Mum's raw 24 hours postpartum selfie celebrates the beauty of birth
Hair scraped back, baby on boob and wearing adult nappies – but still glowing
A new mum has shared a selfie showing just what the reality of 24 hours postpartum is like.
Erica Andrews from Ohio, USA, held up her iPhone and took a stark selfie wearing just her incontinence pants and a sling holding her precious newborn son Silas.
"This is what 24 hours postpartum looks like. Baby in sling. Skin to skin. Adult diapers. And a rosy glow," she wrote, sharing the photo on baby sling company Sakura Bloom's Facebook page.
"My body feels like it ran a marathon and my heart is wide open from yesterday's travels. Birth opens us like an earthquake opens the earth and I am still in the intimate, fragile throes of that opening. I feel raw. Emotional. Different. I feel like I'm on the undulating surface of the rippling ocean being tossed back and forth between happiness, gratitude, melancholy, and grief.
23 hours ago I held life within and 24 hours ago I surged and transformed allowing life to flow through me, into my waiting hands. The emptiness in my womb brings a heavy feeling crashing into reality but then this new little life whimpers, searching for the breast with soft rooting, and I feel whole again.
I am still processing the beautiful transition my whole family has traveled through and I am in complete awe of our strength as humans, women, and mothers. This time is simply unlike any other."
The post has now been liked over 146,000 times – and prompted other mums to talk about how they felt after birth.
"I was never this brave. To open myself up and show my post-partum body? Never. I felt hideous but I look at you and see how beautiful you look... Wish I hadn't been so shallow. I created 2 miracles, I should've been proud of what my body did. You look amazing, your words are beautiful, you and your little bundle have been blessed with each other," one mum wrote.
"There are still times I miss feeling that life inside my belly, moving to his own beat, mostly unaffected by what is going on outside. But my boys are now 6, 4 and 11 months and I love watching them grow and become themselves, but there is just something about carrying that life inside of our bodies.... magic!" another added.
How did you feel 24 hours after giving birth? Let us know in the comments below.
Photo: Facebook / Erica Andrews
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