While motherhood is a beautiful experience, it almost feels like nobody prepares you for the journey ahead. Not even the parenting magazines you read, vlogs you watch or advice you get from senior mothers.
Motherhood will test your patience, it will test your strength, it will test your confidence, and it will test your reasoning ability and your person. And even if motherhood can be so tiresome, difficult, challenging, and at times, heartbreaking, this is one phase most women want to experience.
The good thing about motherhood is that it comes with a lot of clarity, it is fulfilling, it is a journey of self-discovery, and it is rewarding.
For some, becoming a mother makes you more emotional and more sensitive, which is not a bad thing. You’ll cry watching the news and during movies when children are ill, hurt or in emotional pain. This is why they say motherhood opens another dimension of love you never knew existed.
Read below to see how some celebrity mothers described motherhood
“Personally, becoming a mother has been such a rewarding and wonderful experience. However, at times it has also been a huge challenge even for me who has support at home that most mothers do not. Nothing can really prepare you for the sheer overwhelming experience of what it means to become a mother. It is full of complex emotions of joy, exhaustion, love, and worry, all mixed together. Your fundamental identity changes overnight.” Kate Middleton
“Motherhood means being covered in spit while on a conference call and pumping and that’s OK because this is my perfect.” Kerry Washington
“On breastfeeding, I just think it’s so funny. Sometimes I’m Googling how to do it better. I’m like, ‘Is it working? Is it taking? I don’t think I’m feeling enough pain!’ You just get so confused about how it’s supposed to feel, and as hard as anyone said it was, I feel like it somehow managed to be harder.” Chrissy Teigen
Below are five changes you notice about your body during motherhood
Your legs
You permanently have `varicose veins. They are twisted, enlarged veins that are close to the skin’s surface. They can also become itchy, uncomfortable, or even painful.
Varicose Veins are likely to shrink after one pregnancy but the more pregnancies you go through, the more likely they’ll remain. Tiny spider veins won’t go away, but a dermatologist can easily treat them if you really hate how they look.
Your feet
Many women find that their feet are permanently longer, wider, and flatter after delivery typically a half to a full shoe size bigger. This is probably due to a combination of hormones produced during pregnancy that relaxes ligaments and the extra burden of weight that feet bear for nine-plus months.
Your periods
Most women with irregular periods pre-pregnancy report having a more regular period after pregnancy with less or no menstrual cramps.
Your blood
These two common blood-related complications; gestational diabetes and pregnancy-induced high blood pressure, usually go away after you have your baby. However, once you’ve had these problems, you’re at an increased risk of getting them again later in life. Please note that not all women experience this during pregnancy.
Your hair
This can be scary, but it does happen that some women lose up to two-thirds of their hair, starting from when the baby is around three months old. High hormone levels during pregnancy cause you to grow more hair over the nine months. When hormone levels drop after birth, your hair begins to fall off to start a new phase of growth.
