Mumsnet Body Image survey

[CarrieMumsnet]

Hi all

For all those who've come here having done the Mumsnet Body image survey, please feel free to share your views on this thread.

For those of you who haven't got a clue what we're talking about, please click here If you need an incentive to click, it's a fun survey on the true cost of motherhood (and we're talking pelvic floors and stretchmarks not expensive buggies) plus you've got the chance to win £250 of Sweaty Betty vouchers.

And once you've completed the surgery you can come back here and talk about how you really feel about designer vaginas

I look exactly the same as before apart from now my stomach is a bit crepey and I have a section scar

I look exactly the same as before apart from very slightly crepey skin on my tummy (this has improved since gaining a few kilos - I was incredibly thin after 8 months of breastfeeding).

That survery missed a big factor - for me, anyway. You mnetion 'designer vaginas' but apart from that it's all about how your body image has been affected by what you look like on the outside. Well my body image has been majorly and negatively affected by what I look like on the inside. The damage that giving birth vaginally has done to my vagina means that I have much less sensation than I used to. And having less enjoyment from sex really fucks up my body image. There's not much femininty or sexuality left in my body image. I have to make a positive effort to like what I see in the mirror. I may look like a lush woman, but I certainly don't feel like one.

Same as olive and anna - body not that different just some crepey bit on lower stomach which is covered with bikini bottoms anyway.

I'm pretty happy with how I look but could do with being a bit more toned - that's cos I've not exercised properly for ages though.

Mine is similar but I have a horrible wobbly tummy with stretchmarks and c-section overhang which I like to think of as my battle scars but secretly (oh ok publicly) I wish would fark orf. Not enough to have surgery though

done it!

i wouldn't have a designer vagina, mainly because i'd be afraid if the surgeon screwed up or i had complications my fanjo might be even worse than before! but i don't have a problem with others' wanting/having such a procedure.

the damage done to me from having given birth vaginally has impacted the most. I also had/have SPD, so having a child has disabled me in that way.

Your survey asked "If money were no object would you have"...and I replied tummy tuck.

I have damaged tummy muscles (diastasis recti) which can only be 100% repaired by surgery. It's not the money that's the issue, because I'd find it like a shot, but the risks of surgery.

If the surgery could be keyhole under a local (which it can't because of the nature of it) I would have had it done by now.

As an aside, my DH only says he doesn't like my huge tummy because I'm so unhappy with it. He loves me for who I am rather than what I look like, and the 2 gorgeous DC's we've produced.

same here BellaLasagne... although I am currently pinning my hopes on Pilates for the diastasis recti

and I am getting quite certain that I will have vaginoplasty done before the end of the year. I'm only 31 and it just all feels so baggy[wails] - pelvic floor exercises seem to have made naff all difference
Will be seeing the gynae physio next week, and then I'll give it till the summer to see if exercises managed to sort it out...

My body has changed A LOT since having children. Nobody told me that my back would get wider, my hips broader. I expected saggy boobs and a jelly belly but I didn't anticipate it changing so dramatically.

I have mixed feelings towards my body now - on one hand it's amazing, it grew 3 beautiful children, and I am healthy and relatively fit. My figure isn't too bad.

But then I see my 3-times-Caesarean-scarred-tummy with associated shelf that I can not shift, the flabby tummy and the droopy boobs and I feel sad remembering the body I had before and didn't appreciate.

If I won the lottery Saturday I would be in a clinic on Monday morning having lipo on my thighs and my boobs putting back where they used to be!

Done. I look about the same, apart from my boobs which are even tinier than before (think famine victim) and a bit less taut over the tummy. I think I got off lightly!

I weighed a bit less , pre child. I don't give it any more thought than that. Sometimes it makes me a bit miserable, but OBVIOUSLY not miserable enough to get off my fat ass and do anything about it !

My boobs have sagged abit. That makes me a bit sad. i still have great norks, but they were fantasy-toesy before.

finised the surgery - did you mean survey!!

I had to answer a lot i dont know as been very single since had ds so could not answer sex questions.

I once name changed to designervagina - may change it back now!

I would just like my boobs lifted if i could choose one thing

Geekgirl - pilates definitely helps but even more so if you can get to see a specialist post-natal trainer who understands teh problem. I only needed to go one, cost me £30 for an hour, and she gave me loads of good advice.

If only I remembered/had time to do the excercises!

I weighed a bit less and I now have stretchmarks on my tummy (hence no more bikinis). The stretchmarks have faded a lot in the 3 years since my last DC but now I'm having baby no. 4, I suppose they'll go red again.

Tbh I'm actually surprised how well everything has held up.

OK
I have just completed it.
I don't like yes/no/don't know. Too restrictive. I want to express myself fully!!
I would wear a bikini now but only if I coudl find a style that held my stomach in a bit/hid the crepey bits, and possibly because I would feel 'old' in swimsuit.
Given a choice it would be lights off sex, but DH persuades me otherwise.
I would not have a "designer vagina" op -as that implies cosmetic surgery but may well need some sort of surgery at some point to push everything back up where it started from!

God Designer Vagina - that would be some close up small stitches!??!

Message withdrawn

LilRedWG and Chorusline at freudian slip and "once you've completed the surgery..." No we haven't branched out into online nip and tucks and Yes we meant survey.

Thanks for all the feedback so far. The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that we stuck in an extra sneaky question re health risks after BellaLasagne's comments. No more question suggestions though please as we already have almost 700 replies and it might make for some odd results if we keep altering the questions

Thanks to all who've taken the survey so far, if like Tigana you find the one word answers too restrictive please do add additional thoughts on this thread.

Do we win a prize for noticing?

Bump for those who've not done this yet.

And another bump

Hmm - I have a few issues with this survey - there are a few flaws in the assumptions that might be drawn from it.

The way the questions are structured means that the automatic assumption is that if you are less happy with your body post-birth, then it is as a result of changes which occurred BECAUSE of birth. However, body changes occur anyway as we age - fat gets put on during perimenopause for example. It might be because of changed lifestyle after birth e.g. less ability to go to the gym

I think it's just too much of a straightforward A+B = C structure.

Also, even if you have a caesarean, pelvic flor muscles can be weakened by the pressure of the baby's head in pregnancy, so that Q about 'have you ever had a vaginal birth should perhaps be, Did you have a a) Vaginal or b) Caesarean or c) I haven't given birth (plenty of pregnant 'new' mums here.)

Don't know who the company behind the survey is, but if they need some marketing/ market research help I can recommend myself someone