Brassic and Fool Me Once star Michelle Keegan has been pictured wearing gorgeous swimwear from her clothing brand Orfila Bee, after giving birth to her daughter Palma Elizabeth – who she shares with TV personality Mark Wright – back in March of this year. The family are currently on holiday in Spain.

While some fans have been wholly complimentary, other comments have a rather toxic edge when it comes to the heavy expectations on how a woman’s body should look after childbirth and becoming a mother.

One fan wrote ‘@michkeegan firstly wow 😯 you looking stunning 😍 motherhood is clearly suited for you ❤️…’, while another praised her for ‘getting her figure back so quickly’, asking the actress for the so-called secrets when it comes to how she did it.

Another posted: “How does anyone look that amazing after just having a baby?” Meanwhile, another commented: ‘You look absolutely stunning…I am still trying to get my post baby figure back and my baby is 17 this year!’

While complimenting a woman on her body postpartum may feel good, it also demonstrates a rather unhealthy overfocus we as a society have on women’s bodies, and particularly the pressure on them to conform to body image norms as quickly as possible after giving birth.

One commenter has even called out Keegan’s slim appearance in her holiday pics. They wrote on her Instagram post: ‘Just a message to any mum out there’s who’s just had a baby and your body didn’t [snap] back like this, remember you just grown a baby for 9months don’t matter what ya look like you made a baby, mad in it enjoy x x’.

Of course, no woman should feel pressure to ‘snap back’ to their original dress size after having a baby. But shaming any woman’s body postpartum, whether it’s smaller or larger than before, is just feeding into the unrealistic expectations on women’s bodies.

One fan responded to the suggestion that women’s bodies ‘don’t snap back’: ‘Some women do tho. I did after my first 2. Straight back into my size 8 jeans 6 weeks after birth. Yet with my 3rd I was in a size 12. It’s not fair to body shame someone even if you’re trying to make others feel better. It’s just as bad’.

Another fan referenced the pressure and speculation over the years that Keegan faced when it came to her fertility and plans to have a child and encouraged critics to ‘have a day off’.

They wrote: ‘All the pressure over the years of “when are you and Mark having a baby’ they did it in their own time, and now she is getting slated for looking so good after having a baby!!! People need to have a day off!! She is beautiful, simple as that. No need for all the comments about promoting unrealistic post pregnancy expectations. This is her, she is posting her pics on her page. Negative comments are unnecessary and uncalled for.’

What we’re seeing on both sides of the fan divide is an obsession with a woman’s form, reducing her worth down to how she looks and how much she weighs, instead of the journey of parenthood she has embarked upon. Would this not be a healthier, constructive thing to focus on when it comes to these new pictures of Keegan?

In the past, the actress herself has spoken out about the expectation of women in the entertainment industry to do ‘sexy’ magazine spread shoots, referring to her first ever experience in that world.

‘It was the norm back then to do sexy spreads in men’s magazines and go to the award ceremonies where they’d have ‘sexiest female’,’ she said in an interview. ‘I was never comfortable with it.’

She described feeling ‘pressure’ to do the shoot and display her body in that way.

‘I felt pressure and I am a bit of a people pleaser, I try to go with the flow. But there was something in me that was like, ‘I really don’t want this. I don’t want to be on the front cover in my underwear.’ So, eventually, I gathered the courage… to ask for a cardigan. Once I was like, no no, I don’t like it, so to fix it they put a bobble hat on my head.’

‘It was embarrassing. Because I was in a lot of heavy storylines. There was one where I felt like I was crying every day for months and months. And then at the end of it, when the accolade was sexiest female, it was so frustrating.

Keegan added that she didn’t even view herself as sexy. ‘And the funny thing is, I’m not sexy! I’ve never been sexy! My friends have always laughed about it. Even when I say the word it makes me cringe.’

Filming for the final series Keegan’s hit TV series Brassic – which follows the lives of a group of young people in a fictional Northern England town – wrapped in May of this year and is set to air at the end of the year.

In a heartfelt goodbye to her character Erin, she said: ‘So finally the Brassic journey has come to an end (feels so strange saying that) and what an unbelievable 7 years it’s been. I feel so privileged to have been a small part of such a mighty show.’