Jamie Otis celebrates her 'mom pouch': 'We may be softer and squishier than we once were, but we are also stronger'

<em>Married at First Sight </em>star <span class="caas-xray-inline-tooltip"><span class="caas-xray-inline caas-xray-entity caas-xray-pill rapid-nonanchor-lt" data-entity-id="Jamie_Otis" data-ylk="cid:Jamie_Otis;pos:1;elmt:wiki;sec:pill-inline-entity;elm:pill-inline-text;itc:1;cat:MediaPersonality;" tabindex="0" aria-haspopup="dialog"><a href="https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Jamie%20Otis" data-i13n="cid:Jamie_Otis;pos:1;elmt:wiki;sec:pill-inline-entity;elm:pill-inline-text;itc:1;cat:MediaPersonality;" tabindex="-1" data-ylk="slk:Jamie Otis;cid:Jamie_Otis;pos:1;elmt:wiki;sec:pill-inline-entity;elm:pill-inline-text;itc:1;cat:MediaPersonality;" class="link ">Jamie Otis</a></span></span> celebrates her "mom pouch." (Photo: Taylor Hill/Getty Images)
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Jamie Otis has an important message for moms.

The Married at First Sight star, who shares two children with her husband Doug Hehner, took to Instagram on Tuesday to share a series of videos. In one of the videos, Otis shows herself tucking her stomach into her underwear. Other videos show Otis’s many hiking trips with her children.

Otis captioned the post, “TBH, lately I don't always like my new body after having babies and I rarely feel sexy with this ‘mom pouch’ that hangs out, but right now I feel pretty dang proud! I grew both of my babies in that ‘mom pouch’ and now I've carried both of ’em on my back hiking all across America.”

She concluded her caption with a message to mothers, writing, “Mamas, we may be softer & squishier than we once were, but we are also stronger too. If you're feeling down, just tuck that mom pouch in, grab your babies (even if they're big now), and get out of the house! Life's too short to let a mom pouch stop us from realizing our STRENGTH.”

Otis also wrote on the video, "Don't mistake my softness for strength."

Otis’s followers loved the post. One wrote, “You killed it on the trail and looked hella good doing it! Sexy AF.” Another added, “I needed to hear this today!! After 2 C-sections my mom pouch is out in full force lol.. thank you for your never ending positivity.”

The reality star, who also appeared on The Bachelor, has previously spoken about her body image issues. In an April Instagram in which she's sporting a bathing suit, she wrote, “This body confidence mindset is a work in progress thing for me. [It] was easier when I just had a baby [because] of the 'I just had a baby' excuse. Now my baby is about to be 2 ... so it's been a weeee bit harder for me lately, [to be honest]. But I'm not giving up [because] deep down I know I'm more than what I think of myself. And I never want my daughter or son to have to deal [with] this type of negative self-talk so I'm gonna do my best to raise them differently."

The same month, she hit back against a body shamer who commented on a post of Hehner picking up Otis that he would “hurt his back” from lifting too much weight.

The mom replied to the comment on Instagram, “Just wanted to let ya know his back is just fine. Try lifting a woman up. You'll see it's actually easy and doesn't hurt at all."

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