WE’RE PROUD of our bodies

JEMMA HOLCROFT

‘My C-section scar is a badge of honour’

Jemma is a supply teacher and lives in Doncaster with her football-coach partner Ben, 37, and 19-month-old son Archie. She is expecting a second child in June.

Looking at my naked body in the hospital bathroom mirror, I began to cry. After an emergency C-section, following a traumatic 52-hour labour, I had an angry scar across my abdomen, my breasts were swollen and I felt exhausted and ugly.

Back in bed, feeding my son Archie, I was consumed with guilt for worrying about my appearance, but couldn’t shake the fear my body had changed forever.

I’ve struggled with my self-confidence since I was a teen, when I was bullied at school for my frizzy hair, glasses and braces.

Throughout college and uni, I overhauled my geeky image, and when I met Ben in December 2016 on Tinder, I was wearing hair and lash extensions and wouldn’t leave the house without fake