These Photos Celebrate The Beauty Of Postpartum Bodies
As soon as a celebrity has a baby, the “post-baby body ” headlines begin. For some, like Meghan Markle, the headlines start just days after they’ve given birth. We are all constantly bombarded with these stories, and with messages about how postpartum bodies are “supposed” to look: svelte, toned, and stretch-mark free. It’s no surprise that when intimates brand Knix surveyed their customers, they found that 90% of women received comments about their bodies after giving birth, 76% felt pressure to “bounce back,” and 56% experienced postpartum depression.
Knix founder and CEO Joanna Griffiths, who became a new mom in April, decided to change that. She found herself frustrated with all the messaging about diets and workouts while she was struggling with breastfeeding and the other challenges of “the fourth trimester.” She wanted to share a new kind of message with moms: “You are perfect as you, you are supported, and you are seen.”
So Knix teamed up with the doula collective Carriage House Birth, co-founded by Domino Kirke, and the online initiative the Empowered Birth Project, founded by Katie Vigos, to create the Life After Birth Project. This project consists of photos and text from over 250 women celebrating their postpartum bodies. Along with the three founders, those featured include Jemima Kirke, Amy Schumer, Ricki Lake, and Christy Turlington — as well as many user-submitted photos from Knix followers.
"Life After Birth was inspired by my own postpartum experience, and I started planning the project five days after giving birth to my son," Griffith tells Refinery29. "I wanted to create something that celebrated the strength and beauty that is the postpartum experience, that changed the narrative and encouraged postpartum people everywhere to feel seen, acknowledged and supported.”
Some photos show these new moms caring for their babies — breastfeeding them, cuddling them, or using a breast pump — while others show them posing alone, showing their stretch marks, scars, or loose skin. We very rarely see postpartum bodies like this.
Photos from the Life After Birth project are displayed in an exhibit that launched earlier this August in tandem with the release of Knix’s Leakproof Nursing Bra and maternity collection. Beginning in New York, the exhibit will tour nine cities in partnership with women’s co-working space the Riveter, including Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Dallas, Austin, Denver, Minneapolis and Toronto. To share your own photos with the Life After Birth Project, tag @lifeafterbirthproject and use the hashtag #LifeAfterBirth, or email lifeafterbirth@knix.com.
"I took this photo during a hospital visit with a lactation consultant three days postpartum. She told me my breasts were the same size and just as hard as 'soccer balls' and handed me two ice packs to help with the swelling. Elsewhere across town in those same few minutes, a team member stood in for me as we were honored with one of our biggest industry awards to-date.
"Mentally, it was a battle. I could build a company, but I was struggling to feed my child. I felt like such a failure. The nurse provided me with nipple shields, something I knew nothing about but saved me during that first month. Every image of breastfeeding I had seen the women looked natural, at peace and happy. I shared this photo and my sentiments on Instagram and was overwhelmed when over 100 people responded with their own struggles. In that instant, the idea for the Life After Birth Project was born. In that moment, my eyes were opened." - Joanna Griffiths
Courtesy Knix"I was never thrilled about pumping. Here I am taking a quick pump break during a birth doula client's birth in the hospital bathroom. Whenever I was away from my baby and I had a letdown, a wave of overwhelming dread and anxiety washed over me. Later, I learned that there was a name for this occurrence, D-MER, or Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex, a condition affecting lactating people that is characterized by an abrupt dysphoria, or negative emotions, that occur just before milk release.
"Knowing that this was an actual condition helped me to power through and to continue breastfeeding. I think it may help others to know that not everyone’s infant feeding journey is unicorns and rainbows. We’re all just doing the best that we can.” - Lindsey Bliss
Courtesy Knix"When I found out I was pregnant with triplets, I wondered how my small body would actually carry three babies at one time. My first doctor told me I would have an unsuccessful pregnancy and advised me to selectively reduce. I had to find a doctor to support me and I did. My body stretched and stretched. It transformed into something new and wouldn’t be the same. My stomach is covered in loose saggy skin and stretch marks. I call them my hope wounds and they tell a story that brought me my children, three absolute miracles. It's a daily effort to change my perspective and find the beauty that is right before my eyes because it is there." - Desiree Fortin
Courtesy Knix“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. Psalm 139:12" - Devynn Walker
Courtesy Knix"Love your beautiful postpartum self through the normality and chaos of new motherhood. Find your strength while chasing this concept called balance. Postpartum might be one of the hardest parts of being a mother, but women were made to prevail, and powerful we will always be." - Michaelle Solages
Courtesy Knix“When he heard the child cry, a terror possessed him, because of the echo of the unfathomed distances in himself.” - Jemima Kirke
Courtesy Knix"This photo was the reality of postpartum. I was tired and in pain from the C-section. My son constantly wanted to be held, my hair was falling out, and I had just finished crying; it was my new normal life. The warmth of love is still there. I looked at him in my bathroom mirror and I realized the beauty of feeding my son made that moment of so many emotions and feels obsolete; it made me feel centered. It reminded me I’m doing my best, so let God do the rest." - Kemi Akinyemi
Courtesy Knix"This is my breastfeeding photo when my youngest was three weeks old. She is my Rainbow Baby. Meaning my pregnancy before her was resulted in a stillbirth. Any baby born after a loss, is a rainbow after a storm." - Wendy Cruz Chan
Courtesy KnixLike what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
What You Need To Know About Ragweed Allergies
I'm 40, Have Little Savings, & Just Spent $26K On IVF. This Is My Fertility Diary