The post-baby body debate1:05
New mums, and even mums-to-be, doing anything to keep their old body. Fitness craze or unhealthy obsession? Ashy Bines has built an empire on motivating women to achieve health and happiness, but is she really selling body image issues? Melissa Doyle investigates on Sunday Night. Courtesy: Channel 7
Mel Doyle weighs in on the post-baby body debate on this evening’s episode of Sunday Night.
MOST journalists are affected to some degree by each story they cover, every person they interview.
This story had me making my first batch of protein balls and doing a few extra sit ups.
I was tasked with investigating both sides of the post-baby body debate, the rise of ‘yummy mummies’ and why super fit women who post photos of themselves online, particularly when pregnant or just after having their baby, incite such negative feedback. Why are we so critical of women’s bodies, particularly around childbirth?
The moment you’re pregnant you become public property. Strangers touch your stomach or comment on how you’re carrying.
“That must be a boy”, they proclaim, and, “don’t cross your legs dear, you’ll get varicose veins”.
You realise you’re actually carrying this child for the future of the nation and everyone feels entitled to their opinion.
Magazines announce our favourite celebs are pregnant, when in fact they’ve just had a big lunch or are wearing a billowing dress.
And then there are the celebs in skimpy cut-off shorts, flaunting their post baby bodies.
The headlines follow: “Back in a bikini after six weeks!”. When in reality most of us new mums are still in our fluffy dressing gowns at that point.
But it also throws up an interesting debate over maintaining your health while pregnant.
I met Daegan Coyne, a lawyer, mum-to-be and body builder who has been fit all her life.
Daegan Coyne.Source:Supplied
Daegan ran her first marathon at 15, works out every day and prior to her baby bump had the most incredible abs.
So maintaining her fitness during pregnancy was a no brainer.
She’s kept on with weights, on the slightly lighter side, and is up every morning at five to walk her dog.
That sort of dedication deserves a toned body, and clearly that lifestyle is very much a part of who she is.
Daegan is friends with Ashy Bines, a Gold Coast superstar.
Ashy runs gyms, online diet and exercise programs and booty camps around the country that attract on average 2000 women to each session.
Ashy has an incredible body, clearly works very hard for it and has built a very successful empire, but wow, she has her fair share of critics.
Ashy Bines has been heavily criticised on social media.Source:Supplied
What saddened me most in talking to these women was the grief they copped on social media, particularly when pregnant.
People they didn’t even know writing horrible things; I hope your baby is born disabled, you’re so vain you don’t deserve to be a mother, you’re too skinny, too muscly, the list goes on.
Who are these keyboard warriors?
And has fit shaming become the new fat shaming?
Sure kale smoothies and lifting heavy metal bars aren’t everyone’s thing, but as long as you do it properly and keep your baby safe, then isn’t that the right thing to do?
Why do these women attract the same vitriol as women who smoke or drink during pregnancy and stuff themselves with takeaway food?
Is it because they flaunt it on social media and whip us into such a state of envy we hate them for it?
Body image psychologist Louise Adams believes we’ve created an “us and them” mentality — those who dress in active wear to flaunt their toned tummies and those who wear it for stretch and comfort.
Melissa Doyle.Source:Supplied
I remember the first 12 weeks after having my babies. It was bloody hard. I was in a sleep-deprived fog.
I remember my husband coming home from work to find me sitting on the couch in the dark with a sleeping son in my arms.
I wasn’t game enough to get up and turn the lights on because my notorious cat-napper had finally fallen asleep.
I would have sat there, uncomfortable and in the dark for a year if it meant he would stay asleep.
That’s all I was focused on. Not the size of my bottom.
Are we too harsh on new mums nowadays?
The very notion of bouncing back into shape simply puts too much pressure on us at a time when your body might be sore, your mind is probably exhausted and your focus is simply finding something clean to wear.
But that’s not to say we shouldn’t be taking care of ourselves.
The sooner you can get moving again and discard those stretchy pregnancy pants the better you will feel.
But do it in your own time. And at your own pace. If you’re a Daegan or an Ashy that may be a little sooner than the rest of us, but that’s OK.
There’s a survey that states 68 per cent of new mums feel guilty taking time out to go to the gym. I understand that dilemma.
I was also saddened when Louise told me nine out of 10 of us hate out bodies.
There’s a fab doco called Embrace, made by gorgeous, smart and sassy Adelaide mum Taryn Brumfitt.
Taryn Brumfitt and Melissa Doyle.Source:Supplied
It is she investigates why we all have such a love-hate relationship with ourselves.
Following the birth of her three children, Taryn noticed everything had slipped a little south and embarked on a 15-week intense training program.
At the end she paraded on stage with a spray tan and a silver bikini and found that the so-called perfect body didn’t actually make her happy.
She said the sacrifice to get there just wasn’t worth it.
She now channels that focus into The Body Image Movement, endeavouring to make us all feel better about ourselves.
Even Hollywood superstar Ashton Kutcher is a fan.
But Louise says it’s the thousands of images we see every week — from the glossy ads in magazines to the airbrushed perfection on social media — that is making the rest of us feel worse about ourselves.
Ashy, Taryn and Louise all agree on one point — only follow on social media the people that make you feel good. If they make you feel worse about yourself, click unfollow.
I tell my kids we are all horses. Some of us are born Shetland ponies, some are thoroughbreds, some good old stocky work ponies. But we’re all vital, unique and different.
But whoever we are, and whatever we chose, please don’t go slamming our sisters for their choices.
Melissa Doyle is the host and senior correspondent on Seven’s Sunday Night. Her full report airs tonight at 8pm on Seven.