Pregnancy is beautiful and wonderful.
But the phrase people use where they say that a woman "gives up her body" for her child is much more literal than I realized. I sort of imagined it as like a little apartment the baby lives in. Some furniture is rearranged and maybe even some bigger renovations are made, but then she moves out and, yeah, it might take some time for the apartment to get back to how it was before, but it's still the same basic apartment.
No.
Your body changes SO. MUCH. during pregnancy.
You literally have a different body. I'm not exaggerating.
And some of the changes are somewhat permanent.
I made this as a basic visual of the many changes I've experienced during this pregnancy so far. It does not cover everything, but it is a pretty good summary.
Sometimes I think about how lucky I am to be pregnant. I know firsthand what it's like to want that more than anything and have it taken away. So sometimes I feel like I don't have a right to complain or find anything about my pregnancy hard or negative, because I should just be grateful that I have a healthy little girl growing inside of me.
To some extent, that's true.
But pregnancy is hard.
God knew what He was doing when he gave mothers that instant and overwhelming love for their babies. If it wasn't for that, literally no one would willingly go through pregnancy again.
So if you're pregnant and feel like you're being weak or ungrateful when your back hurts so bad you want to cry, or when you feel like a blimp with bad skin,
It's okay.
This is hard, and it's okay to have days where your new body is hard to accept and love.
But your body is still so beautiful and amazing.
Look at what it can do!!!
It can literally grow a living human being.
It can participate in the God-like act of creation.
And if you're not pregnant and have struggled with miscarriage or infertility,
your body is still a perfect creation of God.
You are not flawed or broken.
You have been given a very difficult trial for this life, but that is only because God knows you are strong enough to bear it.
Your body can still do so many beautiful amazing things.
You can hold hands with a friend who is going through a hard time.
You can smile at a stranger or bring a meal to a mourner.
You can walk into the house of the Lord or kneel by your bedside in prayer.
You can work and play and move and love and worship, and you are perfect as is.
Learning to accept your body is hard.
It's a continual process, one that is complicated when something like pregnancy or weight gain/loss or health issues or skin problems or anything else changes that body.
It can be hard to believe it, and it's okay to struggle to believe it, but I promise you:
Your body is beautiful and perfect and a wondrous creation of God.
Related Posts:
But the phrase people use where they say that a woman "gives up her body" for her child is much more literal than I realized. I sort of imagined it as like a little apartment the baby lives in. Some furniture is rearranged and maybe even some bigger renovations are made, but then she moves out and, yeah, it might take some time for the apartment to get back to how it was before, but it's still the same basic apartment.
No.
Your body changes SO. MUCH. during pregnancy.
You literally have a different body. I'm not exaggerating.
And some of the changes are somewhat permanent.
I made this as a basic visual of the many changes I've experienced during this pregnancy so far. It does not cover everything, but it is a pretty good summary.
I love being pregnant, and I am so excited to meet my little girl.
But I've got to admit. It's been hard to accept this new body as mine. It's hard to not be able to do the things I used to do when I needed a boost or to feel extra cute. Heels? Yeah, no. Feet won't fit and that's a recipe for disaster. Wear an outfit that emphasizes my waist? What waist? That favorite top or cute pair of jeans that used to put a spring in my step? Packed up in a box for however long it takes before I can wear it again.
There are some parts of my body that I've started to realize will never be the same. That's kind of hard to wrap my head around - the body I've spent so much time and effort working to learn to love and accept is, in part, gone. I have a new body now, and some of that hard work needs to be done all over again.
Sometimes I think about how lucky I am to be pregnant. I know firsthand what it's like to want that more than anything and have it taken away. So sometimes I feel like I don't have a right to complain or find anything about my pregnancy hard or negative, because I should just be grateful that I have a healthy little girl growing inside of me.
To some extent, that's true.
But pregnancy is hard.
God knew what He was doing when he gave mothers that instant and overwhelming love for their babies. If it wasn't for that, literally no one would willingly go through pregnancy again.
So if you're pregnant and feel like you're being weak or ungrateful when your back hurts so bad you want to cry, or when you feel like a blimp with bad skin,
It's okay.
This is hard, and it's okay to have days where your new body is hard to accept and love.
But your body is still so beautiful and amazing.
Look at what it can do!!!
It can literally grow a living human being.
It can participate in the God-like act of creation.
And if you're not pregnant and have struggled with miscarriage or infertility,
your body is still a perfect creation of God.
You are not flawed or broken.
You have been given a very difficult trial for this life, but that is only because God knows you are strong enough to bear it.
Your body can still do so many beautiful amazing things.
You can hold hands with a friend who is going through a hard time.
You can smile at a stranger or bring a meal to a mourner.
You can walk into the house of the Lord or kneel by your bedside in prayer.
You can work and play and move and love and worship, and you are perfect as is.
Learning to accept your body is hard.
It's a continual process, one that is complicated when something like pregnancy or weight gain/loss or health issues or skin problems or anything else changes that body.
It can be hard to believe it, and it's okay to struggle to believe it, but I promise you:
Your body is beautiful and perfect and a wondrous creation of God.
Related Posts:
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