Body Image

Last night at pre-natal yoga, one of the young women there - a first time mom, like me - talked about how discouraged she is that she is growing so fast. To me, she is absolutely gorgeous, the very picture of how a pregnant mom should look. Before she brought this up, I was comparing myself unfavourably to her, because she really looks pregnant while I just look fat. Seriously, no one would guess from looking at me that I am about 4 months along. They would just think I'd put on some extra pounds for the winter.

This woman's issue, though, was that nearly all her friends were pregnant as well, and that although they are further along than she is, she is bigger than them. She "popped" really early on, and from two months in could no longer hide her belly. While inside I grumbled and thought, "I should have such problems," I could really understand why she was upset. As the instructor told her, our society puts such a (false) value on our bodies, and it's really hard to adjust to those bodies growing and changing beyond our control. Gaining weight is thought to be a sign of laziness, lack of discipline, and ignorance, not a sign of health and new life. It's very difficult to separate "fat" from "pregnant".