How do these mothers feel about their bodies?
‘My baby matters more than my belly’
NATALIE WHITE, 31, is an operations manager. She lives with her husband Nathan, 33, a customer services adviser, and their 12-week-old daughter, Evie, in Maidenhead, Berks. Natalie says: THERE’S so much pressure on mothers today to ‘snap back into shape’ after giving birth. So I was delighted when I saw the pictures of Rebekah Vardy and her real mum tum. She looked fantastic.
I was really cross when I heard she’d got some criticism for not being ‘perfectly toned’. How unfair and ridiculous. Not all mothers — even celebrities — have the time or inclination to get their figures back after giving birth. We have more important things to think about! I’m still breastfeeding so I need a few extra calories to ensure I’m getting enough nutrients. My baby is my number one priority and everything else can wait.
Evie was born by emergency C-section after a four-day labour. When I first looked down at my tummy, I felt upset it hadn’t shrunk back. I remember saying to Nathan: ‘Oh no, that’s not very attractive.’ Luckily, he just told me that I was beautiful.
Before I got pregnant, I did feel anxious about the effect it would have on my body. I’d been overweight in the past — at my heaviest I was 14 st — but in the months before I got pregnant I’d lost a couple of stone with a slimming club, and was so proud of myself.
With my midwife’s permission, I continued to eat carefully during pregnancy, and only put on 21lb. I’ve lost 14lb of that since giving birth, and am currently a size 16.
I’ve still got an apron of skin that hangs over my Caesarean scar, and the skin on my stomach is very wobbly. Yes, I’d like to slim down, but Evie is only three months old and there will be plenty of time for that.
‘I still look pregnant from some angles’
ZENA PAGE, 41, a marketing consultant from Northampton, is married to John, 52, an IT consultant, with whom she has four children: Brook, 17, Adele, 11, William, nine, and George, six. Zena says: I PUT on two stone during each of my pregnancies, most of which seemed to go on my stomach, which was so huge I was nicknamed Mr Greedy.
After my first two babies, I was left with stretch marks, but my stomach was flat again with a year, and I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight of 8st 7lb. It was only after William that my abdominal skin started to sag even after the weight was lost. Perhaps it was my advancing age making my skin less resilient, or perhaps it was multiple pregnancies repeatedly stretching it.
Even now, five years after George was born, my skin is still loose — so much so that even though I’m only 9st I look pregnant from certain angles. It makes me feel very self-conscious and I’d consider a tummy tuck if I could afford it.
Eating healthily, exercising and massaging my skin with endless cocoa butter has made no difference. The skin hangs over my waistband, it stops me wearing bikinis on holiday and although John is supportive, I stand with my back to him when I’m getting undressed.
‘I’ll never get my flat stomach back’
KEELEY FOSTER, 36, is a charity administrator from Chelmsford, Essex. She recently separated from her husband, and is mother to Callum, 13, and Lia, ten. She says: MY BABIES were both big — Callum weighed 9lb and Lia 8lb — and I put on over 3st with each pregnancy. But it was only when Lia was six months old, and I’d lost 2st that I realised I’d been left with a permanent bulge in my stomach from loose skin. Ten years on, and my tummy is still every bit as wobbly as Rebekah Vardy’s.
As a new mum, I ran three times a week, did 60 stomach crunches a day and put baby oil in the bath, but nothing helped.
In fact, the more weight I lost, the worse it looked. It took until Lia was seven before I finally lost all my pregnancy weight, and then I felt worse about my stomach than ever.
My husband never criticised it but I felt self-conscious undressing in front of him all the same, and since we separated in September 2015, the idea of letting another man see my stomach scares me.
I’m physically fit and, as a size 10 weighing 9st 7lb, I’m in good shape. But it doesn’t matter how much I breathe in, my stomach looks like a crepe-paper textured pouch. My skin has been stretched beyond its limit and, sadly, I don’t think I’ll ever get my flat stomach back.