Kareena Kapoor Khan apparently began shooting Veere Di Wedding just six months after giving birth to her son, but watching the film that released last week, there's no way anyone would know – the actress looks as svelte as she ever did.

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So did Kate Middleton as she stood outside London's St. Mary's Hospital in late April, waving to the media mere hours after birthing her third child, perfectly turned out in red knee-length dress, nude heels and radiant make-up. There was not a sign on her face of the strenuous exertions of labour, and no more than a hint of a post-baby belly.

Kareena and Kate aren't exceptions. Trawl the Internet and you'll find a plethora of images of female celebrities, posted either by themselves or in some media website, before and after giving birth, showing off how little they'd changed, how they still remained as glamorous, alluring, and perfect as ever. Check out Serena William's Intagram images posted a few weeks after delivering her daughter in September last year – there's a selfie in black tee and shorts, in particular, where the tennis player looks almost frail. Another example of this is Amal Clooney, none of whose post-pregnancy photographs have betrayed any sign of weight gain, sagging breasts or any other consequences of her having carried twins.

Closer home, it's the same with Bollywood actresses and other much-photographed Page 3 regulars. Check out the post-pregnancy images of Diana Hayden, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Celina Jaitly, Soha Ali Khan, and Amrita Arora.

The only exceptions, perhaps, has been Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who showed exceptional gumption in making a public appearance after giving birth with a double chin and expanded waist line – and got mercilessly trolled and body-shamed for it!

Has this celebrity culture instilled an increased desire in new mothers to lose weight fast? "Of course it has," says Mukta Kapila, director, obstetrics and gynaecology at Fortis Memorial Research Institute. "Patients come with the image of Kareena Kapoor Khan; they all want to slim fast. But I ask them to tone down the pace. For the first six months, or until weaning starts, I don't let them start going to the gym."

"Every time I look at Kareena and the others, I feel bad. I had a difficult pregnancy and a C-section, so I've put on a lot of weight especially around the belly. I know it'll take months, if not years, to shake it off. But, with a small baby, who has the time or energy to exercise?" says Smriti Agarwal, who delivered six months ago and is on maternity leave.

Others are more nonchalant. "Yes I'd like to (lose weight), of course," says Srishty Choudhury, a working mother of a one-year-old boy. "But consider – Kate Middleton was never fat to begin with. Besides, she's in the public eye and needs to be well turned out at all times. She probably has a lot of help to care for her kids too," she adds. Mitika Shah, who is pregnant with her second child, agrees. "It took me nine months to a year to lose the 13-14 kg I had put on during my first pregnancy. And it happened just by doing regular household chores and walking. What is important is to keep up your self-esteem."

Mithee Bhanot, gynaecologist and obstetrician with Apollo Hospital and JP Hospital in Noida, feels the obsession with getting back in shape after delivery is a very upper-middle-class affair. "With the middle and lower middle classes, pregnancy seems to become an excuse to go out of shape."

Ideally, Bhanot says, a new mother can begin normal exercises two-three months after giving birth, if it's a normal delivery, and six months if it's a C-section. Breastfeeding mothers need to be on a high-calorie diet, which is not conducive to losing weight, she says. There are other health dangers as well such as prolapse, a condition in which the uterine organs drop down into the vagina. "It's a better idea to enjoy this time and your baby," she advices.