She is not the first famous woman to boast of her body on social networks after giving birth. Despite the fact that the precedents indicate that this practice usually produces avalanches of criticism, on Sunday Cristina Pedroche could not avoid the temptation and uploaded a video to Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) looking in the mirror and feeling her belly and buttocks. “Three weeks and two days postpartum,” she wrote. “Here there is no luck or miracles, there is a lot of preparation before and after the pregnancy. Healthy life, sports, healthy food and meditation, ”she specified. Yesterday, after a cascade of reproaches, she had to qualify. Many netizens remind her that her achievement is due to a privileged position. Specialists warn that the priority after childbirth should not be the figure, but the baby, motherhood.
"I didn't think all this was going to get messed up," the presenter published yesterday. She declared that she was sorry and regretted "all this hatred" that her initiative provoked. “I have not said that this is the body that anyone has to have after giving birth. It's my account and I'm talking about myself, only about my personal case. I am not talking about other women or other pregnancies that are not mine, ”she argues. However, specialists agree that Pedroche's ostentation does not reflect a sensible model of motherhood and can cause frustration in mothers who, despite their efforts, cannot recover their physical appearance.
María José Valiente, a humanist psychologist, understands that the presenter has acted without evil, but has not well measured the consequences: "She is a famous person who has more influence than she may think and what she says can have an impact on thinking and self-esteem of a lot of 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 is not about miracles or luck'. But not. Luck is very important in life. From the moment you have time to go to the gym, meditate, dedicate yourself, you are already lucky. Of course you have to do your part, but there are people who have to take care of others, put on washing machines, cook... and they are also mothers”.
Marta Vilanova, a midwife at the Hospital del Mar, explains that the physiological changes experienced by pregnant women must be reversed, but "don't rush to do it immediately." “A uterus that has been growing for nine months cannot disappear in two days. It must shrink and re-enter the pelvis, and this does not happen before ten or twelve days in all cases. That is the most visible sign of childbirth. From here, it depends on each woman, on factors such as genetics, age or physical characteristics. Diet and having maintained good physical shape during pregnancy help to restore the image, but they do not guarantee it, and the hormonal dance after childbirth does not help either.
While Pedroche boasts of a body at three weeks, the puerperium or quarantine (the period the body needs to recover the characteristics prior to childbirth) is 35-40 days. "We didn't begin to assess the state of the pelvic floor and talk about whether it is necessary to exercise the muscles with hypopressive exercises until 6 or 8 weeks," says Vilanova. In any case, she qualifies based on her experience, the number of women who are concerned about their physique and who compare themselves to celebrities – “it's the worst thing they can do” – after giving birth is insignificant. “In the one-on-one visits and in the postpartum groups, they talk about other things. Sometimes the topic of celebrities who are great comes up, but more as an anecdote: 'Look how she is and look how I am'. More than the image, they are concerned about the issue of breastfeeding, or how their role has changed as a couple or as a family...”.
"If you go out in a bikini and say: 'Look how well I have recovered and it's not a matter of luck', what do you want, to be applauded?" Valiente says: "For 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 reflect on them. But if a person is happy and in love with her baby, she won't care. He will be taking care of himself without obsessing, he will eat well for the baby, and little by little his body will put himself in her place. It is the moment to prioritize your relationship with the baby, what you want is for it to be well, and the rest of the refanfinfla”.
The psychologist warns, in this sense, that physical health is of little use in a tormented mind and that the degree of affectation of the media influence will depend on the inner work of each one. However, she is lenient with Pedroche: “That a person has not been right when saying one thing does not mean that we have to kill the whole person. We all make mistakes. We have to learn to talk more, to respect each other more and, above all, that you don't have to have the same ideas, but you do have the same respect”.
