During my teens and early twenties I had the most horrendous and unhealthy relationship with my body. I hated how I looked and lived a pretty reclusive existence because of how negatively I thought about myself.
Then I fell pregnant with my Jasper. With the weight gain, expanding belly, cankles and all the other changes that come along with pregnancy you would think that my body image hit an all time low. Well you would think wrong. For the first time in my life I LOVED how my body looked.
I was so excited when my bump started to become obvious, proud to show off that I had life coming to be within me. Slightly cringey to admit this but I loved to see my reflection, the only time I had the courage to stand in front of the mirror in just my undies!
This wasn’t something I’d achieved consciously, I hadn’t worked to change how I felt about my body. Something inside me just clicked. I stopped judging my body for how it looked, stopped measuring my worth against what a number on a scale had to say, stopped comparing my body to those I saw around me. I started to appreciate that I was one of the lucky ones. A body that I could trust to take me wherever I wanted, that was resilient to everything that had been thrown at it and a body that gave me my love, my son.
Now on the days I poke at my wobbly thighs, look in the mirror trying to breath my belly as flat as can be. I stop. I look back. I look at the one photo I have of myself during pregnancy. I look at the smile on my face, the curve of my bump and I remember how wonderful my body is.
So in a world where we are bombarded by bikini bodies, crash diets and the ‘perfect body’, I’m thrilled to be able to help woman celebrate their bodies for what they can DO!
Maternity portraits are an empowering way for women to take control of their body image. For women to give thanks to their bodies and break the cycle of self depreciation.
When we are told we must loose weight, gain weight, have smaller waists, bigger boobs, be taller, shorter. We say that beauty is not a group of measurements but a state of being!!!
We will tell ourselves that we are beautiful just as we are and we will raise our children with the same message!
Want more maternity portrait information than you can shake a stick at? Visit here: http://sarahhailephoto.com/maternity