This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its unique location you may go to the hyperlink bellow:
https://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/tidal-wave-of-pressure-has-the-ozempic-boom-made-it-harder-for-new-mums-20260109-p5nsxr.html
and if you wish to take away this text from our web site please contact us
Coming of age within the late Nineteen Nineties, Jessica Seitz, 33, is aware of the pressures of food regimen and “skinny” tradition nicely.
“I grew up my whole life with weight issues. You won’t find very many Millennials that didn’t at least have bad body image,” she says.
When she grew to become a mom at 24, these considerations didn’t go away. They morphed to mirror her altering physique.
The similar tradition Seitz grew up with, by which Victoria Beckham was compelled to weigh herself on stay tv two months after giving beginning, had advanced into dramatic postpartum weight reduction movies, extremely edited bikini pictures and “bounce back culture” on social media.
“At the moment, thinness, Ozempic, all of those things have become trendy. It’s very reminiscent of the Y2K, ’90s Kate Moss attitude,” says Seitz.
“But back then, you could walk away from a magazine that made you feel bad about your body. Social media is in your face all the time, every day,” she says, including it’s notably dangerous when customers don’t disclose how they achieved a sure look.
A recent scoping review from Flinders University discovered that three in 4 new mums battle with physique picture.
The analysis backs up what many years of literature exhibits, together with that being pregnant and menopause are shut behind puberty as high-risk periods for eating disorders and physique picture points in ladies.
The postpartum interval is usually thought of to span the three months following beginning, however restoration from the extreme physiological and psychological modifications introduced on by being pregnant can take years. Despite this, many moms are anticipated to “bounce back” mere months after beginning.
“I don’t think there’s enough support for women to understand just how big the changes are in your body in pregnancy to postpartum,” says Seitz.
“To say, ‘hey, your uterus takes up to 12 weeks to even go back to its normal size’. Especially celebrities and on social media, you see all these people that bounce back and that becomes the expectation of all women.”
And in 2026, the “ultra thin” culture of Seitz’s youth appears to be again, spurred partly by the rising prevalence of weight reduction medicine (GLP-1 receptor agonists) like Ozempic.
GLP-1s have been proven to be efficient within the remedy of kind 2 diabetes and weight problems. But they’re being more and more prescribed inappropriately, together with for small quantities of weight reduction.
While there isn’t a official information on whether or not extra new mums are asking for, or being prescribed, weight reduction medicine, social media is rife with post-pregnancy “transformations” enabled by such medicines. Meghan Trainor and Serena Williams are two celebrities who’ve spoken about utilizing these medicine to shed weight after being pregnant.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners psychological medication chair Dr Karen Spielman says whereas the faculty has not noticed a marked improve in postpartum requests for weight reduction medicine, members have seen a rise in younger moms expressing physique dissatisfaction.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration warns against using GLP-1s during pregnancy and while breastfeeding.
Partners play a task in physique picture
In the Flinders overview, researchers checked out 36 research revealed between 1986 and 2024 (greater than half had been revealed between 2019 and 2024), from international locations world wide, together with Australia.
Lead creator and PhD candidate Madeleine Rhodes got down to study the impression of interpersonal and environmental elements on physique picture, as a substitute of particular person elements like self-compassion and despair that the majority earlier analysis has centered on.
“Of course, those individual factors are incredibly important, but what we’re asking of women and people who are pregnant and in postpartum, to cope despite all of these sociocultural factors and our anxiety around body image … the onus still lies with women,” she says.
“They’re tasked with swimming upstream against this tidal wave of pressure, and I just feel like that is unfair. The responsibility needs to be redistributed.”
The overview discovered supportive companions and robust social networks helped with constructive physique picture, whereas unrealistic media portrayals, appearance-focused feedback and even well-meaning recommendation (like unsolicited compliments about one’s “small” pregnant physique) may do hurt.
Dr Briony Hill, a senior analysis fellow at Monash University with a give attention to ending weight stigma within the preconception, being pregnant and postpartum life phases, was not stunned by the outcomes of the Flinders examine.
Weight stigma, which she defines as “the social devaluation of somebody’s body because it’s different, and usually because it’s larger or of a higher weight”, is widespread for ladies within the perinatal interval, together with in healthcare settings.
This stigma can have vital well being results, says Hill.
“It can lead to a stress response in the body, which then can increase risks of other health complications. It is associated with increased depression and anxiety, as well as decreasing people’s ability to engage in the usual health behaviours, like having a healthy diet and just being physically active in general,” Hill says.
When it involves consuming problems, Spielman says there’s a vary of vulnerabilities that collide in postpartum – from intense hormonal modifications, to nervousness and isolation – placing moms at better threat.
Context issues too, after all. “10 years ago, people were a little more body positive, and now all of sudden, people are talking about weight loss being an easy thing because you can just get these medications,” says Spielman.
“That’s going to have a downstream impact”.
Social media and the return of ‘ultra-thin’ our bodies
Courtney Stubbs, 28, developed perinatal despair across the births of her two youngsters, and struggled with an adjustment dysfunction because of the modifications to her physique.
Indeed, analysis exhibits body dissatisfaction is associated with depression.
“The experience of being pregnant the first time was wild mentally for me,” she says.
“I’ve always had control of how my body looked, and to then be growing bigger and bigger was really hard. There were all these beautiful pregnant women, with the perfect bump and still skinny arms or legs, but I felt like I was just heavy, and the opposite of the identity I’d always seen in the mirror growing up.”
Stubbs had been an energetic child, and she or he was closely concerned in dancing, cheerleading and modelling, all actions that put intense strain on look, from a younger age.
“I was easily influenced by diet culture and always encouraged, if not pushed, to lose more weight, to book a modelling job, to be on top of the pyramid in cheerleading,” she says.
Stubbs, a enterprise proprietor and former actuality TV contestant with a big social media following, says this public visibility compounded the strain to look a sure manner after giving beginning, and she or he felt compelled to train and eat nicely, not only for well being, however to “bounce back”.
For Seitz, venturing offline highlights the unrealistic beliefs for moms that social media perpetuates.
“If you take your eyes off the screen and go out to your local swimming pool, it’s very eye-opening to see all different types of bodies. It’s really that irregularity of seeing perfectly fit bodies on your screen,” she says.
A 2022 analysis of Instagram discovered ladies in smaller our bodies had been extra more likely to share photos of themselves postpartum than these in bigger our bodies.
Improving physique picture
So, what can new mums, and the folks round them, do moreover merely logging off?
Spielman encourages moms to lean on their GPs for help and to give attention to establishing a stable social community, resembling “a good mothers’ group with people who can normalise and share and debrief, so that you don’t feel isolated and like you’ve got to be looking for unhelpful information,” she says.
Given a key threat issue for poor physique picture is appearance-related commentary, Rhodes encourages folks to be extra aware of the language they use round pregnant folks.
“It’s almost like a woman’s body during pregnancy becomes this object of public scrutiny,” she says.
“Often this is not necessary, and it’s not helpful, because you don’t know what people have been through. You don’t know if someone has been struggling with an eating disorder [for example].”
Her group’s findings additionally make clear the necessary function companions play in shaping constructive physique picture.
“What I’d like to see in the future is more conversations around body image, which is typically left to women and their friends, with men and partners, which can just break down that stigma,” she says.
“It’s a bit of a check-in because often body image concerns can be an indication of other things like depression or secretive disordered eating … and being quite reassuring and loving is really respectful and can be a powerful thing.”
For Seitz, who began sharing movies of herself on social media after the beginning of her second little one to normalise our bodies like hers, changing into a mom has been an overwhelmingly constructive expertise, regardless of some destructive feedback.
“I have such a lovely community,” she says, “and it’s really helped me feel more confident in my body.”
If you or anybody you realize wants help, name the Butterfly National Helpline1800 33 4673, Lifeline 131 114, Beyond Blue 1300 224 636, or PANDA between 9am and seven.30pm on 1300 726 306.
Make probably the most of your well being, relationships, health and vitamin with our Live Well publication. Get it in your inbox each Monday.
From our companions
This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its unique location you may go to the hyperlink bellow:
https://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/tidal-wave-of-pressure-has-the-ozempic-boom-made-it-harder-for-new-mums-20260109-p5nsxr.html
and if you wish to take away this text from our web site please contact us
