A mother has illustrated the reality of childbirth by sharing three pictures of herself after having her quadruplet babies naturally in July.
In one of the photos, Natalie Maree, from Roebourne in Western Australia, can be seen smiling in her gym gear with her T-shirt pulled up, while in the other two she has changed the angle of the camera on her body and pulled down her shorts to show her post-partum stomach.
‘You are so much more than your looks… These photos are taken less than one minute apart,’ Natalie captioned her Instagram photo.
‘Ugh the struggle. I know it and I feel it. The daily fight I have with myself to love me just the way I am and not let this big fold of loose skin I have annoy me or put a halt on my self-love journey.’
The 30-year-old mum said while there are parts of her that love her body for growing her ‘five beautiful children’ (the quadruplets and their sister, Kiki), there are overwhelming parts that ‘kinda hate’ what her physique now looks like.
‘The only way I could fully get rid of this is a tummy tuck, which I’m not willing to pay for,’ Natalie said.
‘Have I thought about it? Yes definitely. Do I think I’d ever get one? No, probably not.’
Natalie said after having the quadruplets she has to ‘daily remind herself’ why her body looks the way it does and that her husband still loves her, regardless of what she looks like.
‘He and I know I’m a good person, and at the end of the day, that’s what matters the most, not what’s hiding under my high-waisted tights,’ she said.
Natalie added: ‘Don’t believe everything you see on the ‘gram. These photos were taken one minute apart.’
The mum-of-five’s honest post resonated with thousands of parents, many of whom thanked the mum for being so brave.
‘Thank you for posting stuff like this,’ one commenter wrote.
Another added: ‘Needed this, thank you! You are an everyday inspiration and you are beautiful and should be so proud of yourself and your family’.
Natalie has previously shared photos including two other snaps in gym gear that illustrate the difficulty of the ‘post-baby bounce back’.
Natalie and her husband Kahn had struggled for years with fertility issues before they had their quadruplets last year (the quads pictured)
Natalie and her husband Kahn had struggled for years with fertility issues before they had their quadruplets last year.
Natalie was diagnosed with ‘unexplained infertility’, called ‘anovulation’, and required ovulation induction – or injecting hormones to stimulate regular ovulation – before she finally became pregnant with their daughter Kiki in 2018.
‘Twins run in my family and I’d been told that there was a small chance of a multiple pregnancy with this treatment, but I could never have anticipated what would happen next,’ Natalie wrote for Kidspot previously.
‘When we went for our first pregnancy scan, I saw two sacs appear on the screen and I started crying because I thought we were having twins. Kahn started crying too.’
Natalie and Kahn’s quadruplets, Maioha Kahn (2.3kg), Frankee Gene (1.92kg), Marley Rose (2.2kg) and Maddison Grace (2.1kg) were born on July 21 within the space of minutes.
Source: dailymail
