Just over a month ago, Sophie Cachia — a.k.a. popular blogger The Young Mummy — welcomed her second child into the world.
Tonight, she’s posted a full-length photo of herself in colourful activewear on Instagram. Before you say anything, this isn’t one of those ‘Oh look, I just had a baby and my body’s snapped right back!’ posts you sometimes find on social media.
Far from it, in fact.
In her caption, Sophie explains why her primary focus is repairing her body in the wake of little Florence Betty Margaret Cachia’s birth.
“I – and I can only speak for myself – believe in FIXING my body first and foremost before worrying about my weight,” she writes.
“My little tummy is sticking around, and guess what? I’m only four weeks postpartum, therefore so it bloody should be!”
Right on.
Listen: Sophie Cachia Snapchatted her daughter’s birth. And everyone had an opinion on that. (Post continues after audio.)
The mum of two — she also has a son, Bobby — goes on to explain her body is a little “broken” right now.
“I had a severe case of abdominal separation, a vagina on the verge of prolapsing, and torn upper abdominal muscles,” she writes. (Ouch.)
“So my focus is on healing & repairing before diving straight into exercise because that ain’t going to do nobody any good. Weight-schmeight.”
In a world where celebrity "post-baby transformations" serve as reliable fodder to sell tabloid magazines, and where mothers feel pressured to shed their pregnancy weight the moment baby evacuates the womb, Sophie's message is one we don't hear enough.
In her own words: take care of yourselves, ladies.
Your body's just done an incredible thing, so love yourself for that.
Top Comments
I float between loving this woman, and being disgusted by her, but I think this time i'm firmly in the "loving" camp. Sophie can be extremely crass, to be sure, but she does paint a realistic and amusing picture of what the early stages of motherhood look like. And for people (like me) who have no idea what to expect, this is actually very helpful! BTW (and this is not meant to be a snarky comment, more a factual one), people often say "what does this woman do?" - the short answer is, not much. She's a social media personality along the (much smaller) lines of the Kardashians, or in Aus, Bec Judd. Her talent is connecting with her audience, something she does very well. This may not be a traditional career, but she's making money out of it and spreading a little good humor along the way, so all power to the woman.
In fairness to Bec Judd, she is way more than just a media personality! If she wasn't the wife of Chris Judd, we would still know her as a presenter. You wouldn't refer to Jules Lund as just a social media personality!
Re Sophie, I agree with you about the fluctuating emotions. All power to her, and she seems like a lovely, smart, funny woman. But with this particular post I was like 'oh fuck off'. It's not like she's sitting there looking fat and repulsive saying "it doesn't matter how I look, my body just needs to repair". Rather, she's posting a photo where she looks great for PP and she's in a full pose and make up - so adding the captain saying she looking fat but doesn't care is totally insincere IMO.
Hmmm, I don't know about that - if Bec Judd wasn't the wife/partner of Chris Judd's, she never would have received Brownlow media attention for that red dress, which would have meant she never would have got those presenter roles. She's a speech pathologist by training, so it's safe to assume she would have continued down that career path if it wasn't for her husband's profile catapulting her into the public eye. Not to say that she hasn't worked hard to build a career, but it all started with her as a WAG (and i don't mean to use that term in a snide or offensive way), which is pretty much the way it started with Sophie too. I do get what you mean about the pic, but I also think "fat" is such a relative term - if she says she feels fat, then she feels fat, it's not really up to us to tell her otherwise, regardless of her make-up or outfit.
But..but that's her job. She's a social media personality - likes and clicks are the equivalent of performance reviews that a normal desk job would receive, so of course she want to up these. And, all she's saying here is that she's going to focus on healing for the time being, not that she's never going to try and get back to her pre-baby body. So what if she goes gung-ho on excercise and diet to get back to where she was 9months ago? She's not touting diet water or weird easy-weight loss pills, she's doing no harm.
I weep for the world, that we have reached the point that being a "social media personality" is regarded as a "job".