It was the details that mothers noticed immediately.
The high, high heels. The white dress. The full make-up and blow-dried hair. And was that… pantyhose? As the world breathlessly waited for the promised first photos of our newest royal baby, Archie Harrison, women who had given birth before were thinking about their first hours and days after becoming a mother.
Words like “bleeding”, “sore boobs”, “euphoria”, “numbness”, “shock”, “colostrum”, “surfboard in my undies”, “fear”, “stitches”, “vulnerability” and… “clots” are just some of the things mothers remembered about that time as they looked quizzically at the photos of the Duchess and her newborn son.
Of course, there’s no particular way any woman should or shouldn’t look at any time in her life. Your face, your body, your baby, your choice.
What Meghan does is very specific to Meghan and let’s be honest, there are worse things to happen to a new mother than having a professional team of hair stylists, makeup artists and wardrobe people swarm your house and make you camera ready.
But we can probably all hold hands and agree that this is not the typical new mother aesthetic.
If you are one of the millions of women who haven’t ever had a baby and are looking at these photos – or any post-birth photos of a royal – well, we wanted to paint a slightly more realistic picture of what it’s like. Less pantyhose, more pads. Such. Big. Pads.
Behold:
Caroline: Day three after c-section baby number two, with boobs bigger than baby’s head…and definitely wearing black baggy yoga pants!
