If you've ever felt bad about seeing those images of pregnant women on social media and networks, in which it seems that the only symptom of pregnancy is their big belly because they look radiant and full of energy, you're not alone.
An investigation found that most women feel affected because of the representations of pregnancy and postpartum that are shown in the media and social networks, because they are too unreal.
The investigation
The objective of this analysis was to explore the perception that women had about the media and body image during the perinatal period. For this, interviews were conducted with 50 pregnant women or those who are living in the postpartum, where they were asked to describe their perceptions about the representations of pregnant or postpartum women, and the impact they had on them.
In general, four important issues were found:
- The women who participated questioned the realism of the media representations of pregnant women and during the postpartum period.
- Participants described complex reactions to the messages they saw in the media, including negative impact on body image and strategies to mitigate such negative impact.
- The participants wished that there were changes in the media, so that they are more realistic and that they show a more complex representation of this stage in a woman's life.
- Participants discussed the unique and complete role that social networks have, both in their positive and negative impact.
Of the total participants, 46% commented that exposure to images that are not realistic caused a series of negative emotions, such as feeling insecure about their bodies, expressing depressive feelings, feeling frustrated and discouraged when they have not been able to recover their figure after having children as fast as celebrities do.
Motherhood is not how they paint it
How did you imagine being a mother before you were one? In my case, having no friends or close relatives who had gone through a pregnancy, I had no idea how they really were. My only reference was those images of mothers I saw in movies or series, where motherhood is represented in a very superficial way.
In the movies, Pregnancies are usually represented in an idyllic way or only telling "the beautiful" of this stage. Yes, that is very beautiful and full of enthusiasm, and that we are waiting for the arrival of someone who will certainly steal our hearts. But it can also be full of severe pain or discomfort.
When I imagined myself pregnant, I saw myself with my belly, happy and continuing with my life as normal as possible. However, when I finally joined the club of women who were waiting for a baby for the first time, In mid-pregnancy I began to feel very bad, to the degree of having to be disabled for several monthsI had a sad time at home.
I was very upset that I couldn't go out and make my life like any pregnant and healthy woman. I felt sad because instead of enjoying my pregnancy, I was suffering a lot of pain, which forced me to stay in bed. It is true that this was not the case during my entire pregnancy, but during those months, I felt miserable and thought: "Why has this happened only to me?".
Those radiant and beautiful pregnant women I saw in movies, or those who presumed a belly on Instagram accompanied by a big smile, they made me feel like 'the ugly duckling' in the story or that of bad luck. Little did I know that what I felt was really something that many women felt and over time I learned that motherhood is not how you look on social networks.
And well, if pregnancy is not the way of roses, the postpartum less. We are accustomed to see celebrities recover their figure almost instantly after having children, but the reality of most women is not like that. We see little in the media about "the dark side of the postpartum", although fortunately there are more and more women who arm themselves with courage and talk about postpartum depression and how difficult this stage can be.
Every woman lives it differently
Actually, each mother lives motherhood in a different way and each body is totally different from another. Even the same woman can have two or more completely different pregnancies from each other.
Remember that what we see in social networks, series and movies is only a small part and a representation of what motherhood is. It is not bad that we see these images and even enjoy doing so, just keep in mind not to idealize motherhood, to the degree of feeling bad later if ours is not like that of other mothers.
Photos | iStock
Via | Fit pregnancy
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