Lindsay Hubbard Thinks 'Societal Pressure' to 'Bounce Back' Led to Her Post-Pregnancy 'Body Image Issues'

Lindsay Hubbard was never one to suffer from body insecurity — until she gave birth to her and boyfriend Dr. Turner Kufe's daughter, Gemma.

The Summer House star talks exclusively to OK! about her post-pregnancy health journey while promoting her partnership with the No. 1 selling probiotic brand Florastor.

"It's interesting because I've always been a very, very confident person," Hubbard explains. "No matter if I am a little bit thicker or thinner at times, I've always just worn it well. So when you're pregnant, you are like, 'OK, I'm gonna get bigger. This is what's supposed to happen. My baby is growing inside of me. It's healthier to be bigger, right?'"

"Then you give birth and society tends to think you just bounce back like that. It's this societal pressure on women, when we just went through the most beautiful experience there is to possibly go through in life, and now society is pressuring us to bounce right back," she believes, noting how in reality, "it takes a while."

Hubbard continues: "Whether you give birth naturally or have a C-section, your body's going through a lot of trauma and you really do have to give yourself some grace and let it heal on its own."

While the healing journey for a new mom "of course comes with some body image issues," Hubbard thinks "the body image issues are because you're expected to bounce back."

In addition to dealing with physical insecurities, Hubbard has also been adjusting to balancing motherhood and her career.

Emphasizing how it's mostly "good" stress that comes with the "beauty" of raising a child, Hubbard admits she has a "million reasons to be stressed every day because I'm a new mom."

"There's a new [Summer House] season is airing right now. I'm also moving and I'm trying to organize everything. So, there's a million reasons to be stressed, but what I love about Florastor is you just take it in the morning and it acts throughout the day."

Florastor has been a game-changer for the reality star, which is why she wants nothing more than to educate her fans about the brand's products.

"In general, I think all women should take probiotics. I think gut health is one of the most important bodily functions to take into account. Florastor just did this big survey on women's stress levels and it came back that 60 percent of women say it's harder to be a woman today than ever before," she shares.

"Another one is that 46 percent of women say that gut health and stress fuel each other while digestive issues increase their stress, which I actually believe, because I remember toward the end of my relationship with my ex, I was so stressed out and I didn't realize it was directly affected or directly corresponding to my gut health. The stress just took me out," Hubbard confesses of Carl Radke — whom she was engaged to before the exes called off their plans to marry in 2023.

Hubbard claims once she and Radke split, "everything just fell off of me because the stress was gone."

"That's why I really like Florastor because it has this new addition of de-stress [in their digestive probiotics]. It's like this one-stop shop for a probiotic where you have the digestive health, you have the feminine health and then you have the stress relief," she concludes.