Ahead of Mother’s Day a Preston mum has opened up on body confidence.

Carolyn Gibson has put together a short series of portrait photos of ‘Mum Bods’.

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The photographer from Cottam says she was inspired to take the pictures after a crisis of confidence following the birth of her second child.

Carolyn said: “I was inspired to create this project as I will soon be embarking on a mini break with friends, a lot of which are female and I will be the only one in my friendship group with a ‘Mum Bod’.

“I have two children, one still a newborn, I really started to panic about silly things such as swimwear and how other people will view my postpartum body and it suddenly dawned on me I am most definitely not alone, there will be hundreds of other woman at our mini break who probably feel exactly the same as me.

“I wanted to spread a realistic version of a womans body, the media are so quick to put pressure on woman post childbirth, we are surrounded by such perfectly edited bodies every day when in reality every single one of the girls who took part in the project are flawless, stunning and real.

“I had to practise what I preached and also partook and what an empowering experience it was.”

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So far around a dozen women have been photographed by Carolyn as part of her project which she plans to unveil fully on Mother’s Day on her Facebook page.

Carolyn said: “Some of the ladies in the project were already very body confident but wanted to show others it only takes the decision to be so to achieve it, where as others arrived very nervous and very withdrawn, after talking and joking with them about child birth, body changes and all the experiences a baby brings I realised they no longer held a posture of nerves but complete confidence.

“The project so far has been inspirational, I’ve taken from it much more than I ever imagined and met some incredible women.”

Reflecting on the project, Carolyn said: “My message to other Mummies who may feel similar, who may battle between opting for a bikini or a swimming costume due to insecurities is to embrace your body, it has made an incredible little human, it has done a wondrous thing and we should not be influenced by what society assumes a woman should look like but be confident enough in ourselves to share the realistic woman post childbirth.”

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