Battle Scars...

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars" ~ Khalil Gibran

Scars have also been synonym to warriors, to soldiers, to protectors. The bigger the better. More scars means more battles fought and won, more innocent people saved/protected.

Scars however are not acceptable on a woman. A woman is expected to have smooth flawless skin. It doesn't matter if we're 6 or 60 years old. We women are expected to have scar-less skins cause that's what indicates that we are women? Blehhh...

When I got pregnant I got many advises and info. One of it was to apply baby oil/bio oil on my tummy to avoid stretch marks. Since I am already marred with many scars (from self-inflicting accidents, cause I'm a very clumsy person :P), I diligently followed the advice. And I was very proud because till Week 32 I am still stretch mark-less and even my gynae was very surprised because it's very common for dark skinned pregnant women to have stretch marks.

Then came Week 36 and suddenly I started seeing spots of darkened skin on my waist. Oh no! What went wrong I asked myself? I have never been obedient with daily routines before (I am an engineer, I have no time to primp!) but I made sure I rubbed on the baby oil twice a day on my tummy. This should not be happening! Panicked and googled up lots of remedies to avoid the dreaded stretch marks. But before I even tried any of it, I remembered what a colleague once told me "you are not a mother if you don't have stretch marks". Back then when I heard that, I just thought to myself that stretch marks should not be made synonym to mothers. I can fight it! Hahahahahaa... How delusional I was? I am aware there are many women out there who have flawless skin even after delivering many children. And no, I am not indicating that you are not a good mother. But at the same time neither does a mother wish to have stretch marks all over her body.

This is about myself, about my stretch marks. :-)

I learnt to accept that it is part and parcel of the next phase in my life. A 3.0 kg baby grew in my womb, I am bound to have stretch marks here and there. Also these are the same marks I have seen on my mother as I was growing up. The marks were the as prove that my mother has gone through so much to bring me and my siblings to the world.

So yeah, all those stretch mark adverts showing women with smooth belly does not faze me anymore. And I am not so tempted to splurge on all the anti-mark/scar creams on the shelves at the pharmacy.

Finally I came across this quote by a brilliant woman who probably was sick and tired of being scrutinized cause of her stretch marks and I was SOLD :

And I am proud to say that I have indeed earned my battle scar after all. ;-)