag already has over 4,000 posts from women across the world.
Meghan Markle Also Praised for ‘Body Positivity’ Post Pregnancy
The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, on 6 May, gave birth to her and Prince Harry’s first child, a son named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.
Twitter lit up with praise to mention the royal’s choice of clothing when the couple revealed their son to the world for the first time. Markle wore a stylish trench dress that flaunted her postpartum body.
Markle was praised for sending new moms’ a body positive message, and keeping it real.
(With inputs from CNN)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)