Former EastEnders star Melissa Suffield has shared an empowering message about body image and feeling the need to ‘snap back’ after having children.
Melissa, known for her role as Lucy Beale on the BBC soap, has shared a video of her postpartum body at different stages, showing that there is too much pressure on mums and their bodies.
The clip was shared to Instagram and shows a shot of Melissa’s stomach three days postpartum and 32 months after giving birth, highlighting that mums shouldn’t feel the need to ‘snap back’.
The 29-year-old captioned the post, “Belly overhang. The Mother’s Apron, as it’s (hideously) known. The eternally googled ‘how to lose belly fat fast’ or ‘how to get rid of saggy belly’ only to be met with dangerous schemes, surgeries, and straight up lies”.
“The struggle of trying to tuck it into your jeans, and the even tricker struggle of finding jeans that might even it out at the same time as not digging in (spoiler, they don’t exist)”.
“But the sense of relief that sets in when you realise it’s ok to have it. If your belly is because of pregnancy, It’s ok to have not lost the baby weight, or to have the overhang remain even if you did".
"If scar tissue has made it stubborn. It’s ok if you look like you had a baby- because you did. And if it isn’t? STILL OK, FOLKS”.
She continued, “You don’t owe anyone a flat stomach, or visible abs. You owe *yourself* contentment, whatever that looks like for you- belly or not. Have you got yourself a lil ‘hang?”.
Many followers of the actress and body confidence content creator headed to the comments to commend her on her honesty and touching message. Many mums in the comments agreed to having the same body type as Melissa’s but feeling shamed because of it.
Melissa is a mum of one and welcomed her son River into the world back in March 2020 with her husband Robert.
