Not the prettiest topic, I know, but now I’m on maternity leave I have little else to worry about… Ok, little else to worry about except money, dusting, sorting tiny clothes into sizes and cataloging nappies…Oh, yes! Having a varied collection of washable nappies from a variety of sources – new and second hand – I have actually done this and am now the proud owner of a homemade print out of nappy brands, sizes and esoteric requirements. If I had a laminator, I’m sure I’d be using it at this point.
Back to the stretch marks, however; although I am assured I don’t have the world’s worst set of stretch marks (although what heartless person would actually confirm my suspicions) I got them bad – pretty much in a happy smiley formation from one side of my bump to the other, leaving a gap for decency of a couple of inches around my belly button – so I thought I’d make a quick comment on the potions and remedies I have so far tried. As you will have gathered from the previous sentence, these are not fully positive reviews at this stage, and I’m inclined to subscribe to my midwife’s wisdom that there ain’t much you can do about it – you either get them or you don’t.
I’ve always drunk several litres of water a day, so drinking plenty of water has made no difference to me. I started off liberally smearing myself with cocoa butter, but at the first sign of stretch marks – probably about 25 weeks – abandoned this in disgust. Things were about to get very much worse, so possibly I was premature. Since then I’ve used Bio-Oil (£10 from Amazon) twice a day every day. It comes with nice scientific studies showing it’s worked for someone, but definitely not for me. While I cannot countenance the possibility that things could have been even worse had I not used it, there’s enough desperation doubt in the back of my mind that I’m going to keep using it regardless. I suspect this is how these things work. If I wasn’t going to get stretch marks anyway I could ascribe the lack of them to whatever cure I choose; now, when they start to fade when this is all over, I can believe something other than nature to be responsible.