Dear Baby Belly: A Letter To My Not-So-Postpartum Stomach Flab

Mimi Hecht

 I have an army of friends and family that have accepted your presence on their own perfectly traumatized bodies. And, you hear me, we still look frikkin' awesome.

DEAR BABY BELLY

A Letter to my Not-So-Postpartum Stomach Flab

Dear Baby Belly,


It's been over a year since giving birth, so I figured it was high time you and I had a little talk.


Oh, stomach flab...


I'd ask how you are, but I know the answer. You're just hanging around, enjoying life. Laughing as you watch me change outfits a million times because nothing can hide you well enough to convince people that I am back to my pre-baby body. I know you've been through a lot—you have ballooned, stretched and become super firm, only to fall to the force of gravity in a less than complimented world of postpartum body image. But seriously, I am the one that has to wear you!


And its annoying because I actually lost my baby weight. But you, baby bump, must still linger. You need everyone to know that my body has birthed. You need to make clear that the high waisted skirt look will always be conquered by those that have yet to make the foray into frump.





Ya, I get it.


So just so we're clear: YOU do not make me "fat." I could stand to lose some weight, sure. But you and I both know that even the skinniest moms sport a baby belly. So you will not make me think I'm fat. My fat will make me think I'm fat.


But I will not let you win this war, make me feel unattractive. And I will not let you make me complain unti my end of days. I have an army of friends and family that have accepted your presence on their own perfectly traumatized bodies. And, you hear me, we still look friggin' awesome.


Past the nine-months postpartum, past the working out, past all the complaining and eventual accepting...you have remained. You may never be the skin atop super firm abs, but I have a lot of tricks that make your mound of a smaller circumference. I insist that I can still look good, even with your long overdue and probably eternal stay. And for the record, my husband agrees.


Besides, you and I know the truth. We've done this twice already. G-d willing, I will get skinny and pregnant and give birth and be huge and lose weight all over again and again...all with this powerful machine that is my body. So I hope you're up for the ride. We're in this together.


You and I and every mother who has birthed knows the truth: You are a lingering side-affect, a forever looming insecurity, a never-going-back reminder, an always sagging bodily song...of all that is sacred. I am proud to have a stomach that has stretched and fell to gravity in the name of healthy children.


I am beautiful not in spite of you, but with you. And you know what? I won't let you take that away from me.


Please send regards to my thunder thighs,

P.S. I just want you to know, I do NOT wear my maternity clothes. If that's what you're trying to accomplish. Okay, maybe just the leggings. But everyone knows that doesn't count.