MOTHERING, CAREGIVING.

On Body Acceptance. 

The skin was soft and pliable. There was a new and bemusing contour to the body. A scar that traced the lower third of the abdomen, skin that puckered and dimpled above it, hanging somewhat loosely. It was a body that looked and felt different to any pictures ever seen, any stories read.

It was a body that was homage to bringing forth life and the challenges of bringing it there. A love story that started with a scar.

Our bodies transform in profound ways throughout the cycles of reproduction- from conception, pregnancy, birth, and into postpartum. Rarely were there images of women’s or peoples bodies captured on screens or paper that depicted what it felt or looked like to conceive and grow a person.

To do so precipitates immense and observable changes within the physical body- a softness and fullness that literally does bloom- often sitting in uncomfortably stark contrast to the popularised ideals of women that remain prevalent in modern times. These ideals of how we look as women/ people can feel intensified amidst a landscape of social media, that can leave a confusing inner reality- a struggle to embrace how we look, as to how we are supposed to look.

The elemental physical changes of pregnancy and conception, the fat deposits, essential to hormone production, immune function, the ability to create a safe home to protect and feed an infant- the skin that stretched to make way to accomodate them, the breasts alike. These changes were residues of the wonders of creating and sustaining life. Reminders that the body is not an object to control, constrain or judge, but to support, to attune, to celebrate.

26.May. 2025.

Image Kim Verdebo.