“I got horrible stretch marks with my first pregnancy, and after my son was born I went through several months of self-loathing because of them. Finally one day when he was about 6 months old I decided enough was enough. I wrote a poem, took a picture of my scarred tummy and posted it to Facebook. I would love to share it with you, and all of the people who read your blog.” -Caitlyn
The poem says:
{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
AWE I LOVE THIS! IT made me cry! <3 What an amazing poem. Thank you for posting this, all of us will pull up our shirts and run our hands over our stretch marks… and we should all just smile.
A beautiful tribute… I’m all teary-eyed reading this. It only took me six pregnancies to be OK with mine. Our precious 9th baby is about 3 months old now, and I can honestly say I am proud of my stripes, too!
This should be available as a print. I want this on my bedroom wall. The poem made me all teary eyed.
This is so so SO beautifully written!
Beautiful!
Oh my gosh! I am crying! Thanks for your wonderful insight! I have been having a hard time with all the changes my body went through with my pregnancy and the birth of my son. He was born 7 months ago, and I’m still having some complications with the healing process after being stitched up.
This touches me not because I am a mother. Or that I can identify with that in anyway. Its because I have them all over my body. I was grossly over weight my entire life until I made the change to lose 100 pounds . I’ve kept it off for nearly two years now but my scars remain on my stomach , arms and legs. So I can appreciate this poem to a degree.
Caitlyn I love love love this. It’s a truly amazing poem and I can tell u it goes beyond just the ‘stretch mark’, for me anyways. I got quite a few with having 3 of my 4 sons and I’ve never really thought much about them….until I started loosing weight during this past year. They’ve become more and more pronounced not that my skin is looser and they’ve really been bothering me recently…as of this moment, not so much. They are something to be proud of and to care less about, for me and for other people. So thank you for sharing this.
Serena
Absolutely beautiful, mama!
Thank you so much for this beautiful poem. I’ve got tears streaming down my face from reading it. Would love it as a print too x
Caitlyn, this is AMAZING! Now that I’ve wiped the tears from my cheeks, I would like to thank you for this. It’s sharing experiences like this to put things into perspective…and to remind us that we are not alone. My 3 kids are worth every stretch mark & worry line I have!!! Thanks
I love this poem i was too having a hard time with my stretch marks because i am so young when i had my son but its seriously all worth it whenever your child looks at you or holds your hands and kisses you i am going to appreciate my stretch marks more thanks to you!
Lovely.
I’m due any day now with my first baby and my marks are even more impressive than the above picture! The marks don’t just run vertically, they run horizontally and diagonally, too, like a web, and in places they are so dense that it’s hard to find unmarked skin at all.
They’re my tiger stripes and I’m proud of them – they tell the tale of how I grew this baby. I’m actually looking forward to seeing and recording how they look afterwards, and hoping that they’ll help someone else feel better in their own skin.
That is beautiful. Think i will make that poem into a poster, I dont have as many but none the less my belly doesnt look as it did before my Kids… Thank you for this… Makes me proud to have Sretch marks.
Couldn’t have said it better myself!
amazing!!!!! U R SOOO BRAVE:)
This is a gorgeous poem. I too have fairly bad stretch marks but they are a constant reminder that we gave up something to get something out body for our gorgeous kids an it’s so worth it. I recently seen a surgeon in Melbourne Australia who does post pregnancy post makeovers & he reconstructs your tummy an the results are amazing. Just a thought if you really wanted to do something about them. I’m waiting till my families complete an I to will be getting my bikini body back!!!!
I LOVE this! the last part is my favorite. I’d do it all over again a million times to get my sweet boy too.
<3
I was telling someone the other day who was complaining that they don’t want stretch marks with their pregnancy. I told her I was proud and grateful for every one I had. Most of them came from my 2nd pregnancy which ended at 12 weeks. My stretch marks are my only physical reminder of my baby boy. With each one, I know he is always with me. I am more than grateful for the reminders of my children that have been left on my body.
Meg, that is so sad and so beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
Dear Meg,
Scientists have recently discovered that cells from a baby’s body remain in the mother’s body forever- these baby’s cells are the first to arrive at the site of a cancer or other threat to the mother’s body. They fight the invasive cells to protect the mother, for the rest of her life. never doubt that your little boy is still with you. Isn’t that about the most beautiful and amazing thing?
mary ellen galvan
Wow… Thank you for sharing that, Meg. I can’t help but cry in awe of your Motherly Love and insight. That’s a perspective I will never let go of. Thank you.
This is so beautiful! Literally made me cry. My worst fear of being pregnant has been the thought of getting stretch marks but this has completly changed my views. Thanks for sharing. You are brave and beautiful!!
I love this poem! I have been having a difficult time dealing with mine, but this poem put a whole new view point on them for me!
Soo empowering! Thank you for sharing;)
Oh my gosh, I am bawling!!!!!!! That is sooooooo beautiful!!!!
That moved me to tears, what a beautiful way to look at something that so many women are mortified about. I call mine, my badge of Honor because I think it’s an honor to be able to give life & an honor to be able to be the mother of my two incredible babies. Congratulations Caitlyn on being so proud & such a loving Mummy x
Awesome!! Thanks for sharing this with us Caitlyn!
Where once they were a deep purple, they’ve faded to a champagne colour. They make a lovely, shimmery pattern on my olive skin!
I call mine my Tiger Stripes
I loathed them for years, and my (now ex) husband wouldn’t even look at them without a look of disgust on his face.
After we’d broken up, I met a man who worshipped my belly. In the words of Shirley Valentine: “He kissed my stretch marks!”
Thanks for sharing! I have struggled so much with my battle scars.
THAT IS GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!
Beautiful poem! Rubbing Standard Process wheat germ oil on my belly really helped reduce the appearance of my stretch marks, but I too view the remaining ones as my battle scars! Birth is as trying as any battle, to be sure.
So sweet! *tear* I saw a documentary once about an African tribe in which the members did not consider a woman beautiful unless she had stretchmarks, and the more the better! One young girl was crying because she didn’t have any! How’s that for perspective!! BTW, I would be a knockout in this village…
Thank you for giving me a new life bible to live by.
Huge respect for this picture and poem.
I was so moved I wrote a thank-you and agreement post on my blog.
http://thoughtfulbirth.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/what-is-beauty/
Its great that everyone is so okay with their stretch marks… and personally accepted them… but I really hope that they have devoted, loving, adoring husbands… because that’s where the problem comes in. So many men cheat during and after pregnancy, and most women don’t know… you can sit around thinking your stretch marks are worth it because of your beautiful baby, while you’re husband is on his “business trip.” Men lose the attraction, its just human nature. If your body gets ruined from pregnancy, thats when most men start becoming attracted to other women (and for many other reasons due to having a baby to now take care of). It is sooo sooo soo wrong but soo soo soo true! I work somewhere where I hear the stories of infidelity and see it with my own eyes. So many men cheat and I know their wives never know it
You comment makes me so sad. This is not as common as you make it out to be. If your husband only married you for your looks then this would be the case. But I have talked to many many many men who find that their wife is VERY beautiful with the big pregnant belly and more beautiful after birth with the stretch marks because of what they stand for. Men dont just lose the attraction unless that is the only reason they ‘got’ you. A man may also feel that the wife is not interested in her husband and she isnt giving him attention any more, it is more likely that and not because of sterchmarks. yes some men are self-centered creeps, and I am sorry that you mostly only see those men. It is NOT human nature, it is our self-centered, sex-saturated/worshiping culture. It is just not that way with all men. Your body doesnt get “ruined” from having babies. It reaches it full potential with having babies! and works even better (as long as you take care it). We cant ruin our bodies from doing what we are created to do. It is truely a beautiful thing and both men and women see it that way.
THanks for this!! I tell myself this all the time when i look at my pp belly 7.5mnths later, with strech marks. But, you have written it so beautifully and i am so glad that i can look at my belly and be proud of those marks — it took a long time to conceive my daugther and i wouldn’t give those marks up for the world, cuz it meant that not only did i get pregnant, but that i have a beautiful child as well.
This is just beautiful… I absolutely HATE what our culture has done to our thinking about postpartum bodies. I’m a first time mom and did not get too many marks this go around, but the ones I got I am exceedingly proud of!! And I hope that as I have more children (Lord willing) and my body carries more scars, I will keep loving them! My husband thinks they are wonderful, too. We got this amazing child – AMAZING – and I got to be the one to carry her!
And I think the reason so many men think that stretch marks are unattractive is because we women think so! If we confidently carried ourselves with dignity, our men would admire our bodies rather than see them as merely sexual objects. If we would just stop striving to be the stereotype of beauty, I think men in general would appreciate femininity in it’s TRUEST forms, rather than the ones our culture has put on a pedestal. I say this with the authority of a wife whose husband does appreciate true womanhood and he tells me that he is not alone.
Krysann,
You’re husband is right; he is not alone in that thinking, but unfortunately, it will take years to turn around what has been done in society. Marilyn Monroe was a sex symbol in her day and she was a size 14. Nowadays, it seems if you are an 8 or bigger, you are “fat.” Also unfortunately, while you’re husband is definitely not the only man who thinks that way, it has been my experience (from personal experience and from talking to other women I know) that probably only about 25% of men will openly agree with him. They may think differently, but they keep silent about it. But I do think you are right that if more women would have more confidence in the bodies that God gave them, then men would probably start more openly accepting them. Very good thoughts.
i am pregnant and i am prone to stretch marks . i have worried so much about what sorts of stretch marks i am going to get…but, this put tears in my eyes. What a great poem. I am excited to experience that. Who cares about stretch marks!
Beautiful! I absolutely love the imagery your words created, a beautiful picture.
Peace to you and yours.
definitely cried…..i have dealt with postpartum depression pretty bad since my daughter, who is my 3rd child….i used to write poetry to deal with when i was upset, but just dont have the inspiration for it anymore. that was a beautiful poem and a beautiful attitude behind it. brava…..
Thus is soooo beautiful! It made me cry. I haven’t thought about then in this way and I thank you for helping me realize the true meaning being our dreaded scars
Amazing story. I show mine to my 7 year old daughter with pride as well and tell her that’s from when she grew in my belly. Now with baby girl #2 on the way I haven’t gotten any yet but I’m sure she will leave her mark.
this is the best poem i read. my daughter who is having a baby sent me the llink and it was so good i posted to facebook and title the album stretchMarks are the tattoo of motherhood
Beautiful, the tears they are a-flowin! Thanks for sharing this.:)