New mother bravely shows off image of her postpartum stretchmarks as she details her struggle to accept that her body didn't bounce back like the 'super hot' women on Instagram

  • Kristelle Morgan, from Australia, shared the powerful message along with an image of her three-month-old daughter next to her exposed belly
  • She told followers that, although she is 'okay' with her body never being the same, it's also alright 'to be sad about it' too

By Valerie Siebert For Dailymail.com

Published: 12:43 EST, 25 January 2017 | Updated: 12:43 EST, 25 January 2017

Pregnancy can bring incredible changes to any woman's life and, while most of these are positive, few changes have quite the impact on a mother's self-esteem as a transformed body.

This struggle is something very familiar to new mother Kristelle Morgan, from Australia, who recently went viral for a post on social media where she spoke openly about dealing with the changes to her postpartum body.

Kristelle, who gave birth to a little girl named Amelia in October, posted an image at the end of December showing her baby sleeping peacefully next to her exposed midriff. 

Showing her stripes: Australian mother Kristelle Morgan shared a powerful message about postpartum body image with this image of her stretchmarks

Putting it out there: In the caption of the image, Kristelle described her struggles adjusting to her new body

'I used to be pretty fit, I had my ups and downs with body image but overall I know I looked pretty good,' she wrote in the lengthy caption. 

'Then came pregnancy and I was huge. I got HUGE towards the end extremely quickly.'

Apparently, she learned from her doctors, the combination of her baby's breech position and extra amniotic fluid led her belly to rapidly expand at around 32 weeks, leaving her with a belly covered in stretchmarks.

'I had a C-section which has left my with a nice scar too. My stomach is soft and squishy from my super stretched skin and is covered in stretch marks,' she wrote.

Baby girl: The young mother gave birth to her daughter Amelia back in October

Quite a bump: Around the 32nd week of pregnancy, the baby's breech position and extra amniotic fluid led Kristelle's belly to expand rapidly, leaving her with stretch marks

'Linea nigra still clearly visible. Let's not even start on what's going on with my bellybutton.'

Kristelle admitted in her post that she had 'unrealistic' expectations for her postpartum body, having been very active and a fan of a number very fit Instagram stars-turned-mothers.

But, motherhood taught her the reality that most women live with after pregnancy and, she wrote: 'I'm okay with that.'

'My body temporarily looking like this is a good price to pay for the sweet little angel I have sleeping next to me,' she said.

Happy family: She told her followers that she was 'okay' with her body never looking the same

Big praise: The post has been liked more than 1,000 times and received comments from other mothers going through similar struggles

She finished her post by explaining how she knows that she had a long road ahead of her, and that it is okay if she never has quite the same body again. But, she added, it's 'also okay to be sad about it'.

'We made life, this is what that looks like.' 

The post has since been liked more than 1,000 times and received dozens of messages from other mothers going through the same struggles.

'I'm nine months postpartum and feeling the same, pregnancy was extremely hard on my body and haven't bounced back like these other mums,' wrote one user. 'The expectation and pressure is out there. Thanks for sharing and being real.' 

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