'There's no race to bounce back' New mum shares reality of her post-baby body in candid pictures

A mum-of-two's images have gone viral after she candidly shared the reality of her post-baby body.

Mum Kristen Sullivan gave birth to her second child a month ago a baby boy she called Gavin. She was already a mum to her toddler son, Sullivan, a pregnancy which she did 'quickly bounce back' from. However, recovery from the second pregnancy was a very different story.

It took the mum four days to decide whether or not to even share her story with her 4,190 followers on instagram, but after many of her followers reached out to her, she decided to upload the candid images of her figure before and after giving birth.

'The left pic is 3 days before I delivered Gavin (2nd child), the right pic is 3 weeks post partum,' she wrote in the accompanying caption.

She went on to say that she chose to share the images to show mums that sometimes it doesn't matter if you're thin, ate right, and exercised during pregnancy: 'sometimes your body grows in such a way that simply doesn't allow you to "bounce back" in friggen 3 weeks.'

'I feel like all I've been seeing is new moms sharing their amazing postpartum bods, 11 days after birth, 2 weeks after birth, etc. And while that's wonderful for them, for many others, KNOW that it's not realistic.'

The honest message quickly garnered over 3k likes and 250 comments, with one user commenting: 'Thank you for sharing !! I have had the most unkind thoughts about my pregnant body. Its been extremely challenging as I've gained the baby weight...'

Another agreed: '😍 yes yes yes. Thank you for sharing REAL LIFE'.

After posting the snaps, Kristen spoke to the site Scary Mommy to stress that sharing the photos and her story is no indication of her own feelings about her post-baby body.

'I'm not unhappy with my body currently,' she told the title. 'I'm embracing all it went through this past year, and that's part of the message I wanted to get out there.'

And her final message to other mums out there was 'don't expect results so soon... It can take quite awhile, and even if your body is never the same again, embrace it all, because it did some amazing things!'

What do you think? Should new mums be a little easier on themselves? Let us know in the comment box below.