Between the good, the bad, and the ugly, pregnancy is most certainly a wild ride. And anyone who has gone through childbirth knows there are plenty of things you can never be prepared for. So Redditor MutuliA asked, “Ladies, what’s a side effect of giving birth that people don’t really talk about?” Here’s what women said.
1.
“The night sweats for those first few weeks. I bought two new sets of sheets so the daily bedding changes were more manageable.”
2.
“How brutal sleep deprivation feels. I remember googling how Navy Seals deal with sleep deprivation. It is a brief eternity of misery. Good thing my kids are cute!”
3.
“That all the stretch marks you gloriously avoided during pregnancy could come AFTER. PFFF”
4.
“Bleeding nipples, especially for baby number one before they’ve figured out their latch 😣 I still feel that in my nightmares.”
5.
“No one told me that you can keep getting contractions for a couple of days after birth. And that they can get stronger with subsequent births. 😬”
6.
“The overall confusion of breastfeeding. So many breastfeeding things. What’s normal (production, latch, etc) and what’s not (oversupply, undersupply, oral ties, etc…) I’m an undersupplier with elastic nipples, and by the time I had kid number three, I had become the go-to person for friends to teach them about breastfeeding. I’ll throw out what I encounter the most: a normal supply is 1-1.5oz per hour, meaning if you nurse/pump every three hours, that should be 3-4.5oz. It’s also common to say 3-5oz / 3hrs. More than that is an oversupply and should not make you feel deficient if you don’t have it! Ok, end of rant.”
7.
“I had a fourth-degree tear. Being in pain while not supposed to be very mobile, and losing a lot of muscle tone/control down there. I am so happy I work from home because during the healing and physical therapy, it was not uncommon for me to not be able to make it to the toilet. It’s embarrassing as all hell, too. America needs longer maternity and paternity leaves to allow us the proper time to heal.”
8.
“The loss of strength! I went to 42 weeks with my second, and have a tall and sturdy two-year-old who I was constantly picking up and throwing about while changing his nappy and getting into his cot with him to get him to sleep with absolutely no issues. The first time I went to pick him up after having my second, I nearly dropped him because I had completely lost all my strength. It was the most bizarre and unexpected feeling not being able to do something you were doing without thinking literally the day before!”
9.
“Postpartum carpal tunnel. It didn’t go away until I quit breastfeeding.”
10.
“This is a strange one, but all my life, I’ve suffered from digestive pain in a certain spot. It feels as if food gets stuck there sometimes. I had a C-section, and now it’s suddenly GONE. Never bothered me again.”
11.
“The week after birth, while my intestin found it’s way back to the original place, I could not hold in a fart. God, what a discomfort! I never lost the pee reflex, even while pregnant, but that week was awful. Sit down, a fart, got up, a fart, cough, fart…”
12.
“Your entire identity and understanding of yourself changes in one single moment.”
13.
“I smelled so bad postpartum. I was constantly showering, trying different deodorants. I think that around the time I gave up, it was about time it went away. So stinky from like everywhere.”
14.
“For me, it was the anger. No one warned me how intense and sudden it could be. I expected sadness or anxiety, but the rage caught me off guard. Loud noises, constant touching, no sleep, it all built up and made me feel like I was losing control. I felt ashamed and alone in it until I realized so many moms go through the same thing but don’t talk about it. Knowing it was normal helped me stop blaming myself.”
15.
“I feel like all my joints and muscles came loose and worn out, especially in my pelvic area.”
16.
“My hair is falling out so badly right now. I’m surprised I have any hair left on my head. It’s everywhere, five months postpartum.”
17.
“I am really upset that no one told me about the lochia process. I might’ve been abnormal, but I swear I bled for like 3 months. I thought I was done bleeding, and a few days later, I started bleeding again, I’m assuming for my regular period. I just broke down. It was so mentally draining to feel like my ‘period’ would never end, and I just kept asking, ‘Why didn’t anyone tell me this would happen?'”
18.
“I had really bad lower back pain from about two weeks before I gave birth until 11 months after, right around the time I stopped breastfeeding. The breastfeeding hormones, I guess, kept my ligaments all ‘pregnancy-ish’ and it was like a switch when my baby weaned.”
20.
“The scariest part I realized is that your body will never be 100% the way it was before. I don’t mean just the stretch marks and loose skin, even internally your physiology kinda changes.”
21.
“The hemorrhoids. I’ve started giving everyone hemorrhoid cream as a shower gift, and everyone laughs at me. My response is, ‘Oh, just you wait until you can’t sit down for two weeks.'”
Do you have something to add? What was a side effect or pregnancy or labor that you weren’t expecting or felt unprepared for? Tell us in the comments or in this anonymous form.
Related
Discover more from InstiWitty Media Studios
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
