I was chatting to my eleven year old daughter this morning about women's bodies. About the normality of underarm hair and pubic hair, about breasts and all of the crazy changes women live with. And we touched upon judgement… and what is considered normal.

And it made me think about these lines:

Women have lost trust in their own bodies. Pregnant women have lost trust in their own bodies. We have taken to looking outside of ourselves for answers, instead of reaching in. Of knowing what is true for us as individuals.

We keep hearing about or telling ourselves that we have problems, based upon the concept of average. Of definable. Of ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. And in doing so we have lost a sense of ourselves along the way.

You own your body. It is yours to treat or make decisions about. There is no perfect.

There is no such thing as ‘normal’ really.

Hair is fine… wherever you wish to grow it. Decide what ‘old’ or ‘geriatric’ or high BMI really means to you. You can grow a baby. You can birth a baby.

You are able to find and sort through information that serves you best. It’s time to say a very loud ‘no more, no thank you’ to body criticism. And a very firm ‘Yes, but what is best for me?’ to standardised maternity care systems.