How to Manage Your Expectations to Snap Back After Delivery

Sage wisdom from BeauGen Founder and CEO Tu-Hien Le

We see celebrities announcing their pregnancy and carrying it in the most beautiful ways. Then some months later, they’re back on the Instagram feed looking even better than they did before the bump. What gives?

What should give is the pressure for us to be like them. We’re seeing the results, not what went into achieving them.  We’re not seeing the team of people they have supporting them, watching their kids, the personal trainers, dietitians, and dare we suggest it - the plastic surgery - that all come together to create this image. 

And yet, we expect ourselves, and our bodies to go it alone and look the same in just mere months.  

It’s time to end this expectation, this pressure. It’s time to love ourselves for who we are, and our bodies for what they just did - created a human!

First Thing’s First: Let’s Give Ourselves Some Grace

We just spent nine months creating a human being. The number of changes our body underwent on this journey is nothing short of incredible.  Why then, are we expecting to undo all of these changes in mere weeks? 

If you’re a new mom, give yourself a grace period. Appreciate where you are and what your body just did with gratitude and you’ll have the energy and confidence to be the best mom you can be - whether that means you fit back into your skinny jeans or not. 

Stop Setting Unattainable Results as the Standard

Unless you have the means to put together a team of professionals whose job it is to get you back to your pre-baby body, set your sights on something more achievable.  If we crave these specific results and do not meet them, it can lead to unhappiness, stress, and in some extreme cases, it can jeopardize our health and even our child’s health. 

Instead, talk with your healthcare provider about safe ways you can work to get your body healthy, get back into shape safely, and still provide the essential nutrients and energy that your baby needs. 

Giving Birth is a Right of Passage

The ultimate reality of giving birth is that your body may never go back to the way it was before. You may see a change in your physical shape, in the size of your chest or hips, and it’s okay. Some moms say they eventually got back to their pre-pregnancy weight, but that the weight is now distributed differently, so their pre-pregnancy clothes fit differently.

Conversely, some women are stronger postpartum and able to get into better shape than they were before they had their baby.  We’re all different. Our bodies are different. And we’ll have different journeys.  The main thing that we can all do is to give ourselves some grace and accept what our post baby body will be.

It’s Not Just Moms

Until you give birth and undergo the physical, emotional, and hormonal changes, it’s hard to know what it’s like.  Instead of putting pressure on moms to snap back after their delivery, we need to uplift and support them. We need to recognize what they just did, what their bodies just went through.  

When we uplift and support moms, then we can help them be happier and healthier versions of themselves, and consequently, better moms to their children.