Childbirth as an illness to overcome?
While retail brands from Nike to Versace have begun to show a wider range of female shapes in advertisements and on the runway, postpartum women seem to be left out of this movement. Dr. Gow and her fellow researchers referred to a 2012 study that examined images in popular Australian magazines and concluded these photos likened the pregnant body to an illness from which women needed to recover.
The images posted on Instagram indicate that belief is still pervasive. The images of postpartum women in fitness clothes suggest “that women want to be seen to be exercising as a means of breaking the ‘hold’ that pregnancy had on them or ‘repairing’ their postpartum body,” Dr. Gow and her fellow researchers say.
New Orleans resident Sydney Neal, 32, a mother of two who gave birth to her youngest child in November 2021, said social media helped shape her view of what “recovery” would be like.
While Ms. Neal said some celebrities like Chrissy Teigen, a mother of two, have “kept it very real” on Instagram, she also “saw a lot of women on social media drop [their weight] quickly and post as if they were back to normal much faster than 6 months.”
Body-positive tools for new moms
Dr. Gow is continuing to study this topic. Her team is currently doing a study that will ask women about social media use, how they feel about their bodies, and how their beliefs change after viewing images tagged with #postpartumbody. (Women with children under the age of 2 can access the survey here.)
Because of the unrealistic images, Dr. Gow and her team said Instagram may not be a good tool for sharing health information with new moms.
But there are other options.
Ms. de Montille, whose children were born in 2020 and 2022, used apps like Back to You and Expectful, and she follows Karrie Locher, a postpartum and neonatal nurse and certified lactation counselor, on Instagram. She said these tools focus on the mind/body connection, which “is better than focusing on the size of your jeans.”
Women also should be able to turn to trusted health care professionals.
“Providers can start speaking about the romanticization of pregnancy and motherhood starting in prenatal care, and they can start speaking more about social media use and the pros and cons of use specifically in the perinatal period,” says Dr. Fortney. “This opens the door to a discussion on a wide range of issues that can actually help assess, prevent, and treat perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.”
Ms. Neal, the mother of two in New Orleans, said she wished her doctor had talked to her more about what to expect after giving birth.
“I don’t really know how to crack the body image nut, but I think starting in a medical setting might be helpful,” she says.
A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.