Halsey Gets Real About Accepting and Loving Their Postpartum Body

For many women, the postpartum period is not easy. They’re constantly worried about tending to baby’s need and operating on very little sleep, all while recovering from childbirth and facing the new changes that are still occurring in their own bodies. Yet, despite how difficult those first few weeks with baby are, society sometimes still places an emphasis on women “snapping back to their pre-baby bodies.” Now Halsey is shattering that expectation.

The singer, 26, and new mom performed on Saturday Night Live over the weekend and was met with several compliments on how good they looked. Earlier this week, to address the comments around their postpartum body, Halsey took to Instagram to open up about their experience.

“I am posting this because no matter what I do people are going to talk about my body. It is [a] confusing symptom of being in the public eye so rather than complain I am going to give you something real to talk about!” they wrote, alongside an image carousel showcasing their body and stretch marks at different periods postpartum. “I did SNL two nights ago and a lot of people were quick to say how good I looked. That was a weird feeling. My body has felt like a stranger’s for a long time. I uphold myself to honesty to the point of over sharing sometimes but this feels important.”

“The first picture on this slide is days after my baby was already born. A lot of people don’t know that you still look pregnant for a while after. It is still changing and I am letting it. I have no interest in working out right now. I’m too tired and too busy playing with my darling son,” Halsey continued. “With that being said, the body behind all those compliments the other night was wearing a custom tailored outfit and lighted perfectly after much testing, so I could feel good and do my job. I do not want to feed the Illusion that you’re meant to feel and look ‘great’ immediately postpartum. That is not my narrative currently.”

They concluded, “If you’ve been following me because you’re also a parent and you dig what I’m doing, please know I’m in your corner. I will never have my ‘pre baby body back’ no matter how it changes physically because I have now had a baby! And that has altered me forever; emotionally, spiritually, and physically. That change is permanent. And I don’t want to go back! But In the spirit of honesty, I’m really tired and not a superhuman and this is really hard. Doing my best to serve my art and my family whilst keeping it all so very real.”

Halsey on Normalizing Breastfeeding

Along with normalizing the fourth trimester and women’s postpartum bodies, Halsey has also been working to normalize breastfeeding. While public breastfeeding is legal in all states, many moms are still shamed for nursing in public.

On Tuesday, August 3, Halsey shared a sweet photo of themselves nursing their 2-week-old son, Ender, in the park to Instagram. “#worldbreastfeedingweek 🤍 we arrived just in time!” they wrote in their caption.

Their post was met with several comments of love and support. “Beautiful ❤️. Thank you for using your platform to normalize breastfeeding! ❤️” one person wrote, while another commented, “Absolutely love seeing people with huge platforms like yours normalizing breastfeeding as a breastfeeding mother myself, not enough representation at all and it really is an incredibly hard yet beautiful journey.”

The Couple’s Birth Announcement

Halsey announced via social media on July 19 that they had welcomed their first child with screenwriter boyfriend Alev Aydin.

The Grammy-nominated “With Me” singer announced baby Ender Ridley Aydin’s July 14th arrival in a touching black-and-white Instagram post simply captioned, “Gratitude. For the most ‘rare’ and euphoric birth. Powered by love.”

Halsey had announced their pregnancy on the social media platform in January via a stunning series of belly-baring maternity photos. Aydin adorably slid into the comments section saying, “Heart so full, I love you, sweetness;" to which Halsey replied, “I love you!!! And I love this mini human already!”

Still, Halsey’s pregnancy wasn’t all smooth sailing. They recently told Allure that they threw up prenatal vitamins every day for the first two months. Moreover, they reflected on the expectation versus reality of preparing for motherhood: “When this pregnancy started, I was like ‘You’re going to do yoga and eat flaxseed. You’re going to use essential oils and hypnobirth and meditate… I have done none of those things. Zero. None. I eat cookies and had a bagel every single day for the last five months of my pregnancy.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time Halsey has been honest about the journey to becoming a parent. They previously opened up about struggling with endometriosis and pregnancy loss, telling Rolling Stone in 2016, that they went on stage mere hours after suffering a miscarriage: “It’s the angriest performance that I’ve ever done in my life."

Halsey’s latest album If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power is “about the joys and horrors of pregnancy and childbirth.” They shared the album cover on Instagram, and described the peaceful coexistence of life as a “sexual being” and a “vessel and gift” to a child. Furthermore, they wrote that the cover honors "pregnant and postpartum bodies as something beautiful, to be admired.” The album was released on Aug. 27.

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