


you are beautiful, do you know that?
and your imperfections make you even more perfect.
-xo.
(eta- oh loves… you’ve inspired me so. make sure you read the follow up here)



you are beautiful, do you know that?
and your imperfections make you even more perfect.
-xo.
(eta- oh loves… you’ve inspired me so. make sure you read the follow up here)
120 Comments
I am bawling…..can’t control it! I am SO HEAD OVER HEALS IN LOVE with this post, the photos…you both! love love love!
this is what they mean when they speak of goddess.
i love you so much. you are divine beauty, mother goddess, sexy vixen.
you do this so well.
mb
(did you send these to Shape of a Mother?)
Absolutely. Gorgeous.
I love it! Is this you?
Jaw droppingly, achingly, bravely perfect. I’m so head over heels in love with you. ITA MB – this is goddess.
Thank you for this.
Thank you for this. You have increased my capacity for love today – loving myself…and I’m soooo grateful!
PS, we’re belly sisters, seriously, my belly looks JUST LIKE THIS!
I love you and your tiger stripes. And OMG, Claire’s little tushy in the first pic, too cute! I miss H having that baby shape, she’s all long limbs and mucky chops now.
You are beautiful and such an inspiration. I really want something like this with me, Charlie and Amélie… Have to work on my courage and confidence so I can get to the point of letting someone actually take the pictures.
Awesome. You are. Beautiful, too.
love you erin. YOU are beautiful in every way.
xo
deb
Incredible. This chokes me up. I am so moved….there are just no words for this other than this is hands down some of my favorite photography I’ve ever seen. Ill never forget it
HOLY. FANTASTIC.
Oh my gosh perfection. Simple and perfect.
Real. Life. Gorgeous.
Sent over by Fresh Art Photography!
Oh my goodness… tears…. so much emotion in these shots… I can’t properly describe how these make me feel…..
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for sharing these!!! To the mother in these images, not only are you beautiful but fantastically courageous! These images are so real, so beautiful and so incredibly empowering. To Erin (photographer)these images are innovating… I pray that you will show them to the world because WOW!
Tears roll down my cheek as I stare at these pictures. She fits you just perfectly. These are so moving. Oh Lord how I miss these days.Thank you Erin.
Wow. So real. So raw. Makes me miss when I held my girls that way.
Thanks for sharing.
Stopping by from FreshArt Photography.
Wow it made me cry! Great pictures!
I recently started posting a picture of my scale each week with my weight and people were commenting about my bravery. Girl, I’ve got nothing on you! THIS is brave and beautiful and wonderful. I’m so proud of you!!! Thanks for keeping it real!
What a brave post! Beautiful! Like how Kristen said, ‘Thanks for keeping it real!’
How beautiful you are…inspiring, brave, confident and beautiful. Thank you so much!!
total. awesomeness.
My belly looks pretty much like this, I didn’t get stretch marks, but I thought for sure I must be the only mama out there with the belly like this. Lots of beautiful, warrior, womben in this big wide world! Thank you for sharing yourself through these images.
Bravo for your courage and beauty ~ I love the term a previous commenter made about ‘tiger stripes’. Such an empowering term
Thank you for sharing this. Knowing others out there look the way I do really helps. I don’t exactly know why, but it does.
Women like you bring out the bravery in women like me. I am getting married next month and I have been so worried about that last 5 pounds but now I feel empowered and liberated. Thank you.
Thank you. Beautiful. Real. Refreshing. Wonderful.
Thank you. This is beautiful. I am a new mom myself struggling with realizes my body will never be the same. But my life will never be the same either, because I have HER!
you are incredibly beautiful love, so incredibly beautiful … i had this crazy realization looking at these as the tears ran down my cheeks. i remember when i had my son and how beautiful i felt in my skin and realized that i have been self loathing my twin belly and lines because of my empty arms and now it may be time to let go of that last bit of grief and love myself whole again. i adore you.
You are pure, wonderful, luscious, goddess beauty. Your words and photos brought tears to my eyes. I am deeply in love with these photos, and with you. xoxo
been almost three years since my third kid’s birth (16 since numero uno) and was sharing a grab and flap with another mom just the other day….thanks!!!!
I am in awe. I am crying the ugly cry. These are by far the most beautiful pictures of a mother and child I have ever seen. You are a wonderfully spectacular woman!! You are a light on this planet and girl, you shine!! Thank you for being your magnificent self. Thank you for being you!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh this is is divine deliciousness. You are so lovely. I am deeply moved by the power of this, the capturing of such beauty, the truth and seeing YOU so in this moment so absolutely gorgeous!
love.
Thank you. Sincerely. THANK YOU.
It is so nice to see what I see (pretty similar anyway). To know others see what I see. To know I’m not the only one. I am proud of my body. I’ve had three of my own children, and two surrogate babies. BUT it is so hard to remember sometimes as to what my body has done, because I get caught up in the media’s desire to see us skinny. UGH.
So, thank you.
Thank you for this.
erin. wonder woman. seeing this and the amazing comments that are following, esp darlene, THIS is truth. this is bravery. we need a societal shift in how we see and understand beauty, because THIS is beauty. YOU are BEAUTY. those lines? those are the sign that you’ve LIVED your life instead of benchwarming, all of our scars and markings define us. i shared this with my soul sister that is just coming out of breast cancer, scarred and cracked open, THIS isn’t just about one person, and i know you know that. ;-D you’re pushing me, nudging me gently to take some affirmative action. xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
I LOVE what you’ve done! Thank you! My stomach looks just like that, it’s so embarrassing.Glad other moms feel my pain.
This makes me sad. Sad because when I look at you, I see pure beauty. I think, “Wow – she’s got a nice figure”. But sad because now, at 6 months post my 2nd c-section, when I look at myself in the mirror – and see that my shape is exactly your shape – I can’t help but beat myself up over how I look. I want to get to the place where you’re at, emotionally. I wish I knew how to do it… good for you that you can, I love you for posting this, so that I can at least have a realistic image of what other women look like… thank you so much – you are gorgeous!
You are so beautiful! Thank you for your post!!! I follow The Shape of a Mother religiously and found your post via their Facebook post. Thanks for posting! I hope posts like yours reshape what our girls grow up to believe is real womanhood!
You are beautiful… Thank you for reminding me again about what is important…
Thank you for your post…
Love love love love this.
i MUST comment……you are so beautiful, and brave, and i absolutely adore these amazing photographs. thank you for sharing! i had a baby a month before your sweet claire was born, so can so relate to these powerful images. love your blog!
So beautiful! I’ve love to have a more intelligent responses, but these images are perfect — tasteful, timeless, and absolutely gorgeous. Rock on with this comfort in your skin; too few mothers truly experience joy in their post-baby bodies. <3
You are beautiful – and what amazing pictures, thank you so much for sharing them! Every mark you have has been well earned… consider them a visual representation of a mothers love for her children and respect for the body that carried them.
Your work is most beautiful, as are you. Reclaiming beauty is part of the work that I do…taking back what has been denied to society for so long – that beauty is real and found in real bodies.
I salute you and your contribution to empowering women; mothers and all women, to be proud of their scars and bellies and hips – such as they are – for the gifts that these bring are enormous!
In Spirit,
Deborah
Simply stunning. bravo, mama, bravo.
beautiful and brave. thank you.
makes me want to be a mother!
elegance and beauty – you make motherhood look good. xo
? pure bliss. BREATHTAKING. Thank you for having the courage to show others what being a beautiful mother is all about. ?
Powerful and beautiful images. I am so moved by your bravery. It’s all there, the love, the sacrifice, the connection. Wow!
erin – you. are. the. best.
love!
Soooooo refreshing. So beautiful. So true.
It reminds me of me, one day showering with my husband and so sadly pointing out my marks on my belly after having my second baby, his answer was “Be proud. So many women would give anything to have those marks and have the children we have” so so so so true….. Thanks for sharing.
Gorgeous! THANK YOU. Made me feel so much better about my body after 5 babies and not loosing weight fast enough.
Amazing how the human body can endure 9 months of change and the it leaves behind a badge of honor to remind us of what we brought into the world ! you are beautiful embrace your scares of honor and love that little baby for all its life !
beautiful, thanks for sharing.
Thank you!
this is absolutely beautiful.
These are absolutely beautiful. I too have the “mom belly” after having my three daughters back to back and call the stretch marks my battle scars
While I think it is important to stay in shape, we must also appreciate the shape of a real woman, a real mother. Thank you for these photos!
You are making women cry all over the place with this. A friend shared it with me on Facebook–I cried and turned right around and shared it again. So far, four of my friends have also shared it. This is singlehandedly the most beautiful thing I’ve seen. Bravo to you for capturing this beauty. If you ever decide to expand on this idea, I’ll be the first to take my clothes off for you and stand with my flaws and my two beautiful boys.
This is so honest, so real, amazingly beautiful!
add me to the crying mamas. i saw the first pic and thought, oh my god, that’s my body, too. and then i saw the smile on your face as you nursed your baby — THAT is what matters, that love, that beauty. (and that tummy, it makes for great baby support, doesn’t it?
I also have chills! Wonderful and real sharing and love here. That is wonderful! I love it. Thank you. If only people would understand that this is what a REAL woman looks like and treasure each stretch and sag as it should be a precious reminder of the life brought forth by our bodies. The most wonderful thing a man has ever done is to treasure my stretch marks and to truly love and appreciate them for what they mean (and this man was not the father of my children but someone I met after my divorce).
Youth and beauty is fine and has it’s place but age and motherhood do not often get the respect it deserves. I was recently asked (after 4 children and now I’m a single mom) if I was going to “get boobs”. I said, “HELL NO. I fought long and hard for the ones I have! If someone doesn’t like me as I am, go find someone else!”
Women are not usually so cruel as to compare our partners to porn stars or strippers and focus on what they are lacking…it would be awesome to see a shift in society to appreciate REAL women for what they are and for what they have gone through in the name of love and life. If the men can not or will not support us, it appears there are plenty of female supporters and fans out there. Kudos to all of them!! Thank you again!
This — this is fantastic. I love. What a beautiful mama you are, you are, what a beautiful mama you are.
Stunning. I love love love it.
Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Beautiful. I love it.
How beautiful! Thank you so much for posting this.
Absolutely love love love these pics! They are real!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!… a hundred times over from the bottom of my heart. I look at this every morning re assuring myself that I AM beautiful and NOT alone! It made me cry. …… And if we made a calender I would buy it! xoxo – ashley
oh goddess you.
oh goddess.
how i love you so.
how i am constantly inspired by you.
how i never feel alone in your presence.
how you speak for so many of us.
how you wrap beauty around the raw parts.
how YOU live and breathe and exist takes my breath away.
so lucky to be your friend.
wow – never posted on a blog like this before but this post moved me so much i felt i had to. thank you so much for letting me look into this beautiful mirror. i saw myself in a way i haven’t since having my daughter ten months ago. beautiful….
thank you so much.
carrie
crying…the reality…wonderful…
I am a 28 year old woman that has given birth to 3 healthy babies. My tummy looks much like yours. I am always judging my body so harshly..I am always thinking of all of the plastic surgery I feel I should get. I had my last baby over 5 years ago..but still have a jiggly tummy. And you know what? I think I feel better about myself now. I am so in love with the idea that a very beautiful and REAL mother can share what a woman is supposed to look like after having children. Thank you so much dearest! Extremly appreciated. Now I can feel happy about myself-because I feel I have the freedom to do so.
I love the fact that this is absolutely real!!! Why are so many woman afraid of showing this….dont’ get me wrong…I am one of them. I look just like this…I love the bravery and love that this shows. It’s simply amazing…one of the best posts I have seen.
I need to get the courage up to do this…I actually look at myself differently now that I see this and read it…THANK YOU!!
thanks! I’m in my 36 week of pregnacy and is brave what you did, we need to accept our body is changing to bring someone here… doesn’t matter if your baby smiling in your arms..
I found your post and images utterly beautiful. It made me think back fondly of all the birthdays I shared with my Mom. Thanks for sharing!
beautiful, simple beautiful. thank you for sharing. so empowering.
I think this is truly amazing. I am diabetic and my insulin shots apparently made stretch marks worse from what I was told and I am glad that you took them and made them into something beautiful. I appreciate that you did this. Thank you.
Achingly beautiful and bravely courageous! Love these and moved to tears ~
Thank You…
Thank you for sharing this with the world. You are beautiful, sexy, loving and have given all us MOTHERS a gift we could never repay…. Bless you and your miracle of love.
I am in tears. Thank you for showing the very real side of mothering, but making it beautiful. As a fellow photographer, and as a mother… thank you.
Thank you so much for this! I am having just one of “those” days and this is beautiful! Thank you
wow so beautiful!! I’m a mother of three & I’m always beating myself up about my body but now I see that my body is beautiful, well done for taking this pictures:)
I shared this on my blog too!!! I think as many women need to see this. Thanks for being brave for the rest of us chickens.
These pictures are breathtaking. But I must say, it is the comments that made me cry. The fact that this mama shines so brightly she gives other women the courage to do the same–it makes me have such hope that our daughters will grow up proud and feeling beautiful. Thank you for leading by this precious example.
I am 25 with a one year old son and at a year postpartum, I think I should be back “in shape” but this has made me realize that I am “in shape” – MY SHAPE! I will celebrate the body that has given birth to and nourished my son!
Silly that I thought I was the only one with the belly shelf. Thx for posting.
I love this. Makes me realize that I’m not the only one out there…
so empowering. i see myself in your photo… thank you for sharing this moment!
My “Baby” is 7 years old. My Baby Shelf and Mommy Marks are my Badges of Honor…
P.S. I never wore a bikini till after I had my babies…
beautiful. i already loved my stretchy belly. after seeing your photographs, i love it even more : )
How did I miss this?! Well, ditto to most of the comments here.
Love you, reddie..
my womb has never borne, yet i’ve birthed many…and heart-womb fills over and over, expanding to make room for nourishment of one more. as a woman learning to love every shadow and light of her soul and flesh this post means so much to me. thank you for your braveness and your tenderness. so much love. xoxo.
OMG these pictures made me cry. I miss my pre-babies body. I am pregnant with #5 and I am 100lbs heavier than I started my first pregnancy 19 years ago! You are so brave and beautiful!
I love the term “tiger stripes” thats what I call mine. I have them from my first child. I love them makes me remember how beautiful my pregnancy was all those 16yrs ago. I wish I had your courage gorgeous Mumma you are beautiful.
Beautiful!
Omg! These photos are so beautiful. It made me feel just that much more accepting of my stretch marks.
so wonderful!
Thank you for posting these. I can’t tell you how much better they make me feel.
Absolutely Gorgeous!
Beautiful! So much lovely, pudgy flesh and the grainy texture of the shots is also sublime. These are classics.
pure love and beauty; thank you for sharing
i want to learn to see me the way i see you
thank u,are beautiful…
after 2 kids my stomach it’s
like this !
This made me burst into tears. BEAUTIFUL.
Absolutley stunning… So beautiful and heart grabbing… Love it!!
Your stomach looks identical to mine. I feel like I’m looking into a mirror. Bless you!
Erin, you seriously rock! I just came across this while looking through your blog and am humbled by the realness and honesty in these pics. These pictures are such an encouragement to all of us to embrace our mother bodies and I just loved looking at these, as we’re living in a world of photoshopped, unrealistic and unattainable images of women’s bodies and these are a breath of fresh air- real beauty. Growing a human inside of our bodies and giving them life is an amazing thing, and you captured it in these photos.
I am 6 weeks pregnant, have always struggled with my body, and am already worrying way. too. much. about how this pregnancy will make me even bigger, even, uglier than I already am. Even as I have dear friends who are struggling just to GET pregnant. Thank you for posting these. It does me so much good to see them.
Thanks for the tears…gosh!
Too Ligit. Raw, real & brave! Love it, reminds me of my tummy
this is a beatiful picture of a real mother and a real mothers body this is how it should be raw and unriqited love .not an air bursh insight this is wot should be published in the press a picture of a beatiful mother and child
I LOVE IT! It’s just so true and real. All there is is beauty <3
Beautiful!
I can see the beauty but these picture do give me anxiety about what’s. coming I have prom and senior trip in April and I’m due this month I’ve gained 59 pounds and it all has to be gone in time for my dress shopping I’m so afraid this will happen to me and I’ll hate my body and have a grudge towards my baby and parents for not letting me end the pregnancy when I first found out you’re really brave and I wish I had your confidence
it’s like i’am seeing my own body…but there’s the thing.i hate my body right now though i have two beautiful children.i really can’t help that feeling….
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