“I wanted to create a platform for women to realise they are not alone and to feel more comfortable and confident in their skin. I want mothers to learn to instill healthy body images in the next generation of women that we are raising.”

Photographer Natalie McCain says she has always struggled to accept her weight and her body.

Realising that the insecurities she was battling were common to women everywhere, she began a journey of self-love and a photography project to celebrate her own body and the strong, capable, wonderful bodies of the women around her.

An image from “The Beauty In A Mother” photo series. Via The Honest Body Project.

“A few years ago I decided to stop obsessing over the scale and to appreciate my body for what it has done, which is pretty amazing since it has given me two wonderful children,” McCain told Mamamia.

“I wanted to create a platform for women to realise they are not alone and to feel more comfortable and confident in their skin.”

The Honest Body Project aims to help women of different shapes, sizes and backgrounds feel beautiful and empowered and pass on that confidence to the next generation.

“I want mothers to learn to instill healthy body images in the next generation of women that we are raising,” McCain says.

The photographer’s latest photo series The Beauty In A Mother is a collection of stories and pictures of expectant mothers because, as she explains, “No mother should feel alone.”

The pictures are shared with disarmingly honest confessions about the discomfort of pregnancy, the heartbreak of miscarriage and the fears of new mothers:

McCain says she wants to help women change their inner voice to one of acceptance and self-love: “When you change your inner voice, your entire world changes.”

Have a look through the rest of the pictures below:

The Beauty In A Mother.

You can view the rest of The Honest Body Project  here, or follow McCain’s work on the project’s Facebook page.

How do you feel about your pregnant body?