Making Peace With Your Postpartum Body

Give it time

It's the stuff of which a pregnant woman's fantasies are made: you'll give birth to your baby and immediately slip back into your pre-pregnancy jeans -- or, better yet, you'll be able to step straight into your bikini. (Hey, why not go for the bikini? After all, you're not going to work stretch marks, a cesarean scar, a soggy abdomen and leaky, cantaloupe-sized breasts into your fantasies, now are you?)

If this is the fantasy that's running through your head as you come into the home stretch of pregnancy, I've got bad news for you: it's a rare new mother indeed who can carry off the bikini look within hours of leaving the delivery room. It takes most of us much longer than that -- sometimes even forever -- to get our old bodies back. And that can lead to The Mother of All Adjustments for women who have just given birth.

Like many women, Mary Hare of Rockwood, Ontario, found it difficult to adjust to the bodily changes that she experienced after the birth of her first child three years ago: "During my pregnancy, I felt great and sexy. Then came the postpartum period. My body image sank into the sea."

Kimberlee Smit, a Peterborough, Ontario, mother of two, had a similar experience: "I was thoroughly content with my body prior to having my children. But now that I've had children, the breasts that once enjoyed a higher view and perky full A-cup closely resemble a couple of knee-high stockings with golf balls in the bottom. Yes, my body image has changed dramatically!"