The Modern Belly

In the old days, before blogs, celebrity sites and Nicole Kidman, you got pregnant, you got fat, you got pregnant again, you got fatter, you get the idea. Maintaining one's figure was much idealized, idolized and rare. We all know those lucky few in our social circles who didn't get strechmarks and balanced their babies on bony hips. Then everything changed and weight gain and stretch marks went from badges of honor to pounds of shame and scars of sloth. I'm not sure where it started but now pregnancy means a five pound weight gain and a 10 pound baby. It's become a contact sport with food, push that food off the plate ! fight off that second cheeseburger with hours on treadmills and in yoga classes ! And a competition among women to see who can earn the much coveted MILF title five minutes after delivery. So I have to say it isn't a surprise to that Palin looked like the Goodyear blimp with her first pregnancy, and the after pic in a weight loss ad during her fifth. Things have changed folks and I bet a lot of us mommies who've spread our pregnancies over the last decade have similar photo comparisons. I still can't stand her but I can certainly understand the pressure on the contemporary mother to make the expanding pregnant belly unobtrusive, the expanded boobs prominent as possible, and the appendages slim. The modern mommy in waiting is sleek, sheathed in black and strutting in stilettos. Palen still looks like her belly might have been bound, but I suspect that might not be all that uncommon nowadays and there might be a lot of swooning in the near future from the reemergence of the corset.