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The Fourth Trimester Bodies Project
Suffering from the loss of a daughter, photographer Ashlee Wells Jackson felt the pain of women who felt their bodies had betrayed them. Through taking pictures of women's bodies after they had children, she and business partner Laura Weetzie Wilson launched "The 4th Trimester Bodies Project" to celebrate images of women's bodies that are "beautiful and honest and realistic." Jackson's body graces the book's cover. Click through the gallery to see pictures and read the words of other women in the project.
courtesy Ashlee Wells Jackson
Barbara Marty, left, her daughter Beth Maclin right, and Asha, center, age 3. Asha is Maclin's daughter and Marty's granddaughter. After having an emergency C-section with her first pregnancy, Maclin says, "I am who I am because of what I have gone through. It took me awhile to be able to say this, but I wouldn't trade it."
courtesy Ashlee Wells Jackson
Tanya Mance had healthy pregnancies and medication-free deliveries with both Amin, 9, and Beja, 7, but suffered from postpartum depression after each birth. While she told Jackson that she initially wanted to erase her "war wounds," now she "considers them a part of her transformation into (becoming a) mother."
courtesy Ashlee Wells Jackson
Sara Ervin is mother to Roman, age 9 months. Ervin says her mother, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, took a lot of her anger and psychosis out on Sara when she was growing up. Ervin told Jackson that she never showed emotions other than anger until the moment Roman was on her chest. She fell in love "and was forever changed." For the first time, she says she can can feel, love and cry.
courtesy Ashlee Wells Jackson
Nava Burkhardt has two children: Taj, 16, and Esa-Avi, 3. Both children had to be delivered via C-section but spent much less time in the hospital than expected. Since Burkhardt's body didn't change with her first pregnancy, she was shocked when she gave birth to her son 10 years later. "I wanted to 'get back to normal' [but] I saw this project and realized ... this is my new 'normal," she told Jackson. "Seeing other women's photos and hearing their birth stories made me feel like I'm not alone."
courtesy Ashlee Wells Jackson
Heather Kimble had been pregnant for 24 weeks when her daughter, Hannah Sue, was stillborn. "I want mothers of loss to know: YOU ARE STILL A MOTHER."
courtesy Ashlee Wells Jackson
Martha Aguilar is mother to Malaki, 6, and Delilah, 17 months. Aguilar had her son just out of high school and initially found being a mother while still a teen very difficult. Having her second child was easier, since she knew what her body could do.
courtesy Ashlee Wells Jackson
Hillary Scharmann, mother to Holden (7 months), says she was turned away from a hospital-based midwifery practice based on her BMI. A birth doula herself, she did the research to find a practice that would not automatically rate her as high-risk. "What good is there in hating on yourself?" she told Jackson. "Nurture and honor that body. Set this example for your children!"
courtesy Ashlee Wells Jackson
Diana Ramon and her new husband both felt a lot of pressure from her extended family to have a baby right away. Now mother to Gilberto (age 2.5), she ended up seeking fertility help and had an uneventful pregnancy and delivery.
courtesy Ashlee Wells Jackson
Sharla Brender tried for five years to get pregnant without success, and finally conceived her son William (now 6 months) through IVF and delivered vaginally. While she describes the whole experience as traumatic, she also says "I am whole. I am strong. We are a family. At last."
courtesy Ashlee Wells Jackson
Pilar Shaker's pregnancy brought up trauma from an abusive relationship when she was a young adult. Following the birth of her son, she told Jackson she began seeking professional help for her PTSD and "started down the road toward healing."
courtesy Ashlee Wells Jackson
When Lisa Trimmer's first child didn't move out of her breech position, Trimmer had to have a C-section but waited until her water broke to have it. She had succesful VBAC with her next baby. She is tandem nursing both Evelyn, age 21 months, and Virginia, age 2 weeks.