Postpartum body image is complicated. After birth, your body can feel softer, different, unfamiliar, and still incredibly powerful. This piece is a reminder for every mother learning to see herself again. Not as less beautiful, less strong, or less herself, but as real, changed, brave, and worthy of care.
If Wonder Woman were a mother, her postpartum body image would tell a story of strength, softness, healing, and love.
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If Wonder Woman were a mother, she would have wider hips and a softer belly and breasts that drooped, and she would still wear that badass outfit.
If Wonder Woman were a mother, you would find Cheerios in her hair underneath her perfect curls and raisins in her fingernails underneath her bright red nail polish.
If Wonder Woman were a mother, her curls wouldn't be perfect, really. Her hair would be thrown together without a mirror. Or perhaps her Wonder Woman locks would be styled by her children with bright red plastic barrettes.
She would still look beautiful.
If Wonder Woman were a mother, her superpower would be to take the edge off pain simply by saying, "I am here."
If Wonder Woman were a mother, her Wonder Woman bracelets would have the power to fill a heart, to grow one's faith in themselves, to help someone feel safe and secure in their own skin, regardless of what they were feeling.
If Wonder Woman were a mother, she would proudly acknowledge her imperfections. She would stand firmly on her two feet, her arms down by her sides, her palms facing forward, and her head held high.
She would look the world in the eye and say, "Yes, this is me. I am messy and uncertain and unsure of myself from time to time, and I am proud."
If Wonder Woman were a mother, she would embody a tender heart underneath all of that bravery.
She would be scared much of the time. Yes, scared.
And she would keep on going anyway, which would make her even braver.
If Wonder Woman were a mother, she would have a therapist, obviously.
If Wonder Woman were a mother, she would model boundaries like a badass.
She would say no without apology.
She would stop helping others when what she needed most was to help herself.
She would fill herself up whenever she could so that she could continue to save the world.
But she would know, people. She would know to put her oxygen mask on first.
If Wonder Woman were a mother, she would sit quietly every day before she descended on the bad guys, and she would reflect.
She would invite in her discomfort and become really familiar with it so that she never needed to run away from the shit she didn't like.
Wonder Woman never runs away, of course, but that comes with some serious practice.
If Wonder Woman were a mother, she would know the difference between a situation that needed accepting and a problem that needed fixing.
This Wonder Woman would know how to reserve her energy.
In this Wonder Woman's world, there aren't really as many problems out there as one might think.
This Wonder Woman's biggest superpower is acceptance.
If Wonder Woman were a mother, I would immediately reestablish my 1970s obsession with superheroes.
I would put all my eggs in her basket.
I would feel forever safe and accepted and protected from the bad guys who often live in my head, like they do for the rest of you.
But, well, she would figure that out, too.
If Wonder Woman were a mother, she would be all the more wonderful because she would be real.
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Written by Kate Kripke, Maternal Mental Health & Parenting Coach
Kate Kripke is a maternal mental health and parenting coach who supports mothers through the emotional complexities of pregnancy, postpartum, and motherhood. Her work reminds moms that strength and softness can exist together — and that being real, supported, and cared for matters just as much as caring for everyone else.
