Når kroppen har mistet

Det usynlige moderskabs materialitet

Abstract

In recent years, an increased focus on the so-called mom bod (a body that is not super-fit with physical marks of pregnancy and motherhood) has emerged. Many women de- scribe their postpartum bodies as temporary unwanted physical states of alienation. This perception is reflected in numerous magazines, books and beauty products targeting these bodies of taboo and seeking to give the women a way out of the unwanted state and thus regain their antepartum bodies – the ideal is to become a Yummy Mummy. The newly increased focus on the visual exposure of the imperfect body in both popular culture and art has however emerged and with that, the postpartum body has become part of the visual agenda. However, a dualism lurks in the mothers’ relationship with their bodies. On one side, they desire not to look like mothers but on the other, there is a sense of pride connected to the material manifestation of motherhood in the body that brought their child into the world.

But what about the mothers who do not get to bring their children home after delivery? Where the postpartum body is not just an aesthetically displeasing mark of motherhood but also a physical mark of loss and a constant reminder of invisible motherhood? The purpose of this article is to address the mothers’ dualistic relationship with their mom bods and illustrate the amplification and further complexity of these tensions when women experience perinatal loss. The article thus points to the grieving postpartum body as a central and complex but overlooked and taboo materiality.