Mum's powerful post about post-baby weight gain

So, we wanna give mum and photographer Tiffany Burke props for posting this nude pic of herself (and her youngest baby Quinn), and for the message of self-acceptance that's behind it.

Taking to Instagram, she penned this powerful post, about how she’s in no hurry to ‘shape up' post-baby.

Tiffany's post in full

"Not an easy share: This is what 70 lbs overweight looks like. This is what exclusively breastfeeding yet gaining weight looks like. This is what a working mom, with no make-up and no time for self-care looks like.

"This is also what my happiness looks like. What my body looks like does not determine my happiness or my success. My body is my temporary shell. My life is truly beautiful.

"I have given birth to 5 babies (3 of my own and 2 surrogate babies). But my body was at a 'healthy' weight before getting pregnant with baby #5. My body does not look like this 'because I've had 5 babies'.

"Currently, I can't workout hardcore like I have in the past or I will lose my milk supply. I am also eating all the food because I'm just starving. Some weeks, I eat so healthily; other weeks, I'm downing a sleeve of Oreos and feeling giddy. I work a lot and choose my free time to be with my kids.

"My body can wait a bit and I'm proud to make that choice. It's mine to make. They won't be little much longer and I will have missed it all. My body is the home I keep. And like my home, it ebbs and it flows as the seasons of my life do. My home is sometimes messy, sometimes clean, sometimes both.

"Our bodies ebb and flow in the seasons of our lives. From the season of when junior high starts and we are questioning everything about our bodies, to the season of no time for self-care, or the season of IVF injections for so many years.

"Or weight gain from pregnancies of angel babies lost and our bodies not willing to let go just yet. The season of a divorce, or depression, eating disorders, a death, addiction or toxic relationships. So much affects our wonderful shells. We must give grace, find ways to self-love as often as we can. We must be the inner voice that we should have had growing up.

"Our thoughts have great power over our daily lives. Our bodies are important to love, but not so important to invest so much hate into.

"SO MUCH MORE MATTERS. Be healthy, be strong, make a change when you can, be you, be unafraid. Ignore the rest.

"It’s OK if someone thinks I'm not pretty. I'm not here on this planet to please their eyeballs. I am worth so much more and so are you. Baby Quinn agrees❤"

Tiffany’s post won’t be for everyone – some of us will feel the need to get back our pre-baby bods (to some extent, anyway) in order for us to feel like us again – and that’s more than OK.

But for those of us who don’t have that mindset? Man, did this feel good to read.

An honest account of the ups and downs we go through as mums – but also some really helpful home truths to remind yourself of if you're ever feeling down about your looks.

Sometimes, life just gets in the way. Being a parent is stressful. Having a job makes you busy. Parenting more than one child can be, well, an adjustment, to say the least. And Tiffany’s also right in saying that the appearance of our bodies is constantly fluctuating, ever-changing.

We’re really glad that she’s happy, and not letting her weight define her. We’re also really, really glad that she shared this ?

Image: Instagram/Tiffany Burke Photography

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Elizabeth Atkin

Tiffany's post in full

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