Abbey Clancy is the latest star to snap back into shape after giving birth just nine weeks ago. Clancy gave birth to her and her fiance Peter Crouch's daughter Sophia Ruby on 14th March this year and she has already been pictured looking svelte in numerous magazines and newspapers. Heat.com reported that Clancy was back in her skinny jeans just 11 days after giving birth, whilst other magazines reported that the models waist was at 24 inches seven weeks after giving birth. Clancy isn't the first celebrity to shed the baby weight so quickly after giving birth. When Coleen Rooney gave birth back in 2009 she said she was in no hurry to lose her baby weight, yet 2 months later she was pictured on a night out having re-gained her post pregnancy figure. Coleen reportedly said that the reason she lost the weight so quickly was that due to her height she can sometimes look bigger than she is, especially in pictures. With celebrity mothers snapping back into shape so quickly, it begs the question: what kind of role models are these women to expectant mothers? The Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care say that mothers should take up to a year to gradually lose pregnancy weight and the National Institute for Health and Clincal Excellence second this recommendation. In 2009, Toby Carvery carried out research as part of their mum's healthy eating campaign. 3000 woman were surveyed and 90% of those women said that the super skinny celebrities that lose baby weight very soon after giving birth add to the pressure to look good after giving birth. Sarah Hughes, Journalist for MailOnline and reporter, spoke of how after her second child she became obbsessed with her weight and not only getting back to her pre-pregnancy body of size 12-14, but losing even more weight to become her goal size 10. After seeing and hearing the madness that new mothers would go through to prevent weight gain over the pregnancy - such as strenuous exercise, calorie controlled diets, avoiding carbs and even the suggestion of cosmetic surgery - she decided that spending time with her newborn child was more important than her appearance. But with tips on how to lose baby weight quickly and celebrity mothers plastered over the pages of magzines sharing their post baby diets with the readers, how could a new mother not feel pressurised into re-gaining a perfect figure? The reality is, many women will never re-gain the perfect figure that they see in magazines. The survery revealed that no matter how much exercise or dieting they do, one in three woman will never be able to return to their pre-baby bodies. For the other women who do have the potential, they need to realise that, for them, it will take longer than two months to be back on form. Claire Mysko and Magali Amadei released a book called Does This Pregnancy Make Me Look Fat?: The Essential Guide To Loving Your Body Before And After Baby. They interviewed 400 women when making the book, and asked them about their fears of pregnancy and motherhood as well as how they felt about the media's portrayal of the subject. Amadei and Mysko said that most of the woman are aware that celebrities have the help of nannies, chefs and personal trainers, a luxury that normal woman cannot afford. They even said that most woman found it "ridiculous", "unhealthy" and "frustating" the way the media portrays pregnancy and motherhood, yet they still try to compete with these celebrity mothers when losing baby weight. A refreshing story came when Kourtney Kardashian admitted she hasn't lost all of her baby weight after U.S. OK! magazine digitally slimmed her post baby body and put the picture on the front cover of the magazine. The original picture had been taken on 22nd December 2009, a week after Kourtney had given birth to her son Mason and was used for Life and Style magazine. OK! then doctored the photograph by changing the colour of her tunic and slimming her stomach down and used the photograph with the caption "My diet secrets - lose 10lbs in 10 days" claiming that they had an exclusive interview with her. Kourtney put the record straight by telling Women's Wear Daily: "They doctored and Photoshopped my body to make it look like I have already lost all the weight, which I have not." She said that she was in no rush to lose the weight as she was too occupied with her son. Unfortunately this is a rare occasion, as Sarah Hughes said, if you don't put any effort in to your appearance after giving birth and become and stay at home mum you're considered lazy and a failure. Yet if you diet, exercise and go back to work, you're a selfish woman who doesn't care for her child. The main focus after giving birth should surely be the health and wellbeing of your child, not whether or not, like Coleen, you'll look fat in pictures. Pregnancy is meant to be one of the most joyful time of a woman's life, but due to the media and celebrity mum's rush to get back to their physical best the focus is being taken off the beauty of bringing a child into the world and given to the competitive shallow world of physical perfection. FemaleFirst Cara Mason
Tagged in Coleen Rooney Abbey Clancy