I have a beautiful scar on my tummy where my heart came out. My journey.

Once I was aware of my pregnancy with Noah, I started buttering myself up with every potion on the market to prevent any marks from all the stretching that my body was about to go through. Being pregnant is tough and watching your body bend, stretch, grow and swell in to every direction is quite frightening. The trick to avoiding stretch marks as you know is to keep your skin supple, protected and nourished. With Noah I bathed in Bio-Oil every night and then rubbed that stuff all over me like a crazy lady every chance I got. Luckily, I don't have any stretch marks from my pregnancies. I have two teensy ones under where the giant belly was because I couldn't see there you guys! Do you know how giant I was?

I wasn't one of those skinny, cover-of-magazine pregnant gals. I gained over 20kg with each pregnancy. I lived on Kit-Kats, watermelon, ice lollies, magnums and cheese russians with lumo pink tomato sauce. Thank goodness I was taking all those vitamins and things. I am not a graceful pregnant person. My body goes in to zombie mode and I probably would have eaten our cat if we had one. I was alwayyyys hungry and alllllways eating. I am truly surprized that my body didn't figure out a way to digest my baby.

I want to talk about Bio Oil, because we all know that its a great product. Your can put it on anything. My mom has been using the stuff since I can remember. Graeme uses it on his handsome face instead of cream and both their skin is unfairly great. My mom credits her youthful complexion to tissue / bio oil as do hundreds of thousands of million others. It really is like Zambuck and works for everything. Need your wisdom teeth removed? Nonsense! Put Zambuck. You know?

So I asked a few other moms to share pictures of their pregnancy scars and stretch marks with us. I know all of these women and they are beautiful, wonderful girls. I've also chosen to share mine because I am so proud of every little detail that went in to creating and housing those little heartbeats of mine. This is where my heart came out, twice. I wasn't able to have natural birth, and after rupturing my membranes (breaking my waters) and inducing me twice, I was wheeled in to an operating room to get a sun-roof baby. I was about to meet my son. Tears flooded down our faces with joy and our lives were changed forever. It didn't matter how Noah came out - as long as he was healthy, happy and safe. My journey started when that little incision was made.

I wanted to put up a picture of a freshly cut c-section scar to show you what a huge difference there is and how much my little cut has faded in three years. Luckily I don't really have stretch marks, and my caesarian scar bends in to a little smiley face which always cheers me up when I run my finger across it in the shower and remember the joy of first seeing my boys' perfect little faces. I remember each birth so clearly and how I wept happy tears and my heart went hot and big and full.

A few gorgeous and wonderful friends of mine wanted to share pictures of their stretch marks, scars and pregnancy trophies with you. A woman's body is beautiful and one that has created life even more so. Such incredible women with such phenomenal strength. We have all been blessed by motherhood.

Bio-Oil’s new Facebook campaign, My scars, my journey, provides a space where people can share the stories about their scars. For every story shared on the app, Bio-Oil will donate R10 to one of three charities supporting vulnerable women, children and babies. Recipients include the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children, the Baby Moses Child Sanctuary and the Robin Hood Foundation’s, Love the Babies project. 

Bio-Oil is giving away prizes too.  By sharing your story, you could win one of the weekly Bio-Oil hampers. Every story will also be automatically entered into the draw to win one of two Apple iPads. What do your scars say about you? Share your story at https://www.facebook.com/BioOilSA/app_600887563290877 and give back. There isn't much time left, so get writing and share your journey with all of us.