Rafa Brites talks about showing the cesarean scar: ‘Message is greater than embarrassment’

Social networks do not always convey a real sense of people’s lives. Even more so if the person behind the profile is someone who prefers not to show some very challenging everyday situations. Rafa Brites, 36, tries to avoid falling into this temptation by showing the routine he takes with his two children, Rocco, 6, and Leon, 1 year and 4 months, both from his relationship with presenter Felipe Andreoli.

The presenter and speaker often publishes content about the challenges of motherhood, tips on how to maintain a marriage after having children, and messages encouraging self-care. Recently, she posted a photo that got her talking. In the record, which is part of a Mother’s Day campaign for the Loungerie underwear brand, she showed the scar from the cesarean section.

In an interview with F5, Rafa talks about the importance of sharing the unpleasant side of being a mother and says that exposing the brand is a message that goes beyond the discomfort of showing a part of the body that you try to hide. “The message is much bigger than any embarrassment I might have had,” she says. “The idea is, through exposure, to reduce this embarrassment, which shouldn’t be an embarrassment.”

She says that it was difficult to do the shoot, because she knew that many people would see it, but she realized that it was important. “I’ve come to the conclusion that a lot of women go through this and don’t talk about it,” she laments. “Sometimes, people say it’s just a scar, thinking my problem is with the physical part. But it hurts to wear jeans, it hurts to hold the baby in my arms, since it’s high and fibrous.”

Since she had her first child, the journalist claims that she missed other women talking about motherhood from a point of view that is closer to reality. “I thought: ‘I don’t know what these women did to look beautiful and wonderful, because my breast is bleeding, I have breast candidiasis, I have mastitis, I am suffering and crying'”, she recalls. “And so I started this heartfelt conversation of mine with the internet audience. I started talking about breastfeeding and then sex after kids.”

Last year, the presenter told on the program Mais Você (Globo) that she had to undergo surgeries to treat a hemorrhoid, umbilical hernia and gallbladder. All remnants of the two pregnancies. “When I talked about it, many women sent me a message and said they also went through it. Many don’t even tell their husbands, they suffer alone. The more we talk about it, the more we normalize it”, she evaluates.

The imposter syndrome is another of the subjects that Rafa talks about — and that also affects her in motherhood. She says she will never be free of insecurity and the feeling of never being good enough as a mother as long as the external setting is a misogynistic and patriarchal society.

“I talk so much about the difficulties that it seems that I don’t even like being a mother, but I love it”, she says. “The last few years have seen a giant advance in this debate. Despite the fake news and all the harm that social networks can bring about through their misuse, it is a very fertile place for very important discussions.”