If you’ve ever felt self-conscious about your post-baby body, then Vogue’s September cover story featuring Beyonce may offer some encouragement and camaraderie with the pop star.

Beyonce says she didn’t wear any wigs and very little makeup for the Vogue shoot to encourage readers to love their natural beauty.

After giving birth to Blue Ivy in 2012, the pop star says she felt pressure to bounce back quickly, and she lost all of her baby weight in three months while breastfeeding. “Looking back, that was crazy,” she admits.

In the Vogue story, she speaks candidly about her emergency C-section to give birth to twins in June 2017, giving herself “self-love and self-care” during her recovery, and embracing fuller curves.

“To this day my arms, shoulders, breasts, and thighs are fuller,” Beyonce says during the interview. “I have a little mommy pouch, and I’m in no rush to get rid of it. I think it’s real.”

And from one mommy to a legion of others, I say YAAAASSSSS to all. of. this.

For Vogue’s September cover shoot, Beyonce chose 23-year-old Tyler Mitchell as her photographer. It’s the first time a black photographer has shot Vogue’s cover in the magazine’s 125-year history.

Beyonce’s story resonates with so many mothers because we’ve been there.  I have definitely felt the pressure to get “snatched back” quickly just a few months after giving birth. Well-meaning folks offered all sorts of remedies, from wearing restrictive corsets to wrapping my mid-section in cloths or to just “get out and get a little exercise” when you’re still recovering from a c-section, for goodness sakes.

And I’m sure Beyonce was not rolling solo and managing two newborns alone. Even so, the calls for more self-care and self-love are important for the physical and emotional health and wellness of all mothers. That kind of nurturing is especially important in those first few months when mamas are up all night soothing colicky babies, cluster feeding, and adjusting to post-natal hormonal fluctuations.

After giving birth to three children, the mega star offers a comforting message for so many moms who are struggling to love their new curves, who see their stretch marks as war wounds and a c-section incision as a scar.

“I think it’s important for women and men to see and appreciate the beauty in their natural bodies,” Beyonce says.

Amen sis. I agree.

See the photo shoot and read the interview here.