Colette was looking forward to gaining a new image during her pregnancy. She had been overweight for a number of years and being pregnant meant having what she called a “legitimate reason” to have a big belly. She would now be pregnant not fat. She looked forward to shaking her previous body image issues and living in a body that was supposed to be big in the breasts and belly. She was hopeful that pregnancy would provide a shift in thinking that would feel better to her.
At the same time, some anxiety snuck in about getting even bigger in places where she didn’t want to gain weight. If that happened, instead of feeling purposeful and curvy in all the right places, she was concerned she’d feel pregnant and fat. As she acknowledged this fear, she intuitively knew it was time for a whole new mindset
She spent a good deal of time looking for and appreciating aspects of her pregnancy shape that she enjoyed. She noticed, for example, and for perhaps the first time, that her hips were in perfect proportion to her shoulders and body size. She also talked with women about how their bodies looked and felt after pregnancy. And, although not everyone she spoke with had seemingly positive results to report, Colette held onto the idea that her post-pregnancy body was likely to be different than her pre-pregnancy body. She looked forward to witnessing and having an influence on these changes and how she viewed them.
Colette emerged from pregnancy appreciative of the changes her curvy body had made and knowing that her body could continue to shift and look differently. She wasn’t locked into her pre-pregnancy “fat” body image.
