it was just part of the lifelong, pervasive alienation from my body that every woman absorbs to some extent. Your body is never yours. Your body is your enemy. Your body is gross. Your body is wrong. Your body is broken. Your body isn’t what men like. Your body is less important than a fetus. Your body should be “perfect” or it should be hidden.

I am not simply proposing that you make peace with your body because your body shame is making you miserable. I am proposing you do it because it’s making us miserable too.

wonder why we need new mothers to look like we did before we had babies. Why we push ourselves to “get our bodies back.” My body will never go back to what it was; it’s made a person, traveled to another dimension, and given birth to another world. The journey has left more than a few marks. I want to embrace that.