Hunter McGrady is learning to love her postpartum body.
Hunter McGrady
The Sports Illustrated model - who has Hudson Tynan with husband Brian Keys - feels "grateful" for her body 12 days after giving birth despite her "loose skin" and stretchmarks.
She wrote: "I’m Just a girl, standing in front of a mirror, 12 days postpartum, with breast milk stains, and depends diapers, pure exhaustion, asking herself to learn to love this new body.
"To give herself grace, to feel the gummy-ness of her new tummy, and the loose skin and remembering that this body not only created life, but housed it for 9 months, went 45 hours into labor, and is now feeding it daily all with one vessel.
"I feel so grateful for this body today. Leaky breasts, bloody diapers(on my end) new stretch marks, gummy tummy and all. (sic)"
Hunter, 28, welcomed her baby boy at the end of June and revealed the meaning behind his name, which is a tribute to her younger brother Tynan, who died in May at age 23.
She said at the time: "I've never known this kind of love. The healing we desperately needed. I can't wait to tell him how special his middle name is."
During the course of her pregnancy, the model opened up about the lack of representation for plus-size pregnant women.
She wrote: "Being plus size the representation already falls incredibly short, but being plus size AND pregnant? Forget it.
"When I embarked on this journey I was excitedly googling pregnancy, plus size pregnancy, bump pictures, updates, all the things! However, I never saw myself represented.
"I knew going into this my belly wasn't going to be this perfect little round thing that just bops out, I knew I wouldn't have options for maternity wear, I knew my body would change in different ways than I have seen my whole life, and yet I don't know if I was prepared for how much the plus size pregnancy representation lacks."
Hunter continued: "There aren't any plus size pregnant women on magazine covers, advertisements, television, or even the brochure's at the OBGYN office. It's almost as if we don't exist, like we're an anomaly. I'm here to tell you that you are not a 'one off' you're not wrong for being plus size and pregnant, your body is equipped for this.
"Wherever you are on your journey just remember how wildly worthy you are to experience this and enjoy every moment of it just as anyone else."