Postpartum Body Confidence Project

I was inspired to create this project as I will soon be embarking on a mini break with friends, a lot of which are female but I will be the only one in the group with a "Mum bod" - excess skin, enough stretch marks to resemble a tiger and I won't even go into the breast department. 

I have two children, one still a newborn, and I really started to panic about silly things such as swimwear and how other people will view my postpartum body. It suddenly dawned on me that I am most definitely not alone. There will be hundreds of other women at our mini break who probably feel exactly the same as me so I wanted to spread a realistic version of a woman's body. 

The media are so quick to put pressure on woman post-childbirth, we are surrounded by such perfectly edited bodies every day when in reality every single one of the girls who took part in the project are flawless, stunning and real. I had to practice what I preached and also partook and what an empowering experience it was.

My message to other mummies who may feel similar, who may battle between opting for a bikini or a swimming costume due to insecurities, is to embrace your body. It has made an incredible little human, it has done a wondrous thing and we should not be influenced by what society assumes a woman should look like but be confident enough in ourselves to share the realistic woman post childbirth.

Some of the ladies in the project were already very body confident but wanted to show others it only takes the decision to be so to achieve it, whereas others arrived very nervous and very withdrawn, after talking and joking with them about childbirth, body changes and all the experiences a baby brings I realized they no longer held a posture of nerves but complete confidence.

The project so far has been inspirational, I’ve taken from it much more than I ever imagined and met some incredible women. The final project with all the models will be uploaded in celebration on Mothers Day to our Photography page. A sincere thank you to the fabulous ladies Kim Stainton, Lauren Jackson, Claudia Bradbury, and Nikki White!

More info: Facebook