“Bouncing back”: How Australia's leading women's magazines portray the postpartum ‘body’

doi:10.1016/j.wombi.2011.08.004

Women and Birth

Volume 25, Issue 3, September 2012, Pages 128-134

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wombi.2011.08.004 Get rights and content

Summary

Purpose

To examine how the Australian media portrays the childbearing body through the use of celebrity stories in women's magazines. The study aimed to provide insight into socially constructed factors that might influence women's body image and expectations during pregnancy and the early postnatal period.

Method

Media content analysis was used to analyse 25 celebrity stories about the childbearing postnatal body (images and texts) collected from Australia's three leading women's magazines between January and June 2009 (n = 58).

Findings

A variety of persuasive textual and visual messages were elicited. The major theme representing how the postnatal body was constructed was labelled ‘Bouncing back’; the focus of this paper. The social messages inherent in the magazine stories were that women need to strive towards regaining a pre-pregnant body shape with the same effort one would employ when recovering from an illness. Three specific sub-themes that promoted weight loss were identified. These were labelled ‘Racing to bounce back’, ‘Breastfeeding to bounce back’ and ‘Pretending to bounce back’. A fourth sub-theme, ‘Refusing to bounce back: Celebrating my new body’, grouped together stories about celebrities who appeared to embrace their changed, but healthy, postnatal body.

Conclusions

The study highlighted the expectations of the postpartum body in relation to speedy return to the pre-pregnant state. Understanding how these portrayals may contribute to women's own body image and expectations in the early postpartum period may better assist maternity health care providers to engage with women in meaningful discussions about this important time in their lives and challenge notions of ideal body types. Assisting women to accept and nurture themselves and have confidence in their ability as a new parent is a crucial element of quality maternity service provision.

Introduction

Pregnancy, birth and early parenthood are important life experiences and these represent a period of adjustment which is associated with personal, familial and social changes that often carry cultural significance.¹ As such, the childbearing woman psychologically adapts to the changes that are occurring. A woman is also faced with exploring the relationship between her changing body and her identity as a mother.² Women's expectations and beliefs about their body, childbirth and becoming a mother are strongly influenced by the public, private and professional discourses around birth and parenting.3, 4 One potential powerful public discourse is the popular media. This paper presents some of the findings from a qualitative study that examined how the childbearing ‘body’ is portrayed through the use of ‘celebrity’ media images and texts in Australia's three leading women's magazines. The paper focuses on the changing postnatal body and highlights the messages that may contribute to a woman's expectations and experiences of the early postpartum period.

Section snippets

Background

Sociologist and feminist Leslie Jeffries⁵ has argued that the female body is constructed as a ‘problem’ in today's society. Like many of her postmodernist counterparts, Jeffries contests that language plays a pivotal role in this construction. Jeffries⁵ makes the point that what we understand by the ‘body’ or the ‘language’ is dictated mainly by the norms and conventions of the context in which women find themselves and the cultural imperative for women to look ‘good’ is strong. In earlier

Method

The aim of this study was to examine how the Australian media portrays the childbearing body through the use of celebrity stories (text and image). This study used the technique of media content analysis to examine the social construction of the early postpartum female body.

Findings

An overarching theme of ‘exemplary women’ emerged from the data and represented how childbearing celebrities are used by the media to create an image of the ‘ideal’ pregnant and postnatal body, almost creating a prototype or benchmark to aspire to. Contributing to this overarching theme were a number of major themes one of which was labelled ‘Bouncing back’; the focus of this paper.

Discussion

The media's portrayal of the ‘thin’, ‘ideal’ female body is well documented. From these media and cultural messages emerge, somewhat ‘exemplary’, stereotypes of beauty, success as well as health and an image of being in control.24, 25 The findings of this study suggest that the highly mediatised ‘ideal’ of the non-pregnant body is transferred to expectations of what the early postpartum body should look like as well.

This study revealed the strong competition between magazines to publish images

Conclusion

The aim of this study was to describe how the Australian media portrays the early postpartum body. This was undertaken through an examination of stories and images involving celebrities’ experiences. What was clearly evident was that woman's magazines produced a rapidly changing smorgasbord of images and ideas in which attractive, lively and charismatic people were given far more media space than measured experts.³⁰ This applied particularly to the domain of pregnancy, birth and the early

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Sociocultural pressures to pursue unrealistic appearance expectations and control body shape and weight during pregnancy and postpartum periods have been increasing. Little is known about messages from different sources that may constitute unhelpful or protective influences. The aim of this study was to qualitatively examine messages women received from the sociocultural environment during pregnancy and postpartum and their association with experiences of living in their bodies and body change behaviors. Twenty women, mean age (SD)= 31.85, (2.3) years, 95% White, 60% with a Master’s degree or higher, participated in individual interviews and completed online surveys. Women described appearance pressure from multiple sources during and after pregnancy, that increased their concerns related to their weight and shape. For a small number, these concerns were associated with efforts to control weight. Others described protective influences from friends and family that promoted body attunement, functionality appreciation, and positive body image. Findings highlight the importance of sociocultural influences during the peripregnancy period yet how many women derive elements of positive body image from this period. These findings have implications for interventions to support body image among women during the peripregnancy period and positive outcomes among mothers and infants.
The role of body dissatisfaction and self-compassion in pregnancy-related anxiety
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Citation Excerpt :
For example, the dominant ideal promoted during pregnancy is attaining the ‘perfect bump’ where the weight gain associated with pregnancy is limited to the stomach area, and a slender body is maintained (Hicks and Brown, 2016; Krisjanous et al., 2014). Media portrayals of pregnancy also promote rapid weight loss and a return to the woman's pre-pregnancy body weight and shape soon after birth (Roth et al., 2012). Not surprisingly, many women have reported experiencing pressure to minimize weight gain during pregnancy and to return quickly to pre-pregnancy weight and shape after childbirth (Watson et al., 2015).
Women undergo significant physical, physiological, and psychological changes during pregnancy. They are also exposed to sociocultural pressure to meet appearance-related ideals. These pregnancy-related changes and sociocultural appearance-related pressures may place pregnant women at greater vulnerability to developing body dissatisfaction and psychological distress. To date, however, little is known about how sociocultural pressure may influence pregnancy-related anxiety, or factors that may protect against such distress during pregnancy. This study examined whether body dissatisfaction mediated the relationship between appearance-related sociocultural pressure and pregnancy-related anxiety, and whether this relationship was moderated by self-compassion and/or self-criticism.
A cross-sectional sample of 253 pregnant women (M_age = 26.28, SD_age = 4.43) completed an online questionnaire measuring sociocultural pressure, body dissatisfaction, pregnancy-related anxiety, and self-compassion.
Moderated mediation analyses revealed body dissatisfaction fully mediated the relationship between sociocultural pressure and pregnancy-related anxiety. Analyses confirmed the moderating role of self-compassion and self-criticism on the relationship between sociocultural pressure and body dissatisfaction, but not on the relationship between body dissatisfaction and pregnancy-related anxiety.
The cross-sectional nature of this study limits confirmation of the direction of relationships between sociocultural pressure, body dissatisfaction and pregnancy-related anxiety.
While the findings of this study need to be replicated in prospective and longitudinal studies, they suggest that sociocultural pressure to meet appearance-related standards contribute to body dissatisfaction, which in turn may facilitate pregnancy-related anxiety. Self-compassion may protect the body image of pregnant women against negative effects of appearance-related sociocultural pressure.
Partner influences, breastfeeding, and body image and eating concerns: An expanded biopsychosocial model
2022, Appetite
Recent research among postpartum women has considered body image and eating attitudes as well as exclusive breastfeeding within common theoretical models. However, these efforts have so far neglected to include partner-related constructs, which constitutes an important gap. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine an integrated model of body image and eating concerns, and exclusive breastfeeding among mothers of infants six months and younger, that included partner appearance influences as well as general postpartum support.
A sample of new mothers (N = 156), aged 20–47 years, mean = 32.7 (SD = 4.7) years, reported on postpartum partner support and appearance pressures, thin-ideal internalization and body dissatisfaction, symptoms of disordered eating, depression, breastfeeding self-efficacy and exclusive breastfeeding. Path analyses were conducted to test the hypothetical model.
Findings revealed that the final model was a good fit to these data. Postpartum partner support was associated with lower depression and higher breastfeeding self-efficacy, through which it was related to higher reports of exclusive breastfeeding and lower eating disorder symptoms. In addition, partner appearance pressures and thin-ideal internalization were associated with higher body dissatisfaction, and thin-ideal internalization was also related to lower breastfeeding self-efficacy.
Partner influences may be important to account for in models of body image and eating concerns among postpartum women, and exclusive breastfeeding, and further research on ways in which they can support mothers of young infants is warranted.
Breastfeeding, body image, and weight control behavior among postpartum women
2021, Body Image
The goal of this study was to examine breastfeeding behavior and attitudes as predictors of women’s body image and weight control behavior. This study extends past research by focusing on positive body image variables including body appreciation and perceived body functionality. Women (N = 597) from the United States who had recently birthed biological babies ages 0–12 months participated in an online study. Current breastfeeding rates were high (86 %), and average breastfeeding duration was approximately 3 months. Women who were currently breastfeeding indicated more positive body images and less likelihood of engaging in maladaptive weight control behaviors than women who were no longer breastfeeding or had never breastfed their baby. Women’s positive attitudes toward breastfeeding were associated with awareness and appreciation of body functionality and fewer maladaptive weight control behaviors. These findings extend research on the health benefits of positive body image and suggest that breastfeeding may occur within a constellation of beliefs and behaviors indicative of positive body image.
‘Your mind is part of your body’: Negotiating the maternal body in online stories of postnatal depression on Mumsnet
2021, Discourse, Context and Media
Citation Excerpt :
Studying discourses around maternal bodies can therefore reveal the kind of normative standards that form them and according to which the maternal body should be experienced. Research into self-reported narratives of maternal bodies has tended to focus on embodied subjectivity in women’s stories of their pregnant and postnatal bodies, and how these bodies are experienced in relation to cultural norms of beauty and sexual function (Nicolson et al., 2010; Roth et al., 2012). In general, a changed postnatal body is societally constructed as undesirable and there is a push to ‘bounce back’ to the pre-pregnancy body shape as quickly as possible post birth (Roth et al., 2012; Patterson and O’Malley, 2013).
This paper looks at the intersection between motherhood and online illness narratives, examining the ways in which women conceptualise their maternal bodies in the context of postnatal depression. Specifically, we examine how discourses of motherhood in distress are positioned in relation to societal norms and expectations, and the othering of the ‘imbalanced’ maternal body. To do so, we apply corpus assisted discourse analysis to posts made in the Mumsnet Talk forum, which specifically discuss postnatal depression. Our findings highlight the discursive strategies employed to represent embodied experiences of a stigmatised condition in an online forum. We focus particularly on the use of embodied explanatory models for mental ill health in mothers to mitigate the stigma attached to the condition. Our study also shows how the embodied lived experience continually interacts with states of mind when making sense of PND and in doing so, transgresses the boundaries set by the body/mind dualism, which prevails in modern medicine.
Yummy Mummy — The ideal of not looking like a mother
2020, Women and Birth
Citation Excerpt :
Women’s expectations as to the appearance of the mothers’ body, however, seem sharp and explicit.4,18,19 For example Roth, Homer and Fenwick point to societal expectations of a speedy return to the bodily pre-pregnant state on the basis of a media content analyses of three Australian women’s magazines.20 Another Australian study by Nash based on digital postpartum photographs of Australian women argues how body image and bodily boundaries are reframed in the postpartum period, thus changing women’s perspectives on their bodies postpartum.21
Pregnancy and childbirth are important life experiences that entail major changes, both physically, psychologically, socially and existentially for women. Motherhood transition and the accompanying bodily changes involve expectations of body image that are simultaneously naturally and socially produced and culturally informed by public, private and professional discourses about motherhood transition.
Much focus is levelled at the antepartum body in maternity services whereas the postpartum body seems left alone, although bodily dissatisfaction is of concern for many mothers, whose expectations of bodily appearance postpartum are sharp and explicit.
To explore Danish first-time mothers’ experiences of their body postpartum, focusing on body image.
Eleven first-time mothers participated in semi-structured interviews related to the postpartum body image. Data was analysed thematically.
Four themes: (1) Reverting the body: on bouncing back and losing weight; (2) Picturing me: on standards of beauty and ideal bodies; (3) Redefining earlier self-images: on meta-reproachment of the body; (4) Idealisation of not looking like a mother: on societal pressure to think positively. Findings were discussed through the theoretical concepts by Scheper-Hughes and Lock: the body as both individual, social and political.
Despite nuanced reflections over the body as subject and object, women identified beauty as a personal trait dependent on visual appearance. Bodily beauty was identified as something individual, yet standardised. Women felt strengthened through motherhood but looking like a mother was not considered worth pursuing. To allow for women’s contradictory perspectives, caregivers are advised to communicate reflexively about the postpartum body.

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“Bouncing back”: How Australia's leading women's magazines portray the postpartum ‘body’

Summary

Purpose

Method

Findings

Conclusions

Introduction

Section snippets

Background

Method

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion

Midwifery

Becoming a parent

Making healthy families

Reframing birth: a consequence of caesarean section for a self-selected group of western Australian women

Journal of Advanced Nursing

Textual construction of the female body: a critical discourse approach

Imaginary bodies: ethics, power, and corporeality

Mediating the message: theories of influences on mass media content

Celebrity and power: fame in contemporary culture

Understanding celebrity culture

Unobtrusive methods in social research

Introduction