As a photographer, Ashlee Wells Jackson has seen first hand how women can have a distorted relationship with their bodies.
When Ashlee tragically lost one of her twin girls, Aurora, at birth she started feeling as though her body was a failure. She writes on her website that at the time she felt “like less of a woman. Like less of a mother,” and feeling broken, she knew she needed to do something.
That’s how the 4th Trimester Bodies Project was born. In June 2013, five months after her other twin daughter Nova came home from hospital, Ashlee stood in front of the camera, and in one photograph, captured the challenging time she had been through.
From there, she’s grown an empowering project that gives women a platform to share their stories and normalise their experiences of motherhood.
She’s currently travelling the world capturing images and stories.
The diversity between these women and their honesty when it comes to their experiences of being mums is truly refreshing.
Speaking to The Huffington Post, Ashlee explained, "I see beautiful, inspiring, real women on a daily basis who struggle with their body image because they don’t feel they measure up with who the media tells them to be.
I feel like this is even more poignant in mothers who often feel like their bodies have been ruined when they should instead be respected for creating, sustaining and nourishing life."
The project's website showcases 20 women and their stories. Ashlee's site says, "It doesn't matter how you've come to motherhood or how old your children are. If you've the bravery, we'd love to photograph you."
She writes that the project "is dedicated to embracing the beauty inherent in the changes brought to our bodies by motherhood, childbirth and breastfeeding," and argues, "motherhood is sacred and should be celebrated."
Unlike the highly curated, photoshopped images we usually see of women post-pregnancy, the 4th Trimester Project photos, featured in the gallery below, are intrinsically positive.
As Ashlee writes, "This project exists because women and men and society need it. Because our sons and daughters deserve more. Because we deserve more. Because we are beautiful - stretches, stripes, scars and all."
You can visit the site and read each woman's detailed story here.
Top Comments
As a formerly obese person, I must say I absolutely hate the term "real women". Why are only overweight women "real"? Are skinny women holograms or something? Some people are naturally skinny, some people are naturally bigger and more solid (me! thanks to my Pacific Islander background). We're all real!!!
I don't have kids, but I have to say I just DO NOT UNDERSTAND the need for all these "4th trimester" photos. You know what, even without kids I have cellulite, stretch marks and saggy boobs, and yet, miraculously, I feel no need to post pictures (or seek out other people's photos) to seek validation or empowerment that my body is 'normal'. Why do I need to see a photo of a stretched out post-birth naked body in mesh undies with a pad? Why is that valuable to my womanly education? I really just don't get it.
I get what your saying, but sometimes after having kids, particularly if your body was in a much different shape before kids and celebrities flashing there post baby bodies that look as if they never really carried it is refreshing to look at pictures of everyday people. I don't personally see these photos as being a validation or empowerment, it just seems lovely. I think seeing magazines and media with celebrates that do such photos are seeking that validation and empowerment. With the extra pressure that women go through after having babies and with the amount information that is bombarded onto you if you seek some answers photos like these seem real and can sometimes help some women and reassure them everything is just the way it should be.