Why This Woman's Second Pregnancy Looks Different
When Bethany, a marathoner and mom known as @BethyG27 on Instagram, was pregnant with her first child, she ran 37 weeks into her pregnancy and gave birth to a healthy baby boy. But she was in labor for 44 hours, and it took her six full weeks to recover from giving birth.
So when Bethany got pregnant the second time, she did some things differently: While she still ran throughout her pregnancy, she focused on weight lifting instead. Here she is at 40 weeks, lifting ~*like a boss~*:
Even though Bethany put on the same exact amount of weight during each of her pregnancies, weight lifting completely changed the way her bump looked the second time around. The photo on the left is her at 40 weeks pregnant with her first child, when she focused on running, while the photo on the right was taken 41 weeks into her second pregnancy, when she spent more time weightlifting:
When Bethany went into labor her second time, contractions lasted for just five hours before she delivered a baby girl who weighed a full pound more at birth than her first baby. This time, within five days of giving birth, she felt fully recovered. "My back and hips still killed towards the end," she recently wrote on Instagram six weeks after giving birth, "but in recovery and labor [lifting weights during pregnancy] has made ALL the difference...I know some of this is normal with multiple births, but I do think it goes to show if you work hard and consistent it does pay off...It is SO worth it and I am glad I pushed through every day of my pregnancy."
In part because she pushes herself to work out at times when she'd much rather be napping, Bethany has recovered so quickly from her second pregnancy that she felt the need to reveal her post-baby belly to convince her followers that yeah, she actually has created two humans.
"Over this last pregnancy I got a lot of negative comments daily," she wrote in her caption. "But someone commenting on my post workout pic saying I'm not a real mom did bother me. Mainly because someone judged another persons outward appearance and used that to decipher whether or not I'm a real mom. Yes, I'm a real mom and I don't need this extra skin or stretch marks to prove it. I'm posting this pic I because I struggle too and I purposely edited this picture to put my stretch marks on FULL display. I don't know if these will fade any or how things will settle in the next months, but let's not judge another standing based on how they look on the outside. Now excuse me while this real mom goes and rocks her baby back to sleep while covered in spit up."
Now that's a #StrongMom.
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