Runway model Ashley Graham recently opened up to Parents Magazine about the surprises she’s been encountering while raising her 16-month-old son Isaac. As a new mother in the pandemic, she’s been incredibly honest about the litany of joys and challenges she faced both while pregnant and postpartum.
In Ashley Graham’s interview with Parents, she explains how the pandemic and the subsequent stay-at-home orders held a secret benefit for the new mom.
“I have to say it was such a blessing because I got to have the maternity leave that I actually never thought that I would have, and the maternity leave that I didn’t know I was going to want to have… I had a mindset when I was pregnant, like, ‘Oh, I’m just gonna take two or three months off, and I’m gonna go right back into work, and everything’s gonna be so fine.’ And then when I met Isaac, I was like, ‘I don’t want to go back.’ But it was this beautiful balance of being able to work from home and being able to be with him.”
Graham marvels that her ability to stay home allowed her to spend more time with Isaac, especially because “the rewards are daily. Isaac brings us so much joy, just watching him grow and learn. And he’s so inquisitive. And he’s so curious. And he’s a big adventurer. So, I have to say it’s a daily joy being around him. It just makes me want to have more and more.”
However, Graham’s time postpartum hasn’t been entirely drama-free.
Graham opened up about her postpartum hair loss to Parents. Around four months after giving birth, Graham’s “whole hairline fell out. And that was more traumatic than even birth because I was like, ‘My hair’s falling out in clumps—what am I doing?’ and then I realized it’s actually a thing.” She showed the world her postpartum hairline, baby hairs and all, in an Instagram post earlier this year.
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Graham has also struggled with losing the baby weight. “Everybody told me if you breastfeed, the weight falls off. Well, that was BS. And I’m still working on like 20 pounds. When I say working on, I just kind of look at it every day like, “Hello, new body.” And that’s just kind of how I go on with it.”
Graham’s radical honesty through her process of motherhood allows for other moms to relate.
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