Life after baby isn’t always total bliss. As we’ve seen with local mom Sunshine Peterson, the aftermath of having a baby is usually not a suddenly slim and perfectly toned body that most celebrity mothers seem to miraculously tout after having their kids.
This reality that’s oft ignored by the media is what brought photographer Ashlee Wells Jackson to create her “4th Trimester Bodies Project.” Jackson, who usually shoots pinup and boudoir photography, told the Huffington Post that she hopes to bring awareness to cultural perceptions on female beauty and start a conversation that will change women’s expectations for themselves and others through her photo series.
Jackson, a mother of three, was inspired to capture real everyday mothers after she herself experienced a troubled pregnancy and birth that caused her to struggle with the strangeness of her new post-baby body.
“I see beautiful, inspiring, real women on a daily basis who struggle with their body image because they don’t feel they measure up with who the media tells them to be,” she said. “I feel like this is even more poignant in mothers who often feel like their bodies have been ruined when they should instead be respected for creating, sustaining and nourishing life.”
Check out more of Jackson’s photos from the “4th Trimester Bodies Project” below.
View the entire photo series here.
