I’m Grieving For My Thinner Body
Pregnancy, partners, and the pressure to be thin – why it’s hard for women to love their bodies
My partner can’t stop staring at me. He’s never looked at me this way before.
“Maybe I should do that diet,” he says, looking at my curved waist, my flatter stomach, and thinner face.
For two months I’ve eaten hardly any carbs. I’ve had lots of protein with vegetables. No sugar. Four times a day I had to test my blood sugar because I became diabetic during my pregnancy. I had to go for weekly scans, where I’d be told that my baby was too small and that her growth was slowing down. Due to extra fluid and concerns about her weight, I had to be induced three weeks early.
Once the baby was out, I shrank like a burst balloon and couldn’t believe the body I had. I don’t remember ever being this slim, not since I was a teenager.
It was strange going from being heavily pregnant to super slim in just a few weeks. Everyone couldn’t believe how great I looked. “You don’t look like you’ve had a baby,” they’d say. I felt great, relieved to have a healthy baby girl and a lovely new house — everything was perfect.
