Model Lara Stone has said that having her first child has given her a more accepting view of her body.
In an interview with
The Edit, Stone revealed that while she was nervous about returning to work following her pregnancy, she gained a new and more positive perspective about her figure.
"If it wasn't for my job, I'm not sure how worried I would have been about the whole thing. During my pregnancy I wasn't exercising a lot…. I was huge. I'm just trying to accept it right now. And it's ok, because the things women can do with their bodies are amazing," she said.
"You have to sit there and really think about it: 'Oh, I grew this little person's fingernails in my tummy.' After that, do you really give a s*** about arm flab? Because I don't."
Stone, who is married to comic David Walliams, also called for an end to putting pressure on women to have a natural birth, saying that "the only thing that should matter is that you and your baby are both healthy – alive, even, by the end of giving birth".
"I had friends who said they were going to have a water birth, music and candles. I was like, 'Who gives a s*** if you had an epidural or a C-section or you just breathed through it?' The reward at the end of it isn't that you can say to your friends 'I had a natural birth'. Your reward is that you have a beautiful healthy baby."
The couple recently celebrated son Alfred's first birthday and the model admitted that she "cried the whole day".
"When they're born and just a helpless little blob laid on your chest, they're so vulnerable and little. And now he's this huge monster – in the loveliest way. He doesn't really say words, but he can make himself understood," she added.
"He's very strong-minded and he knows exactly what he wants to do, and if it's not right he'll have a huge tantrum. He's completely hilarious – this little boy, stamping his little foot."
