'I was so low with my post-partum body I nearly cancelled my wedding but then I made one change'
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Sophia Sark-Geissler had her heart set on getting back in shape for her wedding after an emergency caesarean section, but the harsh realities of the surgery left her in excruciating pain and with her confidence shattered. The 31-year-old wasn't fazed by the dramatic shift from natural birth to C-section and believed she'd quickly bounce back, tending to her newborn and heading to the gym. "I basically had in my mind the whole time that I was going to have this natural birth, and being quite active, I would just be able to walk out of there and feel great about myself and get back into the gym straight away," she shared. "After the C-section, I just didn't feel comfortable. I felt every movement. It was painful.".
A meticulous planner by nature, Sophia's goal to return to fitness following childbirth in November 2023 was thrown off track, prompting a risky stint with her health and wellbeing, reports the Daily Star. She said, "I felt that the only way I could get back in shape was to effectively stop eating. I'd ordered some fitness meals. I made up my own amount of calories that I should be consuming, and they were half the amount of a woman's daily advised calories – and I wasn't even consuming that. I was eating like 500 calories a day, if that, and I was exhausted.".
The new mum found her energy levels plummeting as she breastfed her son, which took a toll on her mental health. "You've had the most amazing experience of your life, the biggest high, and then you're presented with such lows," she said. Her self-esteem hit rock bottom, "I had such a negative feeling of myself.".
