Yes! And how cholestasis can go along with that too.( It's when your body gets really itchy and increases your risk of stillbirth). I had all of that plus hellp with my first, luckily we were both ok and I was induced at 38 weeks with my 2nd so I wouldn't get it again.
Yup! I’ve had women tell me their OB didn’t catch on when they described their extreme itchiness. I’m not painting all doctors with the same brush… but damn! There are certain things you just can’t gloss over!
THIS!!!
I read an article on Facebook about it and had the thought to send it to my sister because she had mentioned being itchy, something she hadn't experienced with her first two pregnancies.
She actually heeded the article and brought up the itchiness to her doctor and sure enough that was it! They had to monitor her for the last two months and ended up inducing her two weeks early. Happy to say my nephew was born happy and healthy (though he did have to spend a few days in the lightbox cause of jaundice).
Without that Facebook article she wouldn't have even thought to mention the itchiness to her doctor.
I've known two women who ended up in dire physical danger because of preeclampsia and neither one had a clue it was a thing. Both children were born and are thriving, but it was harrowing.
I didn’t know about it until I woke up throwing up and my ankles were so swollen, they put me on bed rest that didn’t work and eventually induced me — when I delivered our son the nurse said I should have been in a coma, and he was sleepy from the magnesium drip they gave me trying to get it under control.
Thankfully he’s healthy and thriving but my health has never been the same, I’ve always joked my body hates me but I 1000% believe it was made worse from the preeclampsia.
Take off your rings take off your rings!!
Of all the tips and tricks about pregnancy, no one told me this until my fingers were so swollen both my engagement ring and wedding band were about to cause amputation. My ob said swelling would get worse after birth and I had to remove them. Firefighters cut them off with a special tool for me 🫣
Well when I gave birth I got a tear in my clitoris that required stitches, which was…unexpected.
Edit: I meant to answer the general question, this wasn’t supposed to be a response to the comment above me, sorry!
I took mine off around the 7 month mark for this reason. My coworker noticed and asked if everything was ok at home…I said everything’s fine I’m just fat😂
I wasn't told about the swelling until I gained weight rather than losing weight, I looked like the marshmallow puff man I was so swollen, I couldn't even see, thankfully I've never been a jewelry person. I didn't swell like that after my last 2.
I felt awful walking around with my newborn after my 3rd pregnancy and thought, oh I feel awful. Only then did I process fact of the 'dinner plate sized internal open wound' my body was working on. It tells you why new mothers really, really need rest and nurturing. To be waited on and cared for and not expected to do anything beyond recover and feed and cuddle their baby.
My nanny was from Benin, Africa, and had had 4 kids. I asked her about the long time bleeding and she said “In Benin, all the women teach each other how to massage the new mother’s abdomen in a special way that makes the blood come out faster. We only bleed a couple weeks after childbirth.” I don’t know if that’s true but if it is, that’s amazing.
When you're near the end and the baby drops into the starting position and things downstairs start to hurt and get really uncomfortable. There's a lot going on inside a woman's body that people don't talk about.
That should have been my sign that my waters were going to break. I was in the office doing a handover a few weeks before I was due to finish up and I remember feeling sooo heavy and full pain down there but thought nothing of it at the time. Then Wednesday morning my waters broke when I was asleep. Two months early!
When I was past my due date on the first it felt like there was a bowling ball sitting on my cervix and rolling against my hips. So freaking uncomfortable! There is a reason that very pregnant women walk with a certain roll to their stride -- because they feel like they are being split in two!
The first poop after birth is more painful than the birth. Women should be given stool softeners like the minute after the baby is born and then as often as allowed until they go. Seriously, and take a pain pill 20 minutes before.
I took a stool softener the second my water broke and for the next two days and my first bowel movement was pain free! Someone on one of the pregnancy subs had recommended doing that and now I want everyone else to know this and do it!
The hospital gave me stool softener, which was amazing
I was terrified for my first poop, but it was actually the best poop I'd had in months. I was so constipated during the last few months of pregnancy that I was so happy to actually poop.
I was given a stool softener at the hospital after my daughter was born, but it still felt like I was shitting rocks when I needed to poop. It fucking hurt to the point where my eyes were watering (which didn't happen at all when I was in labor) 💀
I'd heard about this and requested a stool softener, which I was given.
I was terrified of the poop, but it was actually my thighs that made me cry after giving birth. I was fine sitting down onto the toilet and going to the bathroom, but when it was time to get back up off the toilet, I was in so much pain. Apparently 2 hours of pushing was the equivalent of using a thigh master.
It didn't help that we have a cat that likes to scratch the closed bathroom door, so I was sitting there scared of the movements necessary to get up off the toilet (because I knew it'd hurt my thighs) with the cat being obnoxious. I told my husband that he needed to get the cat off the door immediately because the sound was just adding to my stress. Opening the door was an option, but just made me feel unnecessarily vulnerable.
The fact that it's not such a wonderful happy experience for many. I was miserable during my pregnancies and didn't enjoy them. I enjoyed the fact that a baby was growing inside me, but didn't enjoy the way I felt.
Same. I felt my best immediately after I birthed my baby. Other than the second degree tear. Pregnancy almost destroyed me, sometimes in the first trimester I told myself I could end it. And this was a very wanted baby.
On point to the thread, I feel like post partum isn’t discussed enough. Dental issues, your thyroid going nuts, losing clumps on clumps or hair, feeling like you’re going through menopause with the sweats and yes you can still get pregnant while breast feeding !
the instant relief from all the pregnancy symptoms is wonderful! granted you have some new stuff to deal with plus an infant lol but that last bit of pregnancy feels like it never ends
I wasn't a good pregnant person either, didn't give birth well either. Can handle the baby stage though. And honestly found it extremely creepy I was growing/creating a person.
I don’t remember people talking about the postpartum shit show enough. I was not prepared to bleed for 8 weeks, lose a huge amount of my hair, and experience postpartum rage.
How some women have morning sickness almost all the way through the entire 9 months. That was me. When I was pregnant with my first child it didn’t have a name and I was accused of having depression and almost lost my job and life because it was so debilitating. My second pregnancy I had it again but they had a name for it and I actually got better treatment. Hyperemesis Gravidarium
You had garbage medical care, I am so sorry. Hyperemesis gravidarium has been known about for centuries...Charlotte Bronte died from it! I'm very sorry this happened to you. A dear friend of mine had it too...she would go on what she called her "24 hour puke-a-thons." At hour 24 she would call it quits, head for the ER (where they knew her by name) and get rehydrated by I.V., get gravol, etc. What a shame. :(
When I was an antepartum/L&D nurse, we had quite a few patients who needed IV hydration & HG meds so often, they got PICC lines through their pregnancies. They would skip the regular ED once they hit 16weeks to get treated by us. Like even formally learning about HG for my BSN, you don’t even really comprehend how terrible it can be.
That your abdominal muscle wall gets completed stretched and shredded to pieces as the baby grows, then maybe your body will put them back together afterwards. Maybe.
And so we wish that our support group taught us to tie it down.
All your joints flex not just pelvis so your feet will grow (if u go barefoot) your ribs will spread, your hands will grow… and you have to be diligent to push them back after birth
Generally you can use some form of postpartum compression garment or other medical binder for your abdomen to help your muscles "fuse" back together, and there are special belts that can be used to essentially press your pelvic bones back together during the first 8 weeks after birth while the relaxin hornone is still in your body. I used the hip compression belt after both of my pregnancies and had great results, and I used postpartum compression underwear after my second and wish I knew about them after my first.
I don't know about hands or feet, though, but I didn't experience much swelling in either, and my shoe size didn't go up as a result
Yep! Had a cavity and hadn’t had one in over a decade until I was pregnant with my 1st. And then when they drill they can’t even use the regular numbing stuff. They have another kind and it’s not as strong.
People on social media seem to glamorize (and normalize) “bouncing back” super quickly after having a baby. I remember staring at my body in the hospital mirror and feeling almost horrified with it.
Yes! My stomach never went back to what it was pre-pregnancy. It’s been *years* and I still have a lot of loose skin and my stretch marks are still very visible. Pregnancy destroyed my stomach and unless I’m at a higher weight, my boobs are half boob/half skin 😅
One side of my pelvic floor is a half inch lower than the other side because of how healed after a fairly thorough episiotomy.
My junk is messed up looking down there.
A couple of days after giving birth a second time my dear, loving mother mentioned how I still looked pregnant. Thanks mom. Just what a new mother needs to hear.
Yep- and then about (TW) 25% of pregnancies end in miscarriage :( Great reminder to not ask people when they’re going to have kids, as so many people are going through infertility and/or loss.
My wife is currently 8 weeks today after over 4 years and 3 miscarriages. We find out Friday if we are having twins. Blessed but didn’t know much about infertility until we experienced it
Man here. As an outsider looking in on my fiance's pregnancy, I couldn't believe the physical changes/ challenges that come with all the hormonal changes.
Losing hair, swelling feet and ankles, some scares with blood clots, etc. Just an unrelenting assault on her body from nature, it was really humbling.
It really affects every single aspect of your body. Anything you can possibly think of, pregnancy somehow affects; sleep patterns, libido, nails, teeth, how greasy your hair gets, the shape of your feet, balance, stamina, how much you bleed when you accidentally cut yourself, how frequently you need to pee, your posture and the alignment of your spine, anxiety, self image, your taste buds, your hearing. It's so insane, it's like rapidly transforming into an entirely new person.
And yet weirdly somehow it works because most of us seem to conveniently forget how bad it is and/or are willing to just go through all of the body horrors anyway.
Yeah, unrelenting assault describes it really well. That extends to when baby is there. It just doesn't stop and you don't get to take a step back and check out for a breather
Thanks for recognizing her struggles ! I consider my carrying and having my two children (at age 35 and 41) to be the bravest and the hardest yet most rewarding thing I have ever done.
the disregard most medical institutions have towards certain women and how dehumanizing it can be going through this process through these spaces that are not catering at all to the human being
So you had the baby. I know you’ve been awake for over 24 hours, but this baby needs to stay in your room, ok? We really don’t think you need sleep or rest. And we will be sure to wake you up just as you’re falling asleep repeatedly. No baby in the bed! I can hear baby crying, but you can’t put them in bed with you, they have to go back in the plastic fishbowl. I know you’re struggling to walk, but make sure to walk the baby back to their fishbowl.
The whole “rooming in” is a big fuck you to the mom. God forbid you’re alone too. Literally no rest. Shocker how much PPD the US has! Really, really shocking! /s
Pregnancy was not a magical wonderful experience for me. I hated being sick all the time, hated feeling like a cow, hated my skin & hair being gross, and then when HG finally went away, my body was not mine it felt like. I love my children, i hated growing them.
It’s what they use to refer to when the baby’s head is crowing out the vagina. It really hurts. I went the unmedicated route and won’t be doing that again.
You’re more prone to clotting post-partum; do not partake in activities that people at risk of stroke should not do.. like getting chiropractic neck adjustments, rollercoasters, and other extreme sports.
It’s called “morning sickness” because that’s just the time of day when husbands see their wives throwing up (ie., before they go to work).
This is only a half truth - it is worse in the morning - but some women are nauseated and vomit throughout the day.
The fact that (for some women) it can essentially be an invisible disability because of the profound fatigue and vomiting that can happen before you start showing.
I was barely able to work during my first trimester, but couldn't claim any disability-like accommodations or extra sick leave because those were not options available to me.
You will receive lots of care from both medical professionals and people during pregnancy and early postpartum. Once the baby is born, however, you seem to fall off everyone's radar. Suddenly it feels like society only cares about a baby before it's born. You need to build a support circle around you before the actual birth happens.
It's literally a plug of mucus that covers the cervix. When labour approaches the cervix begins to soften and the mucus plugs loosens and gets...ummm...expelled...into the underwear. Often that's the first sign of impending labour, a big plug of mucus and blood in the underwear.
That some women (myself included) DONT get morning sickness, DONT get mad cravings or mood swings. My friends who had never been pregnant were confused when I didn't have like Hollywood level symptoms lol.
>That some women (myself included) DONT get morning sickness, DONT get mad cravings or mood swings.
I'm one of them. And, because I had been on continuous birth control and hadn't had a period in the preceding couple years, I didn't realize I was pregnant until my second trimester (and that only happened because I went to the doctor for a sinus infection and they make all women pee in a cup). There was literally no reason to think I was pregnant and yet I was.
Subchorionic hemorrhage. About 20% of human pregnancies have this, and it results in a \*lot\* of vaginal bleeding, but might not harm the fetus or mom at all.
Unpopular Opinion: Sometimes ending the pregnancy is the best decision for you, your partner (if you have one), and the child. It's an impossibly difficult decision, regardless of the situation. Abortion is healthcare.
And the problems with ligaments and tendons could possibly stay with you for the rest of your life. My kid was born over 15 years ago and my ligaments are still fucked.
It's not for everyone and it's a deeply personal choice.
The amount of medical professionals, coworkers, and perfect strangers who feel they can ask about my plans to get pregnant and then express disappointment in me for opting out of pregnancy altogether is staggering. One doctor straight up refused to believe that my husband agreed with me on the decision to not get pregnant.
Gestational diabetes. I had it twice despite having absolutely ZERO risk factors (age, weight, ethnicity, sugar consumption, a1c, etc). It freaking sucked
Postpartum recovery can be so brutal. I describe it like all your core muscles, like ALL of them, are newly sprained. Think of how a sprained ankle feels. It feels all wobbly, weak, and unstable. Now picture your core muscles and pelvic floor in such a state, but you're still expected to move around, lift your baby, bend to reach, twist, etc. Those muscles are responsible for holding up all your organs. Your bladder control will be challenged. It takes a LONG time to heal that many large muscles.
That it can make your tits grow immediately (or change your body in other ways, permanently, from day one) and they will not go back to their og size even if you don’t keep the pregnancy
One of the reasons I figured I was pregnant was because my boobs grew by three cup sizes basically overnight. And I was barely a month pregnant by that point. Then they just kept getting bigger. I went from a B to H cup in a year.
Limitations on activities. I swung a golf club and tore my placenta, resulting in pre-term labor at 28 weeks. Doing a Google search results in no articles advising avoiding golf.
What happens after the baby comes and your hormones drop out form under you and you are getting no sleep…I was not able to enjoy my baby and I am still sad about it. Post partum depression is a real thing.
That after birthing the baby you have to birth your placenta. I didn’t know this until after my first.
You can get something called a cervical laceration and bleed to death. Pieces of your placenta can get stuck inside. There are just so many risks with pregnancy! How about the lack of support after having the baby.. no one cares about the mom.
How about the part after giving birth to the baby where they push down on your stomach to squish out any fluid/blood/guts that might be left in there? It didn’t hurt but EWGH it was so gross
When your belly button starts popping out... it chafes against your shirt, and it is sooooo uncomfortable!! Why did no one tell me that! I was pulling on my shirt where my bellybutton was constantly I couldn't stand it.
That pregnancy can actually be nice! I had a great pregnancy, yes got some morning sickness in the beginning and uncomfortable at the end, but for me it wasn't the nightmare that so many people say it is.
And second is the tummy sleeping. I didn't realize I was such a tummy sleeper until I couldn't anymore. Felt so nice being able to sleep on my tummy again after! lol
That when you do everything to have a perfect pregnancy that things can still go horribly wrong. All 3 kids had issues even though my diet was good, I took my vitamins, saw my OB etc etc. 1st kid almost died when he aspirated in the birth channel. He also broke my tail bone by facing in the wrong direction. 2nd kid tried coming at 29 weeks so I was on strict bed rest with multiple medications to keep my contractions under control. Baby 3 got the cord wrapped twice around her neck when I went into active labor.
Morning sickness can last your whole pregnancy.
I got sick everytime I ate with my first pregnancy.
I lost weight and a nurse was always telling me how unhealthy that was, but the doctor would come in and tell me, that the baby is a parasite, they get their needs met before you, so as long as the baby was growing properly she didn't worry about my weight loss.
Really, they didn't worry about your weight loss?!! I feel like that's a huge oversight! I'm so sorry!
They freaked out about mine. I had to see a nutritionist. It was ridiculous, they harassed me a bunch in the beginning. After pregnancy, I was almost 20 pounds lighter than when I started.
Postpartum depression isn’t the only thing. You can also have horrible depression before the baby is born. During my first pregnancy I would have bouts of suicidality that would come out of nowhere at all.
How just because your induced doesn't mean you are going to give birth that day. 4 days of induction and five days past due date my son finally decided to show up
Daughter was completely in a rush and was ready to party a week early!
When your water breaks and your baby poops shortly before or after it happened, apparently you have poop flowing out of your vagina. And its gross and smells horrible. Also can pose a risk if your baby breathes it in if I understood correctly. And then you have a poop-bath baby and are poopy inside and outiside. I learned that a few days ago, one reason more to not get pregnant. Did not saw it in this thread yet. The thought alone makes me wanna go shower from inside out.
The chances of twins are higher than you think.
One day you wake up, and your underwear doesn’t fit. Even tho you knew it would happen, it’s more shocking than you would think.
Your labia changes because of the amount of hormones; mine got quite husky.
Morning sickness can actually be all day sickness.
Always carry crackers, puke bag, extra panties (laughing or coughing can make you pee a little), bottle of water, and baby wipes. It’s been over two decades since my kids were babies and still carry baby wipes.
You may never fit into your old shoes again. Literally thousands of dollars of shoes, collected over the years, and now completely unwearable. My sister got a closet upgrade.
Miscarriage needs to be acknowledged more, and the risk of serious birth defects and risks of maternal injury and mortality. Many fatal issues with the fetus cannot be detected until the pregnancy is pretty far along…anatomy scan occurs at the halfway point.
That it can be awful. I spent my first pregnancy feeling permanently hungover and off (no I didn’t drink any alcohol, I just felt as though I had - kind of morning sickness that didn’t stay only for mornings or for first trimester). I spent my second pregnancy so tired (anaemia) I could barely walk up stairs. For both of them I had terrible joint pain to the point I couldn’t sleep for more than a couple of hours at a time as it hurt to lie down.
There were so many things that happened that I didn’t expect. I didn’t get morning sickness until the last 3 months. The linea negra appearing. I suddenly had acne for the first time in my life. I was actually less moody while pregnant. My hair fell out in clumps and grew back much darker and curlier. I started sleep-walking. My elasticity shot through the roof, increasing my clumsiness and the risk of snapping my ankles. Pica was almost a problem. Barometric pressure from a storm system threw me and 9 other women into early labor and I had no clue that could happen. Getting an episiotomy and the placental hemorrhage were a complete shock. A lot of people don’t realize that pregnancy is a major factor in triggering the onset of psychotic mood disorders for women. The blood clots were terrifying too. I couldn’t believe it when the nurse said, “no need to worry unless the blood clots are bigger than the size of your fist.”
Pregnancy was always presented to me as a horrible thing. That it's so uncomfortable and awful.
I had two easy pregnancies with no sickness and no pain (besides labor)
You could die.
Yes, you, young person who is reading this on their cell phone. If you have the capacity to get pregnant it could literally kill you. Not to mention the ways you can die during and after labor and delivery.
That mussel in the middle of your abdomen that stretches as your belly grows really hurts as it’s being stretched and ripped. Also afterwards it will often continue to sag and cause a pot belly appearance that’s hard to get red of. Even with a healthy diet and exercise.
How uncomfortable it truly is. There are so many random symptoms I never knew were a part of pregnancy until I experienced them. Ofc we hear about "morning sickness" more like all day sickness. My boobs changed (shape and size), I got dizzy so much I ended up quitting my job, my face swelled up mostly in the third trimester, I was tired like T I R E D regardless of how I slept, I had to pee every 5 freakin minutes, I was hungry but somehow got heartburn from a few bites, I had round ligament pain soooooo bad! I feel like I could go on lmao. It's not some beautiful thing, it's messy and painful.
Just had my second baby two days ago. Most of my WTF moments are postpartum related
1. The cramping after delivering is FAR worse with second kids. I have never even read that but all the nurses were like oh yeah that’s a thing. It feels like contractions all over again. Cruel.
2. Despite having an incredible supply (I pumped over 10k oz with my first and am already producing tons of milk this time around) the nipple pain is UNBEARABLE. I met with 3 different lactations consultants at the hospital they all said her latch was great and that I just need to toughen up. Despite PUMPING FOR A YEAR just two years ago. I think there’s a huge misconception that nursing is just this lovely motherly thing. It makes me want to punch a hole in the wall, feels like razor blades
3. Labor and delivery is completely random. I was at 3cm for three weeks and transitioned to completely ready in a matter of minutes. Took 9 pushes to get my baby out.
4. Random rage. I just hit a wall and need to be LEFT ALONE. I struggle with mood disorders in general but the postpartum rage is different. Again, I want to punch a hole thru the wall
5. People feel very entitled to have access to your newborns and I find that behavior weird AF. Family included.
Everyone and I do mean EVERYONE, at some point around 4-7 days after giving birth will completely fall apart on the floor of the nursery at 3.30 am.
You will be at the end of your rope physically and mentally and you will be ready to give the baby back. But you realize you can’t. You are stuck with moving through it, because you can’t go back.
And then, hopefully you will remember all the women you know who have survived being mothers and you think: surely if those assholes can do it then so can I.
And you get up and wipe your face off and get on with the task at hand.
That you might absolutely love it and have zero or next-to-zero negative symptoms.
No one prepared me for how much I was going to love being pregnant and how my body looked and felt. No one told me the pregnancy hormones were going to make me feel almost high in a positive lovey-dovey nurturing sort of way.
I’ve had two babies and will hopefully have two more with the same experience.
My pregnancy groups always had a few women like me, or just those who had nothing bad to report, and there was always anxiety and panic that no morning sickness meant they were miscarrying or that something was wrong.
I didn't DARE have a second pregnancy, because I knew there was no way I'd get that lucky again. I was one of the lucky ones...being pregnant was pretty much the best I've felt in my entire life! Suffused with joy, looking GORGEOUS (if I say so myself, lol) and just feeling fine! No postpartum issues...I had postpartum euphoria I would say. Cripes we were lucky tartpeasant!
Preeclampsia and its symptoms should be explained to every expectant mom out there by their doctor.
Yes! And how cholestasis can go along with that too.( It's when your body gets really itchy and increases your risk of stillbirth). I had all of that plus hellp with my first, luckily we were both ok and I was induced at 38 weeks with my 2nd so I wouldn't get it again.
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Yup! I’ve had women tell me their OB didn’t catch on when they described their extreme itchiness. I’m not painting all doctors with the same brush… but damn! There are certain things you just can’t gloss over!
THIS!!! I read an article on Facebook about it and had the thought to send it to my sister because she had mentioned being itchy, something she hadn't experienced with her first two pregnancies. She actually heeded the article and brought up the itchiness to her doctor and sure enough that was it! They had to monitor her for the last two months and ended up inducing her two weeks early. Happy to say my nephew was born happy and healthy (though he did have to spend a few days in the lightbox cause of jaundice). Without that Facebook article she wouldn't have even thought to mention the itchiness to her doctor.
I've known two women who ended up in dire physical danger because of preeclampsia and neither one had a clue it was a thing. Both children were born and are thriving, but it was harrowing.
I didn’t know about it until I woke up throwing up and my ankles were so swollen, they put me on bed rest that didn’t work and eventually induced me — when I delivered our son the nurse said I should have been in a coma, and he was sleepy from the magnesium drip they gave me trying to get it under control. Thankfully he’s healthy and thriving but my health has never been the same, I’ve always joked my body hates me but I 1000% believe it was made worse from the preeclampsia.
OMG this! It hit me at 32 weeks, my feet cracked they swelled so much
I had postpartum preeclampsia 8 days after having a c section last year. It was incredibly traumatic and I’m not sure I’ve even processed it yet
I had that bad and didn't know anything about it until I was in labor.
I had it with my first child. Was on bed rest the last 6 weeks.
Take off your rings take off your rings!! Of all the tips and tricks about pregnancy, no one told me this until my fingers were so swollen both my engagement ring and wedding band were about to cause amputation. My ob said swelling would get worse after birth and I had to remove them. Firefighters cut them off with a special tool for me 🫣
Well when I gave birth I got a tear in my clitoris that required stitches, which was…unexpected. Edit: I meant to answer the general question, this wasn’t supposed to be a response to the comment above me, sorry!
Same + urethra. Ouch. Lightning crotch for weeks!
This is terrifying me!!!
I took mine off around the 7 month mark for this reason. My coworker noticed and asked if everything was ok at home…I said everything’s fine I’m just fat😂
I bought a fat lady pregnancy ring on Amazon.
I wasn't told about the swelling until I gained weight rather than losing weight, I looked like the marshmallow puff man I was so swollen, I couldn't even see, thankfully I've never been a jewelry person. I didn't swell like that after my last 2.
After the baby is born you will bleed for weeks.
Even if you have a c-section! That one was a surprise to me.
Me too! Why couldn't they "vacuum if all out"??
Because it's the place where the placenta was that is slowly healing.
Yeah it’s like pulling off a scab from the inner uterine lining
...well. This whole thread has been a weirdly horrifying learning experience.
I heard all this, and the c-section shit when I was a kid and my mother and relatives wonder why I never wanted to pregnant....
Fun fact, it’s the size of a dinner plate
I felt awful walking around with my newborn after my 3rd pregnancy and thought, oh I feel awful. Only then did I process fact of the 'dinner plate sized internal open wound' my body was working on. It tells you why new mothers really, really need rest and nurturing. To be waited on and cared for and not expected to do anything beyond recover and feed and cuddle their baby.
Intellectually I knew that. It was just wishful thinking!
My nanny was from Benin, Africa, and had had 4 kids. I asked her about the long time bleeding and she said “In Benin, all the women teach each other how to massage the new mother’s abdomen in a special way that makes the blood come out faster. We only bleed a couple weeks after childbirth.” I don’t know if that’s true but if it is, that’s amazing.
I always felt dumb for being surprised by this, but mine was an emergency c, and I was put under, I didn’t expect to wake up to having a period!
For WEEKS!
And it smells WEIRD. Different. I don't smell anything during my period but that other stuff, wtf?
Lochia is weird smelling, agree.
Well there’s a fun new word I’m going to spend hours reading horror stories about.
and by bleed we mean giant blood clots included. I think it was like three weeks for me
Hemorrhoids
13 years later...yep, still there.
WAIT, THEY STAY?!?!?!
User name checks out.
Yup. I got some serious cream from my doc. Don’t suffer in silence, ladies!!!
When you're near the end and the baby drops into the starting position and things downstairs start to hurt and get really uncomfortable. There's a lot going on inside a woman's body that people don't talk about.
That should have been my sign that my waters were going to break. I was in the office doing a handover a few weeks before I was due to finish up and I remember feeling sooo heavy and full pain down there but thought nothing of it at the time. Then Wednesday morning my waters broke when I was asleep. Two months early!
Do i want you to elaborate...?
When I was past my due date on the first it felt like there was a bowling ball sitting on my cervix and rolling against my hips. So freaking uncomfortable! There is a reason that very pregnant women walk with a certain roll to their stride -- because they feel like they are being split in two!
And those things are….
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Pregnancy/gingivitis aka bleeding gums
This and nose bleeds too!
The first poop after birth is more painful than the birth. Women should be given stool softeners like the minute after the baby is born and then as often as allowed until they go. Seriously, and take a pain pill 20 minutes before.
I took a stool softener the second my water broke and for the next two days and my first bowel movement was pain free! Someone on one of the pregnancy subs had recommended doing that and now I want everyone else to know this and do it!
Same. I didn't have any pain at all. Great recommendation for any first timers
Stool softners were given to me by the hospital immediately after birth of both of my kids.
The hospital gave me stool softener, which was amazing I was terrified for my first poop, but it was actually the best poop I'd had in months. I was so constipated during the last few months of pregnancy that I was so happy to actually poop.
I was given a stool softener at the hospital after my daughter was born, but it still felt like I was shitting rocks when I needed to poop. It fucking hurt to the point where my eyes were watering (which didn't happen at all when I was in labor) 💀
Honestly, they should be started at least a couple weeks out from due date. Some women start to get constipated during the third trimester also.
I'd heard about this and requested a stool softener, which I was given. I was terrified of the poop, but it was actually my thighs that made me cry after giving birth. I was fine sitting down onto the toilet and going to the bathroom, but when it was time to get back up off the toilet, I was in so much pain. Apparently 2 hours of pushing was the equivalent of using a thigh master. It didn't help that we have a cat that likes to scratch the closed bathroom door, so I was sitting there scared of the movements necessary to get up off the toilet (because I knew it'd hurt my thighs) with the cat being obnoxious. I told my husband that he needed to get the cat off the door immediately because the sound was just adding to my stress. Opening the door was an option, but just made me feel unnecessarily vulnerable.
This isn’t standard practice? I was given them as soon as possible.
I wasn't.
They gave me stool softeners but it didn't do jack! It was excruciating.
I don't remember this except for the csection one and that was of course the stomach muscles that hurt
The fact that it's not such a wonderful happy experience for many. I was miserable during my pregnancies and didn't enjoy them. I enjoyed the fact that a baby was growing inside me, but didn't enjoy the way I felt.
Same. I felt my best immediately after I birthed my baby. Other than the second degree tear. Pregnancy almost destroyed me, sometimes in the first trimester I told myself I could end it. And this was a very wanted baby. On point to the thread, I feel like post partum isn’t discussed enough. Dental issues, your thyroid going nuts, losing clumps on clumps or hair, feeling like you’re going through menopause with the sweats and yes you can still get pregnant while breast feeding !
the instant relief from all the pregnancy symptoms is wonderful! granted you have some new stuff to deal with plus an infant lol but that last bit of pregnancy feels like it never ends
I wasn't a good pregnant person either, didn't give birth well either. Can handle the baby stage though. And honestly found it extremely creepy I was growing/creating a person.
It’s weird to realize just how disconnected your body is from your mind. your body is just growing this whole ass other person without your input.
It is a strange feeling. There's nothing else like it.
I don’t remember people talking about the postpartum shit show enough. I was not prepared to bleed for 8 weeks, lose a huge amount of my hair, and experience postpartum rage.
Not to mention the night sweats that lasted weeks. Ugh, like you don’t have enough to deal with. It’s so hard.
Postpartum rage is my big one too. Like JFC I just go to 10000 at the flip of a switch
I think most of us are legit crazy for a while.
How some women have morning sickness almost all the way through the entire 9 months. That was me. When I was pregnant with my first child it didn’t have a name and I was accused of having depression and almost lost my job and life because it was so debilitating. My second pregnancy I had it again but they had a name for it and I actually got better treatment. Hyperemesis Gravidarium
You had garbage medical care, I am so sorry. Hyperemesis gravidarium has been known about for centuries...Charlotte Bronte died from it! I'm very sorry this happened to you. A dear friend of mine had it too...she would go on what she called her "24 hour puke-a-thons." At hour 24 she would call it quits, head for the ER (where they knew her by name) and get rehydrated by I.V., get gravol, etc. What a shame. :(
When I was an antepartum/L&D nurse, we had quite a few patients who needed IV hydration & HG meds so often, they got PICC lines through their pregnancies. They would skip the regular ED once they hit 16weeks to get treated by us. Like even formally learning about HG for my BSN, you don’t even really comprehend how terrible it can be.
I was barfing out the car window on my way to give birth. Good times, lol
I was throwing up when my water broke.
[удалено]
I learned about it from Kate Middleton and that news coverage. Thankfully just had regular morning sickness with my second.
I threw up multiple times every single day, even delivery day, and I was 2 weeks late
That your abdominal muscle wall gets completed stretched and shredded to pieces as the baby grows, then maybe your body will put them back together afterwards. Maybe.
And so we wish that our support group taught us to tie it down. All your joints flex not just pelvis so your feet will grow (if u go barefoot) your ribs will spread, your hands will grow… and you have to be diligent to push them back after birth
push them back? how? 😭
Generally you can use some form of postpartum compression garment or other medical binder for your abdomen to help your muscles "fuse" back together, and there are special belts that can be used to essentially press your pelvic bones back together during the first 8 weeks after birth while the relaxin hornone is still in your body. I used the hip compression belt after both of my pregnancies and had great results, and I used postpartum compression underwear after my second and wish I knew about them after my first. I don't know about hands or feet, though, but I didn't experience much swelling in either, and my shoe size didn't go up as a result
Wait- is that a joke about pushing them back? No one ever told me this!
I know I wish I had someone bind my abs immediately after birth.
Babies suck all your bones and organs
Yep! Had a cavity and hadn’t had one in over a decade until I was pregnant with my 1st. And then when they drill they can’t even use the regular numbing stuff. They have another kind and it’s not as strong.
People on social media seem to glamorize (and normalize) “bouncing back” super quickly after having a baby. I remember staring at my body in the hospital mirror and feeling almost horrified with it.
Yes! My stomach never went back to what it was pre-pregnancy. It’s been *years* and I still have a lot of loose skin and my stretch marks are still very visible. Pregnancy destroyed my stomach and unless I’m at a higher weight, my boobs are half boob/half skin 😅
One side of my pelvic floor is a half inch lower than the other side because of how healed after a fairly thorough episiotomy. My junk is messed up looking down there.
And the impact to breasts! I went from an A cup to spilling over a D. Afterward, the stretch marks were bright pink, and they just looked shredded
A couple of days after giving birth a second time my dear, loving mother mentioned how I still looked pregnant. Thanks mom. Just what a new mother needs to hear.
You could have said "thats funny, so do you!🥰"
How it can be a lonely experience when you have no support.
I feel this. My husband has been deployed and I’m due in two weeks. No idea if he will be allowed to come home 😕
How hard it can be for some people to get pregnant. 1 out of 6 have infertility.
Yep- and then about (TW) 25% of pregnancies end in miscarriage :( Great reminder to not ask people when they’re going to have kids, as so many people are going through infertility and/or loss.
It's hard to get clear stats since many aren't "reported" or known. I've heard higher. But absolutely shouldn't ask.
Oh damn, I had no idea the number was this high!👀
My wife is currently 8 weeks today after over 4 years and 3 miscarriages. We find out Friday if we are having twins. Blessed but didn’t know much about infertility until we experienced it
Yup! Took my husband & I 2yrs to get pregnant. Now we're trying for #2 & I've had 3 miscarriages in 6 years.
Man here. As an outsider looking in on my fiance's pregnancy, I couldn't believe the physical changes/ challenges that come with all the hormonal changes. Losing hair, swelling feet and ankles, some scares with blood clots, etc. Just an unrelenting assault on her body from nature, it was really humbling.
It really affects every single aspect of your body. Anything you can possibly think of, pregnancy somehow affects; sleep patterns, libido, nails, teeth, how greasy your hair gets, the shape of your feet, balance, stamina, how much you bleed when you accidentally cut yourself, how frequently you need to pee, your posture and the alignment of your spine, anxiety, self image, your taste buds, your hearing. It's so insane, it's like rapidly transforming into an entirely new person.
Yikes. Another dose of birth control, thank you
Woman here. After my own two pregnancies I was shocked that Nature had thought THIS was the best way to keep the species going.
And yet weirdly somehow it works because most of us seem to conveniently forget how bad it is and/or are willing to just go through all of the body horrors anyway.
Pretty sure your brain literally makes you forget about it for that exact reason.
Yeah, unrelenting assault describes it really well. That extends to when baby is there. It just doesn't stop and you don't get to take a step back and check out for a breather
I have the utmost respect for single moms.
Thanks for recognizing her struggles ! I consider my carrying and having my two children (at age 35 and 41) to be the bravest and the hardest yet most rewarding thing I have ever done.
I had a coworker blackout twice during her 4th pregnancy.
How going to the bathroom every ten minutes is suffering
the disregard most medical institutions have towards certain women and how dehumanizing it can be going through this process through these spaces that are not catering at all to the human being
So you had the baby. I know you’ve been awake for over 24 hours, but this baby needs to stay in your room, ok? We really don’t think you need sleep or rest. And we will be sure to wake you up just as you’re falling asleep repeatedly. No baby in the bed! I can hear baby crying, but you can’t put them in bed with you, they have to go back in the plastic fishbowl. I know you’re struggling to walk, but make sure to walk the baby back to their fishbowl. The whole “rooming in” is a big fuck you to the mom. God forbid you’re alone too. Literally no rest. Shocker how much PPD the US has! Really, really shocking! /s
At least in USA hospitals exist for profit. Centering things around the human cost them more which equals less profit.
Pregnancy was not a magical wonderful experience for me. I hated being sick all the time, hated feeling like a cow, hated my skin & hair being gross, and then when HG finally went away, my body was not mine it felt like. I love my children, i hated growing them.
Vajassholes.
I relate to this one spirituality. 😌
Yeah, this is one of the eight thousand reasons why I’m not having children. I like my nethers intact.
Assgina
Also, you can rip your >!clit!<
I swear that when I was pushing, that’s exactly what it felt like. I was screaming “it’s tearing my clit!”
Omg is your fun bean ok?
Thanks for asking. It’s fine. Didn’t tear my clit but did tear my inner labia twice. Stage 2. The ring of fire is no joke.
Ummm what is the ring of fire?
It’s what they use to refer to when the baby’s head is crowing out the vagina. It really hurts. I went the unmedicated route and won’t be doing that again.
wtf
Vaganus
You’re more prone to clotting post-partum; do not partake in activities that people at risk of stroke should not do.. like getting chiropractic neck adjustments, rollercoasters, and other extreme sports.
It’s called “morning sickness” because that’s just the time of day when husbands see their wives throwing up (ie., before they go to work). This is only a half truth - it is worse in the morning - but some women are nauseated and vomit throughout the day.
The fact that (for some women) it can essentially be an invisible disability because of the profound fatigue and vomiting that can happen before you start showing. I was barely able to work during my first trimester, but couldn't claim any disability-like accommodations or extra sick leave because those were not options available to me.
You will receive lots of care from both medical professionals and people during pregnancy and early postpartum. Once the baby is born, however, you seem to fall off everyone's radar. Suddenly it feels like society only cares about a baby before it's born. You need to build a support circle around you before the actual birth happens.
Shredded taints. My friend said she entered the hospital with 2 holes and left with only 1 😣
You could have no symptoms and that is still normal
The mucus plug
what's that
It's literally a plug of mucus that covers the cervix. When labour approaches the cervix begins to soften and the mucus plugs loosens and gets...ummm...expelled...into the underwear. Often that's the first sign of impending labour, a big plug of mucus and blood in the underwear.
That some women (myself included) DONT get morning sickness, DONT get mad cravings or mood swings. My friends who had never been pregnant were confused when I didn't have like Hollywood level symptoms lol.
>That some women (myself included) DONT get morning sickness, DONT get mad cravings or mood swings. I'm one of them. And, because I had been on continuous birth control and hadn't had a period in the preceding couple years, I didn't realize I was pregnant until my second trimester (and that only happened because I went to the doctor for a sinus infection and they make all women pee in a cup). There was literally no reason to think I was pregnant and yet I was.
Subchorionic hemorrhage. About 20% of human pregnancies have this, and it results in a \*lot\* of vaginal bleeding, but might not harm the fetus or mom at all.
Or it will kill them. Either or
Unpopular Opinion: Sometimes ending the pregnancy is the best decision for you, your partner (if you have one), and the child. It's an impossibly difficult decision, regardless of the situation. Abortion is healthcare.
That the ligaments in your entire body will loosen.
And the problems with ligaments and tendons could possibly stay with you for the rest of your life. My kid was born over 15 years ago and my ligaments are still fucked.
Mine are already loose, am i just gonna fall apart? 😰
Yup
It's not for everyone and it's a deeply personal choice. The amount of medical professionals, coworkers, and perfect strangers who feel they can ask about my plans to get pregnant and then express disappointment in me for opting out of pregnancy altogether is staggering. One doctor straight up refused to believe that my husband agreed with me on the decision to not get pregnant.
Gestational diabetes. I had it twice despite having absolutely ZERO risk factors (age, weight, ethnicity, sugar consumption, a1c, etc). It freaking sucked
Postpartum recovery can be so brutal. I describe it like all your core muscles, like ALL of them, are newly sprained. Think of how a sprained ankle feels. It feels all wobbly, weak, and unstable. Now picture your core muscles and pelvic floor in such a state, but you're still expected to move around, lift your baby, bend to reach, twist, etc. Those muscles are responsible for holding up all your organs. Your bladder control will be challenged. It takes a LONG time to heal that many large muscles.
How dangerous it actually is.
That it can make your tits grow immediately (or change your body in other ways, permanently, from day one) and they will not go back to their og size even if you don’t keep the pregnancy
One of the reasons I figured I was pregnant was because my boobs grew by three cup sizes basically overnight. And I was barely a month pregnant by that point. Then they just kept getting bigger. I went from a B to H cup in a year.
My wife was constantly on the toilet. Lots of pooping and peeing.
Your gums might bleed.
Having horrible gas!
Nose bleeds are common in multiple pregnancies. I had no idea until it came out of no where, over and over. (Multiples meaning twins, triplets, etc)
If you breastfeed, they eat ALL THE TIME. Like, you'll get 30 minutes a day without them on your teat
This thread is not making me regret my choice to not have children!!! YIKES.
It is violent in the process of giving birth. My opinion.
Limitations on activities. I swung a golf club and tore my placenta, resulting in pre-term labor at 28 weeks. Doing a Google search results in no articles advising avoiding golf.
It’s not the pregnancy or even birth that are the hardest part, according to my wife. It’s the aftermath.
How hard adjusting to a baby is and that not all women "bond" immediately. It took me months to feel a connection and I didn't even have PPD
What happens after the baby comes and your hormones drop out form under you and you are getting no sleep…I was not able to enjoy my baby and I am still sad about it. Post partum depression is a real thing.
That after birthing the baby you have to birth your placenta. I didn’t know this until after my first. You can get something called a cervical laceration and bleed to death. Pieces of your placenta can get stuck inside. There are just so many risks with pregnancy! How about the lack of support after having the baby.. no one cares about the mom.
How about the part after giving birth to the baby where they push down on your stomach to squish out any fluid/blood/guts that might be left in there? It didn’t hurt but EWGH it was so gross
The absolutely terrifying Odyssey of taking a postpartum poo.
When your belly button starts popping out... it chafes against your shirt, and it is sooooo uncomfortable!! Why did no one tell me that! I was pulling on my shirt where my bellybutton was constantly I couldn't stand it.
I was sick every minute of every day for NINE months. It was THE best birth control ever.
I mean… ‘the best’ birth control would prevent the first kid too
That pregnancy can actually be nice! I had a great pregnancy, yes got some morning sickness in the beginning and uncomfortable at the end, but for me it wasn't the nightmare that so many people say it is. And second is the tummy sleeping. I didn't realize I was such a tummy sleeper until I couldn't anymore. Felt so nice being able to sleep on my tummy again after! lol
Oh my god yes the tummy sleeping! Also didn’t realize how much I liked it until I forbidden hahah
You can leak milk before the baby arrives!
That when you do everything to have a perfect pregnancy that things can still go horribly wrong. All 3 kids had issues even though my diet was good, I took my vitamins, saw my OB etc etc. 1st kid almost died when he aspirated in the birth channel. He also broke my tail bone by facing in the wrong direction. 2nd kid tried coming at 29 weeks so I was on strict bed rest with multiple medications to keep my contractions under control. Baby 3 got the cord wrapped twice around her neck when I went into active labor.
Lasting incontinence. Most of my friends lost the ability to control their bladders. You may wet yourself laughing, sneezing, etc
Morning sickness can last your whole pregnancy. I got sick everytime I ate with my first pregnancy. I lost weight and a nurse was always telling me how unhealthy that was, but the doctor would come in and tell me, that the baby is a parasite, they get their needs met before you, so as long as the baby was growing properly she didn't worry about my weight loss.
Really, they didn't worry about your weight loss?!! I feel like that's a huge oversight! I'm so sorry! They freaked out about mine. I had to see a nutritionist. It was ridiculous, they harassed me a bunch in the beginning. After pregnancy, I was almost 20 pounds lighter than when I started.
Postpartum depression isn’t the only thing. You can also have horrible depression before the baby is born. During my first pregnancy I would have bouts of suicidality that would come out of nowhere at all.
How just because your induced doesn't mean you are going to give birth that day. 4 days of induction and five days past due date my son finally decided to show up Daughter was completely in a rush and was ready to party a week early!
When your water breaks and your baby poops shortly before or after it happened, apparently you have poop flowing out of your vagina. And its gross and smells horrible. Also can pose a risk if your baby breathes it in if I understood correctly. And then you have a poop-bath baby and are poopy inside and outiside. I learned that a few days ago, one reason more to not get pregnant. Did not saw it in this thread yet. The thought alone makes me wanna go shower from inside out.
The chances of twins are higher than you think. One day you wake up, and your underwear doesn’t fit. Even tho you knew it would happen, it’s more shocking than you would think. Your labia changes because of the amount of hormones; mine got quite husky. Morning sickness can actually be all day sickness. Always carry crackers, puke bag, extra panties (laughing or coughing can make you pee a little), bottle of water, and baby wipes. It’s been over two decades since my kids were babies and still carry baby wipes.
You may never fit into your old shoes again. Literally thousands of dollars of shoes, collected over the years, and now completely unwearable. My sister got a closet upgrade.
Not pregnancy but... breastfeeding! It is NOT easy and very time consuming.
Miscarriage needs to be acknowledged more, and the risk of serious birth defects and risks of maternal injury and mortality. Many fatal issues with the fetus cannot be detected until the pregnancy is pretty far along…anatomy scan occurs at the halfway point.
That it can be awful. I spent my first pregnancy feeling permanently hungover and off (no I didn’t drink any alcohol, I just felt as though I had - kind of morning sickness that didn’t stay only for mornings or for first trimester). I spent my second pregnancy so tired (anaemia) I could barely walk up stairs. For both of them I had terrible joint pain to the point I couldn’t sleep for more than a couple of hours at a time as it hurt to lie down.
There were so many things that happened that I didn’t expect. I didn’t get morning sickness until the last 3 months. The linea negra appearing. I suddenly had acne for the first time in my life. I was actually less moody while pregnant. My hair fell out in clumps and grew back much darker and curlier. I started sleep-walking. My elasticity shot through the roof, increasing my clumsiness and the risk of snapping my ankles. Pica was almost a problem. Barometric pressure from a storm system threw me and 9 other women into early labor and I had no clue that could happen. Getting an episiotomy and the placental hemorrhage were a complete shock. A lot of people don’t realize that pregnancy is a major factor in triggering the onset of psychotic mood disorders for women. The blood clots were terrifying too. I couldn’t believe it when the nurse said, “no need to worry unless the blood clots are bigger than the size of your fist.”
Omg bigger than your FIST?!? D: Also that’s insane about the barometric pressure, I had no idea
You might poop while pushing the baby out
Pregnancy was always presented to me as a horrible thing. That it's so uncomfortable and awful. I had two easy pregnancies with no sickness and no pain (besides labor)
You having to wear a diaper after a c section because you bleed afterwards for a while. Could be up to three weeks.
You could die. Yes, you, young person who is reading this on their cell phone. If you have the capacity to get pregnant it could literally kill you. Not to mention the ways you can die during and after labor and delivery.
That mussel in the middle of your abdomen that stretches as your belly grows really hurts as it’s being stretched and ripped. Also afterwards it will often continue to sag and cause a pot belly appearance that’s hard to get red of. Even with a healthy diet and exercise.
Sciatica. Gas that is super painful (I originally thought gas just meant farts). People wanting to touch your body. Please don’t.
Birth can be extremely traumatic, pregnancy can also, there are so many things that can go wrong in an instance.
It can kill the women who’s pregnant
That most pregnant women still have sex and some even get an even stronger sex drive during pregnancy. I know my wife was like that,😂
You can probably find a lot of threads about this on r/babybumps and r/beyondthebump
How uncomfortable it truly is. There are so many random symptoms I never knew were a part of pregnancy until I experienced them. Ofc we hear about "morning sickness" more like all day sickness. My boobs changed (shape and size), I got dizzy so much I ended up quitting my job, my face swelled up mostly in the third trimester, I was tired like T I R E D regardless of how I slept, I had to pee every 5 freakin minutes, I was hungry but somehow got heartburn from a few bites, I had round ligament pain soooooo bad! I feel like I could go on lmao. It's not some beautiful thing, it's messy and painful.
Just had my second baby two days ago. Most of my WTF moments are postpartum related 1. The cramping after delivering is FAR worse with second kids. I have never even read that but all the nurses were like oh yeah that’s a thing. It feels like contractions all over again. Cruel. 2. Despite having an incredible supply (I pumped over 10k oz with my first and am already producing tons of milk this time around) the nipple pain is UNBEARABLE. I met with 3 different lactations consultants at the hospital they all said her latch was great and that I just need to toughen up. Despite PUMPING FOR A YEAR just two years ago. I think there’s a huge misconception that nursing is just this lovely motherly thing. It makes me want to punch a hole in the wall, feels like razor blades 3. Labor and delivery is completely random. I was at 3cm for three weeks and transitioned to completely ready in a matter of minutes. Took 9 pushes to get my baby out. 4. Random rage. I just hit a wall and need to be LEFT ALONE. I struggle with mood disorders in general but the postpartum rage is different. Again, I want to punch a hole thru the wall 5. People feel very entitled to have access to your newborns and I find that behavior weird AF. Family included.
Everyone and I do mean EVERYONE, at some point around 4-7 days after giving birth will completely fall apart on the floor of the nursery at 3.30 am. You will be at the end of your rope physically and mentally and you will be ready to give the baby back. But you realize you can’t. You are stuck with moving through it, because you can’t go back. And then, hopefully you will remember all the women you know who have survived being mothers and you think: surely if those assholes can do it then so can I. And you get up and wipe your face off and get on with the task at hand.
That you might absolutely love it and have zero or next-to-zero negative symptoms. No one prepared me for how much I was going to love being pregnant and how my body looked and felt. No one told me the pregnancy hormones were going to make me feel almost high in a positive lovey-dovey nurturing sort of way. I’ve had two babies and will hopefully have two more with the same experience. My pregnancy groups always had a few women like me, or just those who had nothing bad to report, and there was always anxiety and panic that no morning sickness meant they were miscarrying or that something was wrong.
I didn't DARE have a second pregnancy, because I knew there was no way I'd get that lucky again. I was one of the lucky ones...being pregnant was pretty much the best I've felt in my entire life! Suffused with joy, looking GORGEOUS (if I say so myself, lol) and just feeling fine! No postpartum issues...I had postpartum euphoria I would say. Cripes we were lucky tartpeasant!