Advertisement

Mums flaunt their post-baby bodies in lingerie shoot

A mum of two has launched a body-positive website to encourage other mothers to embrace their post-baby bodies by posing in lingerie.

Having been slim all her life, Whitney Dwyer struggled with how her body looked post pregnancy.

After two successive pregnancies Whitney’s stomach stuck out so much people kept asking if she was pregnant – in fact her protruding stomach was caused by a diastasis recti, where the muscles don't knit back together after delivery.

Fed up with the lack of images of "real life" mums, the 33-year-old decided to create her own website that shows just that, championing women’s bodies in tasteful lingerie shoots.

"I’ve yet to see a stomach like mine in a magazine," Whitney said. "If I’m wearing tight clothes and you can see my belly that’s okay.

“Sometimes, I’m just like ‘F’ it. So I wear a bikini then I let it all out."

Whitney Dwyer (second from right) is empowering mums Pamela, Lily and Samara with body-positive photoshoots. Source: Barcroft TV
Whitney Dwyer (second from right) is empowering mums Pamela, Lily and Samara with body-positive photoshoots. Source: Barcroft TV

Featuring herself as the first model on the website, Whitney, a mum of two from Oakland, California is now proud of her post-baby body and is determined to flaunt it.

“Most women do the project to re-claim their bodies," she said. "And really just own it. ‘This is who I am. This is my body. This is the state it’s in.'”

Prior to giving birth to her two children, Brendan, six, and Grayson, four, Whitney never had to worry about her weight. In fact, she lost weight after her first pregnancy and expected to do the same after her second.

Whitney says her stomach never went back to its original state after her second baby. Source: Screengrab
Whitney says her stomach never went back to its original state after her second baby. Source: Screengrab

"I thought, I’m going to breastfeed and then the baby is going to suck all the fat out of me and I’m going to look the same way I did before I had him," Whitney said.

"And after a few months I noticed that that was not happening. My body, though I didn’t weigh a lot; was shaped drastically different and my stomach popped out further than my boobs, which was something that I began really feeling self conscious about."

“I was continually looking like I was pregnant, one to two years after having a child”

Whitney’s protruding stomach was a result of diastasis recti, a common result of two close-together pregnancies where the abdominal muscles stretch and separate during the pregnancy, causing a bulge at the point of separation.

On top of her stomach sticking out, Whitney had a large amount of saggy excess skin, covered in stretch marks, on her stomach that no amount of crunches was going to get rid of.

“In the back of my mind I was hoping I’d lose my weight but I was also aware that my mother was overweight and she attributed this to when she had me,” she said.

Wanting to see what other women’s bodies looked like post-pregnancy, almost all that Whitney could find was images of perfect-looking celebrities with no visible clues they’d given birth.

Lily gets comfortable on a stool for her solo shoot. Source: Screengrab
Lily gets comfortable on a stool for her solo shoot. Source: Screengrab

“I Googled post-baby bodies and all I found was workout tips and dieting tips and wraps – all these things that women are expected to do to their bodies [that] no one would ever ask a man to do," she said.

"When was the last time someone asked a man to wrap themselves in anything?!"

Even worse, when Whitney finally stumbled on a site which featured women's post-baby bodies, they were shown headless.

“I did find a site that had post-baby bodies but their heads were cut off," she explained.

"It was just their bodies and it's like, ‘You can see my body but I don’t want to be associated with it.’“

For Whitney, coming to terms with her new shape was extra difficult because out of the few images of non-celebrity women post pregnancy, there were even fewer of women of colour.

"That really inspired me to start this project," she said.

“I think we would love to say that we’re not affected by the media and it doesn’t impact us, but, it does! It does.”

Samara bursts out laughing during her shoot. Source: Screengrab
Samara bursts out laughing during her shoot. Source: Screengrab

Realising there would always be a beauty standard she didn’t fit into and saddened by what she saw – or more specifically what she didn’t see – Whitney decided to create a website for women to share their own stories as well as photos of themselves in their underwear.

Alongside her day job as a high-school teacher, Whitney arranges the photoshoots, which feature new mums, mothers with children in their 20s and those who have gone through abortion, and post-natal depression.

"Studies show that just being around women raises your serotonin level," Whitney said.

"Women being around other women makes them happy. And in our photoshoots women are talking about their babies. Talking about their experiences. They're meeting other women. It’s great!

Admitting it was a case of "fake it until you make it", Whitney eventually persuaded herself to wear a bikini again

“After my second son, I didn’t really know what to wear at the beach and then once I started doing by post baby body, I was like I’m going to wear bikini,” she said.

“I was super nervous about it. I remember getting to the beach and I took my cover-up off and no one cared. No one was paying attention. No one cared about my stretch marks and my extra skin or my flab.”

Got a story tip? Send it to tips@yahoo7.com.au

Want more celebrity, entertainment and lifestyle news? Follow Be on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram