Loving A Post-Baby Body

by Lisa Emmerich

“What kind of woman has boobs like that?” I remember wondering as I stared at a detailed breastfeeding diagram in a thick baby care book during the early stages of pregnancy with my first child. The woman’s breast sloped and sagged into a shape resembling a popped balloon. The deflated boobs looked nothing like my small, perky breasts.

Three years later, that kind of woman is me. Almost A’s (for 24 years) to brimming D’s (each time I breastfed) to slumping B’s (now). My breasts no longer fill out the jumbo nursing bras I wore through two babies, but the lacy A-cup bras I recently excavated from the back of the drawer cut painful red patterns into my back. Maternity panties fall off my newly flattened bottom, but my ruffled thongs seem garishly out of style.

So, two years and ten months after the birth of my first daughter, I finally summoned the courage to walk into Victoria’s Secret again. Hours later, I returned home sheepishly clutching a pink striped bag filled with panties that—if nothing else—at least fit properly.

My husband’s reaction was so good that I went back the next day.

“I’ll take the kids,” he said. “You go.”