Love my baby – hate my body: RTE TV Documentary

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  • #12373

    Dear Mumstown Members,

    My name is Amy Breen, I’m currently working on a pilot for RTE called ‘Love my Baby – Hate my Body’, which will explore how women really feel about their bodies during and after pregnancy. We hope to explain what exactly does happen to your body, how it changes, and how women deal with it.

    At the moment we are looking for a range of contributors with
    different experiences to tell their story. We are also forming a ‘Man Panel’ to discuss how partners deal with the body changes too – so if there are any men interested we’d love to talk to you too.

    We are hoping to film the pilot footage in the next fortnight. We hope that the documentary will be a vehicle to show mothers out there that they’re not the only one experiencing body issues during pregnancy and after, or indeed inform mothers-to-be.

    If you would like to get in touch to talk about it more, you can contact me by emailing amy@zoogon.tv or calling on 0044-28 90 323 600.

    Thanks for taking the time to read this,

    Amy

    #114613
    Jedt
    Keymaster

    This is a great topic.

    Women put way too much pressure on themselves and each other to regain their pre-pregnancy body shape soon after birth. At a time when we should be bonding with our babies and recovering from the labour & birth, many of us worry about our appearance.

    I think it takes a few months to get back to your pre-pregnancy shape but if I’m honest, I’ve never been quite the same after having babies. There is an extra tummy there that was not there before – and while I am not crazy about it – its nothing a good pair of Spanx cannot sort out!! 😆

    I also think celebs have a huge impact on how new mums feel too. Many of them have personal trainers, chefs and deals with magazines to ‘lose their baby weight’ in a specified amount of time. With the money and support system they have its easier for them to manage it and lets not forget, there is a lot of liposuction and tummy tucks in celeb land too so the fact they look so slim soon after birth is not always just down to diet & exercise. So for normal women, its not very realistic for us to try to emulate that. Lets be honest, I could not (and would not want to) live on a juice diet to shed a few pounds, like many celebs do.

    Great topic for a show, will definitely tune into that one.

    #114633
    joeyrudd
    Member

    getting pregnant then watching your belly grow knowing its protecting a little person to grow and stay safe till you get to meet them is amazing.
    then after the excitement of the birth and getting to know your baby is over you start to notice what its all done to your body and no matter how much exercise you do or dieting you are never going to return to your prebaby body again….you could get your body as toned as you can but it’ll never be the same again
    after having 4 children i’ve been stretched too much to be fixable, stretch marks may fade but not go completely
    i’ll never regret having my babies though they are the best thing to ever happen to me
    its true watching the celebs getting down to stick thin again weeks after giving birth makes other woman who just had babies feel like they should be like that too and make themselves sick trying to do the same thing
    i just wish there would be someone there to tell them to take their time and give themselves a realisic time frame to lose the baby weight instead of being shown all these people in magazines/tv and newspapers with a perfect figure weeks or days later, i just remind myself that people on tv are actors and weren’t really pregnant and celebs have trainers and gyms to help them

    #114634
    CaliGal
    Member

    I have to admit I really dislike my body in it’s current state after having three babies. I wouldn’t trade them for the hottest body in the world but I am impatient to get back to the "me" that is a sexy woman and not the me that is a mum who is soft and squishy!

    I have completely put my personal physical fitness life on hold for my children (kids are 4, 2 and 8 weeks!) and now it’s time to take care of "me" once again physically as I am out of the babymaking machine business permanently now 😆

    I can’t wait to get rid of my spare tyre so I can get a breast lift. I just want things back where God put them as they are certainly not that way after three pregnancies and breastfeeding each for 1.5 yrs. I am stubborn and refuse to buy new clothes when I have an attic full of them that won’t fit as I am carrying this darn babyweight!!

    For me I don’t feel like having children should be the end of "me" as a woman. Just a special part of my life but not the end of "me" as a sexy woman IYKWIM?!

    #114643
    Jedt
    Keymaster

    Caligal – you looked great last time I saw you, definitely a hot mama and breastfeeding is giving your boobs a great boost, so there are bonuses too! But I do understand what you mean, its hard to see how your body has changed so much and as women we want to look the way we used to – its just not so easy to achieve it.

    I know in a few weeks after I give birth, I will be disappointed at the spare tyre that’s left around my midrift area and will want it gone asap and will want to tone up my backside (itsgetting huge!!) and my arms. But as I am not a celeb with a personal trainer/chef/nanny/magazine deal and loads of dosh, it will just have to come off in its own good time with a combination of breastfeeding, walking and running around after 4 kids!! Then when baby is big enough for me to leave him/her I’ll be straight back to Lab Fitness for Zumba and AGY to strengthen and tone this body back into some sort of shape again!!

    Sometimes its hard to be a woman….. 😆 😆

    #114644
    Jedt
    Keymaster

    on the plus side, I have to add that I find being pregnant a great privilege and I feel very lucky to be carrying this baby. Growing a baby, feeling it kick and seeing my belly get bigger is a very empowering feeling.

    Maybe because we lost two babies and I felt like my body had failed me on those occasions, I appreciate it more now that all is going well.

    Giving birth is also a very empowering thing to do – I feel on top of the world after that, I feel like I could take on anything.

    Reminds me that I am still waiting for some sort of medal or trophy from my husband for my previous efforts at bringing our children into this world…
    😉

    #114648
    Taylor5
    Member

    im lucky didnt get stretch marks, but the skin around my belly is very overstretched and after a 2 sections have this kinda pouch belly… breast is best for baby, but Deffo not best for you boobs!! I think this is the part i hate most since having kids…. well what left of my boobs that is 🙄 🙄 🙄

    But wouldnt swap things as they are for all the tea in China….. i do feel sorry for all the celebs who are under terrible pressure to be a size zero the week they give birth…. did you not VB never shows her belly after her pregnancy, she must have stretch marks!! Did VB have her new baby yet?

    #114650
    Jedt
    Keymaster

    Thank goodness for push up bras taylor 😆 😆 😆 😆 mine certainly need some help after all these babies!!!!

    #114850
    pookie2
    Member

    Fair enough, pregnancy changes your body – no denying that – butthe problem is not always the new body shape, but the belief that the pre-baby curves are the ‘ideal’ & that we should all be out hunting to get THAT body back.

    I’m lucky in that after my first two, I got back into shape fairly quickly (without much effort on my part to be honest) & I don’t really have stretch marks, although there’s a bit of extra skin there that I haven’t figured out how to nuke! When I put my mind down to it & stop b-feeding, & start sleeping more & having more energy, I’ll probably shift the last bit of weight as well. But my body will never be the same shape as it was before & I’ve had to accept that. (Before babies, my friends used to call me Jessica Rabbit… (sigh – use your imaginations!!!)…. But that would probably have changed with age anyway….)

    I think, however, that it is sad that there is this feeling out there that the trade off for a healthy baby is a body you hate, & that if you breast- feed, your boobs will end up at your ankles. (If your boobs end up banging into your knees, pregnancy is more likely to be to blame that b-feeding, by the way. Trust me on that this one 😆 !)

    I just wonder, with a title like that, if that documentary will be more of a ‘shock-umentary’ featuring extremes & scaring half the pregnant women in the country, rather than a balanced documentary featuring a representative sample of women who are happy with their post-baby bodies…..

    #114861
    Jedt
    Keymaster

    That’s exactly why the opinion you just expressed is so important pookie – I hope Amy gets in touch with you about the show; its good to hear positive comments like that and I think women need to hear more positive comments and less of the negative.

    agree, the title is a bit worrying but hopefully lots of different mums will takepart and decide the tone of the show and make a alot of it positive.

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