This session was all about capturing some beautiful intimate moments of Kayla & her two beautiful boys, as well as celebrating her body & the miracles it has achieved. Not only has her amazing body just bought life into this world a second time round, but it now also continues to sustain it as she breastfeed's her youngest boy Hakihea.
How do you feel about your body now?
I have so much respect for my body; what it has done and continues to do for me. Creating life twice, carrying and safely delivering two beautiful boys, being lucky enough to breastfeed... So regardless of what it now looks like, I love and am so grateful for it. It hasn’t been easy getting to this point though. With my first, I wasn’t ashamed of my body but I felt really subconscious about people seeing it as there wasn’t as much of a body positivity/self-love movement as there is now. I thought I was the only māmā who looked this way because you never saw bodies like mine on social media. This time though, I’m not going to hide it away or wait until it gets to a point that’s ‘good enough’ to share with the world. My body has done incredible things and deserves to be seen in all its glory, wherever it’s at. Right now it’s stretched and marked, heavy and dimpled, and wobbles in all the wrong places. It’s not at all what it used to be and it never will be. But this body has done incredible things, and that means so much more to me than what I see when I look in the mirror.
What would you like to tell new mothers?
Please, please go easy on yourself. Being a māmā is hard. The expectations that we, our partners and the world put on us, are crazy. Our bodies have just gone through major changes both internally and externally, we are surviving on little to no sleep, all while trying to navigate this season of motherhood and while learning how to care for our new babies. I know we want to be able to do everything but the reality is that we just can’t, and that’s ok. It’s ok to not make it to the shower some days. It’s ok to sit on the couch and cuddle your baby for hours. It’s ok to not be able to stay on top of your housework. It’s ok to cancel on plans or to always be running late. It’s ok to want to cry sometimes, and to wish for a break or just a moment alone. Just go easy on yourself, and whatever struggles you are facing... take comfort in knowing that there are a hundred others who are going through the exact same thing, and a hundred more who have come out the other side, just as you will too. So lose the expectations. Take your never ending to-do list, halve it, then halve it again. All those things can wait. Just enjoy right now and please, go easy on yourself.
