She is not the first celebrity to show off her body on social media after giving birth. Despite the fact that the precedents indicate that this practice often causes avalanches of criticism, on Sunday Cristina Pedroche could not help it and posted on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) a video of herself looking in the mirror and feeling her belly and buttocks “Three weeks and two days postpartum”, he wrote. “There is no luck or miracles here, there is a lot of preparation before and after pregnancy. Healthy life, sport, healthy food and meditation”, he specified. Yesterday, after a cascade of reproaches, he had to clarify. Many Internet users remind him that his success is thanks to a position of privilege. Specialists warn that the priority after childbirth should not be the figure, but the baby, motherhood.
“I didn’t think I had made her so fat,” the presenter posted yesterday. He declared remorse and regretted “all this hatred” that his initiative caused. “I didn’t say that this is the body anyone should have after giving birth. It’s my account and I’m talking about me, only about my personal case. I don’t talk about other women or other pregnancies other than mine”, he argues. However, experts agree that Pedroche’s display does not reflect a sensible model of motherhood and can cause frustration in mothers who, despite their efforts, do not manage to recover their physical appearance.
María José Valiente, a humanist psychologist, considers that the presenter has acted without malice, but that she has not measured the consequences well enough: “She is a famous person who has more influence than you might think and what she says can have an impact on thinking and the self-esteem of many people. I have a consultation and I have many mothers who are going through these times of postpartum crisis, with the hormonal changes that affect them, and this message came to say: ‘if you want, you can, it’s not about miracles or luck’. But no. Luck is very important in life. As long as you have time to go to the gym, to meditate, to dedicate yourself to yourself, you are lucky. It is clear that you have to do your part, but there are people who have to take care of others, put in washing machines, cook… and they are also mothers”.
Marta Villanova, midwife at the Hospital del Mar, explains that the physiological changes experienced by pregnant women must be remedied, but “you shouldn’t rush to do it immediately”. “A uterus that has been growing for nine months cannot disappear in two days. It has to shrink and reinsert itself into the pelvis, and this doesn’t happen before 10 or 12 days in all cases.” This is the most visible sign of labor. From here, it depends on each woman, on factors such as genetics, age or physical characteristics. Nutrition and maintaining good physical shape during pregnancy help to restore the image, but they do not guarantee anything, and the hormonal dance after childbirth does not help either.
While Pedroche boasts of a body after three weeks, the puerperium or quarantine (the period the body needs to recover the characteristics of before birth) is 35-40 days. “Until 6 or 8 weeks, we don’t begin to assess the state of the pelvic floor and talk about whether it is necessary to exercise the muscles with hypopressive exercises,” says Villanova. In any case, she clarifies based on her experience, the number of women who are concerned about their physique and who compare themselves to celebrities – “that’s the worst thing they can do” – after giving birth is insignificant. “In one-on-one visits and postpartum groups, other things are discussed. Sometimes the subject of famous women who are formidable comes up, but more as an anecdote: ‘look how she is and look how I am’. More than the image, mothers are concerned about the topic of breastfeeding, or how their role has changed in the couple or family sphere…”.
“If you go out in a bikini and say ‘look how well I’ve recovered and it’s not a matter of luck’ what do you want, to be applauded?” Valiente asks: “Because of things like this there are people who have very low self-esteem and says ‘everyone is happy and I have a shitty life’. This is the danger of social networks, many people look up to it. But if a person is happy and in love with their baby, it will be the same. He will be taking care of himself without obsessing, he will feed well for the child and the body will gradually settle down. It’s time to prioritize your relationship with the baby, what you want is for him to be well and the rest is fine.”
The psychologist warns, in this sense, that physical health is not of much use if there is a tormented mind and that the degree of impact of media influence will depend on the inner work of each person. However, he is lenient with Pedroche: “The fact that a person was not right when saying something does not mean that we have to blame the whole person. We all make mistakes. We have to learn to talk more, to respect each other more and, above all, that we don’t have to have the same ideas, but the same respect”.
