Amy Lynn Gross, 7 months pregnant (25) and Adelaide (2)
Photographed in Seattle, Washington
Amy shares -
"Some days I feel beautiful and amazed I was able to grow a person and am growing another one now. Most days I feel inadequate and a burden because of my anxiety, depression, chronic pain and my ever growing list of health problems. With my first pregnancy, I worried a lot about stretch marks and loose skin because I felt like a already had too much of that from being obese as a teen but in general I did okay during my first pregnancy. Postpartum was the hardest part.
My current pregnancy is much harder and my struggle with anxiety and depression are worse then ever before making all feelings harder and practically impossible to work through. Felling so inadequate because my body can't seem to do what it needs to like a "normal" person without all these extra struggles burdening me and my loved ones.
Not only did my body go through numerous changes to grow a person but it was ever changing after birth as well. My hormones and thyroid were all over the place making my anxiety and depression harder to cope with. My daughter couldn't/wouldn't breastfeed and I chose to pump for her the first year. My body wasn't my own as I pumped for her 5 hours a day to not even make enough breast milk to meet her ever growing needs. Not feeling enough because my body wasn't able to provide her what she needed only fed the depression, anxiety and a lack of self worth. I had low thyroid and later was diagnosed with Hashimoto's because of the toll my first pregnancy took on my body. I was and am so tired. I'm very nervous to face postpartum again very soon. I know I will survive somehow but living in that dark pit of anxiety and depression is a very real and scary thing.
I want others to know their worth. Expect to be treated well and not tolerate it when your not."