The reason behind Mel’s sharing of this photo is to encourage women to embrace their own bodies as they are, and to feel confident in the “skin” that they are wearing without being pressured to get back to their pre-pregnancy body shape and weight.
Rymill mentioned, “Post pregnant women are told they look good if they return to their pre-baby body quickly leading to the assumption that they look bad if the keep the extra weight. Skinny people are envied for their lack of fat or shamed for apparently starving themselves. Voluptuous women are either labelled fat and shamed or they’re labelled brave for being comfortable in their own skin. There is always pressure. No one is comfortable in their own skin 100% of the time. Constantly labelling people and piling expectations associated with these labels on them is harmful to everyone…including those doing the labelling.”
What inspired Rymill to be so open? She was ticked off after her physical therapist mentioned, “Obviously you want to get back to your pre-baby weight,” to which she duly retorted, “My goal is to regain my core strength and endurance…I’m not worried by how my body looks, only how it functions…it can be pretty bada–.”
So far, Rymill’s image has been shared more than 6,000 times, pasted with mostly encouraging comments.