A young mother has spoken candidly about how she really feels about her post-pregnancy body.
Adele Barbaro, from Melbourne, said she felt relieved after she was able to bounce back into shape following the birth of her baby daughter Chloe in July.
But the mother-of-two, otherwise known as Real Mumma, admitted she has been feeling self-conscious about her body after she struggled to get into a pair of jeans.
Taking to Instagram, the outspoken mummy blogger penned an honest account about how she was ‘secretly’ filled with joy when she started losing weight – but eventually, it ‘came back to bite me on the a***’.
Mother Adele Barbaro (pictured with her baby daughter Chloe and toddler son Harvey) has spoken candidly about how she really feels about her post-pregnancy body
Taking to Instagram, Ms Barbaro revealed how she was ‘secretly’ filled with joy when she started losing weight – but eventually, it ‘came back to bite me on the a***’
‘After Chloe arrived, I dropped weight quickly and was secretly fist pumping at my bounce back. I thought I was going to be one of the lucky ones,’ she wrote.
‘You know, the ones you see on social media all time with abs, two weeks after they popped out the baby. Breast feeding helped.
‘I was eating what I wanted, still losing weight and feeling pretty cocky.’
However, her self confidence was overshadowed when she could no longer fit in the same pair of jeans she wore shortly after leaving the hospital.
‘They didn’t fit. Wtf? It had caught up with me. The weight loss has stopped. And then started to go back on and I wasn’t really aware of it at the time,’ she said.
The popular mummy blogger admitted she has been feeling self-conscious about her body after she struggled to get into a pair of jeans
The mother of two opened up about the realities of post childbirth (pictured with her husband Paul, toddler son Harvey and baby daughter Chloe)
In her candid post, she opened up about the realities of post childbirth.
‘Lately I haven’t felt so wonderful,’ she said.
‘My period returned. My hair is falling out. I put my hands on my belly and it’s foreign to me. This jiggly pouch that sits over my cesarean scar isn’t budging.
‘My hips are wider and thighs are chunkier. My boobs have changed and still covered in stretch marks.
‘I am probably going to need some surgery after an injury at birth that hasn’t got better. And as the line on my belly is fading, so is the love for the post baby bod.’
Like any young mother, Ms Barbaro said she has been struggling to find time for herself because her children are her top priority.
However the love she received from her family has encouraged her to be kinder to herself
‘Some women will look at me and wish they had my body though,’ she said.
‘Just like I look at others and wish for theirs. Isn’t it amazing that there are so many women, that grew a human being and then put themselves second as they nurtured a newborn, that won’t be able to look at their bodies with adoration of what it achieved!?
‘I’m one of them. I’ve lost a confidence. I keep saying all the right things to myself but I’m not really listening.’
However the love she received from her family has encouraged her to be kinder to her postpartum body.
‘My kids adore my body. Chloe loves skin to skin. She loves to have a shower with me and she will often have a morning sleep on my chest after her first feed,’ she wrote.
Like any young mother, Ms Barbaro said she has been struggling to find time for herself because her children are her top priority
The young mother – who documents her life on Instagram – welcomed her baby Chloe in July
‘Harvey tickles my belly because he thinks my reaction is funny. He snuggles into my body for a bed time book. He nestles. They seek comfort in my body.
‘When Paul gets home from work, he gives my body a hug and every night, he holds me as we go to sleep. Every single night.
‘He hears me hating on my body and he is always telling me to give myself a break. I’m trying to see my body as beautiful and respect what it has been through.
‘My children and husband accept my body for all its imperfections and flaws. The family that I carried and nurtured with my body, love it for everything it is.
‘If they love me for who I am, so should I.’