Giving birth to 3 children in the space of 1 year can be hard on the body, to say the least, but why not just embrace it? This is exactly what a Canadian Mom has decided to do by signing up for a sensual and empowering photo shoot.
Just 364 days after Melanie Varney and her husband, Gabby welcomed their first child, the mom delivered twin daughters. At first, it was hard for her to accept the changes to her body.
Varney was interviewed by the Huffington Post, where she said:
“Once the twins were born my confidence in my image was gone, I was on top of the world with what my body had just produced, but the reflection of myself in the mirror was that of a stranger.”
Varney felt very uncomfortable in her own skin. In her interview, she said “I remember googling ‘twin moms postpartum’ just trying to find similarities in my body to theirs,” Varney said.
“Of course, as mothers, we all agree that our babies are completely worth the skin, the stretches, and the lumps and bumps, but just as we are mothers, we are still ourselves, I was still Mel. I still needed to feel happy with ‘Mel,’ not just ‘mom.’”
Varney, however, decided to take a leap when she signed her and her husband up for a model callout for an “intimate” couples session, with photographer Trina Carey.
Carey was pleased that the mom of 3 volunteered for the session, as her story was in alignment with the project’s mission to promote body acceptance after change.
The couple agreed to “bare all” and pose with each other.
The Photographer told Huffington Post:
“I want to teach women and men how to be confident again. You don’t have to be perfect in every way to be beautiful, you just have to own your flaws and embrace your differences.”
About doing the shoot – Varney felt as if she was taking off her “mask” and confronting what was really there.
“I wasn’t able to choose the angles, suck in my tummy or filter over my bits. I felt vulnerable, but at the same time empowered,” she said.
The images are magnificent indeed and the response on Social Media has mostly been phenomenal. Varney says while some
“missed the whole point of the pictures, our society seems to have hyper-sexualized naked bodies and associate an unclothed body with porn or something distasteful. It’s a body — we all have them, let’s celebrate differences in ourselves and each other!”