Instagram has long been known as a filtered highlight reel, one that shows only a rare glimpse into who we are – or rather, who we are aspiring to become. But when it comes to our real selves – the warts-and-all humans with flaws and soft underbellies – these are the images we choose to leave off the grid and so, the cycle of comparison and narrow beauty ideals continues. But in recent years, there’s been a shift towards authenticity that has seen many eschew perfectionism in favour for truth. And when it comes to our bodies and self-love, this tide has seen a rise in body positivity as more and more people come to embrace their own skin.
Though the rise of body positivity is certainly something to celebrate, the fact remains that when it comes to new mothers, images reflecting the realities of childbirth and post-pregnancy are hard to come by. According to a new Australian study that saw researchers analyse 600 Instagram images with the hashtag #postpartumbody, only five per cent of images focused on bodies bearing stretch marks, cellulite, sagging breasts or scars – all things you would expect for new mothers.
Instead, the images in “recent” and “top” post categories showed that 91 per cent portrayed lean or average-weight women, often dressed in activewear. Researchers also noted that these images were more likely to be digitally enhanced or carefully curated by their users, which undermined the notion of body positivity.
The results have since been published in Healthcare and, as lead researcher Dr Megan Gow, a dietician and senior lecturer at University of Sydney and Westmead Children’s hospital, expressed, they are also surprising as they don’t reflect the reality of what a typical woman experiences during the postpartum period. Not surprisingly, the findings are concerning.
“It just puts an increased level of pressure on women who are already going through such a huge life change,” says Gow. As researchers expressed, the prevalence of such images on social media can help foster feelings of body dissatisfaction in new mothers, perhaps leading to more serious mental health issues like postnatal depression and anxiety.
“They’re thinking about feeding their infant, they’re probably sleep-deprived…And then on top of that, they look at Instagram and think: ‘Oh, my God, I also need to be super fit, I need to be thin.’”
It’s something mental health service Panda (Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia) is looking to combat as the only national helpline for families experiencing perinatal anxiety and depression in the country. As chief executive officer Julie Borninkhof suggests, exposure to these kinds of highly curated and edited images on social media only serve to make matters worse. “More than anything it places that self-critique [on the individual] and increases the individual’s stress. They need to feel their experience of vulnerability is normal, and that parenting for anyone has its ups and downs,” says Borninkhof.
While other communities on Instagram seem to be welcoming the body positivity movement, such as that of yoga and surfing, when it comes to new mothers, the evidence is lacking. Very few images present women with abdominal fat or stretch marks, or the pot belly that hangs around after birth. As discouraging as it is, researchers note that the issue is a complex one as the narrative around motherhood is one that is intensely personal, with a need for greater neutrality. As Katherine Saunders, Sydney-based clinical psychologist, explained to The Guardian, “Society’s really done a number on women…in relation to our bodies. There doesn’t need to be this extra task of loving those changes when historically, perhaps we haven’t anyway.”
Researchers suggest that for new mothers who feel susceptible to the harmful effects of #postpartumbody images on Instagram, you should trust your gut instinct and move on from any accounts or posts that make you feel inferior or ashamed. And as for growing a supportive community, perhaps it’s time we moved away from a focus on the body at all, and instead embraced the health of new mothers more holistically by asking not just how they feel about their changing body, but how they feel in the day to day as they recover from birth.
