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The unexpected benefits of baring your belly – An interview with Julie Bhosale

A few months ago, Julie Bhosale The New Mum’s Nutritionist, decided she would do something extraordinary to help one woman.

As a health professional, Julie was acutely aware of the pressure on Mums to ‘bounce back’ into their skinny jeans just days or weeks after childbirth. So as she approached the birth of her second child (and the end of a difficult pregnancy) Julie decided to join the #takebackpostpartum movement.

She photographed her bare belly from 24 hours after the birth, up to 14 weeks post-partum. Then she wrote a blog post in which she shared the “brutiful” – that’s brutal and beautiful – truth about her early baby days. The sleep deprivation, the body fluids, the burning breasts, the jiggly bits, the screaming baby, the challenge of nursing a baby while spoon-feeding a toddler.

And in the hope that it would help one woman – just one woman – feel that she was not alone, she took a deep breath and clicked publish.

julie belly

The response was astounding. By the next morning the story had 200,000 views, by that evening it was half a million. And it kept going. Within weeks she’d been featured in national newspapers and on television. Then the Huffington Post came calling along with the UK’s Daily Mirror – and her Facebook traffic grew and grew.

I spoke to Julie six weeks after her post, to find out how it felt to put herself out there in such a vulnerable way and to hear the impact of that ‘viral post’ on her business.

In this interview you’ll learn

  1. The real story behind the blog and why it means so much to her
  2. The rewards and the challenges of putting herself out there in such a vulnerable way
  3. What it’s meant for her business to have a viral post
  4. Julie’s tips for getting vulnerable and sharing your personal story

Shortly after we spoke the story picked up momentum again, appearing in on Mashable, Buzzfeed, Design Taxi, parenting blogs and in a host of other newspapers and magazines. Next Hollywood stars jumped on board, with Zooey Deschanel and Ashton Kutcher tweeting the story.

Julie’s Facebook likes have now gone from 800 to 3300 and her subscribers jumped from 300 to 1600. Clearly Julie’s raw honesty struck a chord.

This is the first video interview I’ve shared on the blog so I’d love to know what you think. Please let me know in the comments below.

Julie’s message is powerful and heartfelt, so if you like the video please share it with someone who could benefit from it.

You can find out more about Julie’s work at www.juliebhosale.co.nz – this girl is amazing so be sure to pass that on to any new mums you know!

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