The Truth About Stretch Marks: They Are Beautiful

Obie Editorial Team

Having children is insanely different for different people. I have four children from three pregnancies. None of my children ever “dropped” so I carried all my baby weight above my belly button. This meant my stomach stretched to unreal dimensions. Just before giving birth to my twins, for example, my waist measured a whopping 62-inches. There is no amount of cocoa butter in the world to prevent stretch marks when you have a 62-inch stomach, but I love every stretch mark my children caused. 

Stretch Marks and Pregnancy Health

There is no correlation between the health of your pregnancy and the stretch marks that develop on your stomach. The skin’s elasticity varies from one person to the next so one woman can give birth to triplets and not have one stretch mark and you can give birth to a 4-pound preemie and have a stomach full of them. 

Getting Rid of Stretch Marks

There are plenty of home methods of getting rid of stretch marks, but none are going to take away these permanent scars 100-percent. Most of the at home treatments center on fading the bright pink color that makes your stretch marks more pronounced. This will happen naturally over time. My twins are eight now and my stretch marks are the same color as my skin, but they are still there and still visible. 

How to Love Your Stretch Marks for Life

I know that stretch marks are not the most beautiful thing to have when you want to wear a bikini on the beach, but take a look at each one of those little red marks and then look at the child you carried that caused those marks. I remember when my little ones were still little – they used to love looking at the complicated web of stretch marks I developed during my three pregnancies. They gave my tummy a pet name - the brain – and they still love the brain to this day.