Badges of Honor
Badges of Honor
The scars of pregnancy
line my hips,
line my hips,
breasts
and stomach,
creating a roadmap
of change —
change from a girl
and teenager,
to a woman
and mother.
They are badges of honor
earned with love,
hard work,
and stomach,
creating a roadmap
of change —
change from a girl
and teenager,
to a woman
and mother.
They are badges of honor
earned with love,
hard work,
courage
and a hope
for a brighter tomorrow.
and a hope
for a brighter tomorrow.
© Nicole Ireland
It was really hard for me to share this poem with all of you because of the amount of emotion behind it. I’ve struggled with my body image my entire life. Pregnancy caused a lot of changes that I wasn’t fully prepared for. My body will never be what it once was. In order to deal with that reality, I had to find a new way to look at my body’s changes, so I wouldn’t feel so ugly or inadequate. My solution was to look at the changes as badges of honor. I earned them, and they show how much work it took me to bring my two miracles into this world. Those changes keep me grounded and remind me of the important things in life.
