"Mom, when you decided to have a child, you may not have immediately thought about the impact it would have on you. You knew your life would change—that you’d go from being a woman to a mother—but you didn’t think about the physical aspect. You thought about the hugs, the kisses, my sweet smell, my little hands, the crafts I’d make for you. You probably didn’t expect that you’d change this much.
Stretch marks, sagging breasts, hair loss, a flabby belly—that’s certainly not what you had in mind at first. I know you were hoping you could avoid all that, because actresses never seem to show any signs of it. Because your friend didn’t get any stretch marks. Because your sister got back to her pre-pregnancy weight in a week. Why not you, you thought to yourself. But no, it happened eventually. The stretch marks crept up like a vine across your belly in the last few weeks before I was born. In fact, several of them appeared after the 40th week, because on top of everything else, I was late. You tell yourself that those ones wouldn’t have been there if I’d been born two or three weeks earlier, as you’d hoped.
When you decided to breastfeed, you did it for me above all else. You didn’t think that breasts that had been full of milk, once the milk is gone, aren’t what they used to be.
But Mom, all of that is what makes you a mom. To me, you’ll always be the most beautiful mother. And Dad thinks you’re beautiful, too—he told me so. He sees you differently, it’s true, but his perception has evolved as I grew inside you. He’s found you so strong ever since the day I was born; he admires you. The way he looks at you is different—I know you’ve noticed. Those pink, white, and purple marks on your belly, your thighs, your breasts, your hips—those scars… they prove that you worked hard, that you carried me for 41 long weeks, that you gave everything to bring me into the world and to nourish me, allowing me to grow up healthy. Don’t you think it was worth it? You’re not just “still” beautiful, Mom. You’re simply beautiful.”