This Mom's Raw Selfie Shows What 24 Hours After Giving Birth Really Looks Like
“Baby in sling. Skin to skin. Adult diapers. And a rosy glow.”
Last week, Ohio lifestyle photographer Erica Andrews gave birth to her fifth child at home. Less than a day later, still reeling from the experience, she uploaded a raw selfie to her Instagram account.
"I was navigating those crazy waters of immediate postpartum and knowing this is my last baby and last time to feel and look this way, I wanted to capture it," Andrews explained to BuzzFeed.
Erica Andrews / Via instagram.com
"This is what 24 hours postpartum looks like," the accompanying caption reads. "Baby in sling. Skin to skin. Adult diapers. And a rosy glow."
The update continues:
"My body feels like it ran a marathon and my heart is wide open from yesterday's travels.
"Birth opens us like an earthquake opens the earth and I am still in the intimate, fragile throes of that opening. I feel raw. Emotional. Different. I feel like I'm on the undulating surface of the rippling ocean being tossed back and forth between happiness, gratitude, melancholy, and grief.
"23 hours ago I held life within and 24 hours ago I surged and transformed allowing life to flow through me, into my waiting hands. The emptiness in my womb brings a heavy feeling crashing into reality but then this new little life whimpers, searching for the breast with soft rooting, and I feel whole again.
"I am still processing the beautiful transition my whole family has traveled through and I am in complete awe of our strength as humans, women, and mothers. This time is simply unlike any other. #fourthtrimester"
Erica Andrews / Via Instagram: @laughing.moon
The photo sparked an outpouring of appreciation from other mothers, but it wasn't until the baby-sling manufacturer Sakura Bloom shared the image on their own Facebook page that it truly exploded.
By Thursday morning, the photo had been shared nearly 34,000 times and garnered close to 130,000 likes.
The photographer continued: "Standing there that night looking at myself in the mirror, I fell in love with my body. It has grown, carried, birthed, and fed five beings. I felt called to share its beauty with my amazing Instagram friends and followers."
Erica Andrews / Via instagram.com