Labor is no joke.
We've all heard the stories of the painful contractions, being in labor for 24+ hours, and tearing your area.
But what if there was even more than all that? Things like the shakes, not bonding with your baby right away, and a month-long period following labor.
Turns out, there's a lot of things moms haven't been telling us. Here, they finally share all.
This makes sense, considering you just pushed a baby out of your area!
One Reddit user has a tip for this: "if you lean forward on the toilet, then the pee goes away from the most painful areas."
"Your uterus continues to contract after delivery to get back down to pre-prego size. It's pretty painful, worse than menstrual cramps. And breastfeeding really kicks the contractions into high gear." - Redditor CowCamp
"Your vagina is going to look like a nightmare after. Don’t look at it or touch it, put ice packs and medicine on it but don’t investigate. I repeat: DO NOT INVESTIGATE. You’ll just keep yourself up at night fretting over what happens if it never goes back to normal." - Redditor Iristhevirus217
"The shaking after giving birth surprised me! I kept apologizing to everyone who was still working on me or the baby, but they said it was totally normal. I’d never heard of it before!" - Redditor ToastedRawhide
This is essentially a sanitary napkin that you chill in the freezer and place inside your underwear to relieve pain and discomfort.
One Redditor sprayed hers with witch hazel and aloe vera.
"If you have back labour, it's just ohmygodmyinsideswantokillme extreme pain for several hours, instead of getting a little break between the contractions. That was sure swell to experience." - Redditor cassanthrax
After all your body has been through, it's pretty understandable that you won't smell like a rose.
One Redditor said that their nether region smelled like a slaughterhouse. Yikes!
"Random strangers were going to be feeling me up, from the inside to see how dilated I was. Every couple hours. After a while you stop caring." - Redditor Buffalocookiebutter
It varies from woman to woman.
While some are in labor for days, others are in and out of the hospital. One Redditor shared that they only had to push twice for their child.
"I tore front to back. Didn’t need reconstructive surgery, but the stitches wouldn’t heal for months because it would reopen every time I pooped. It was 7 years ago and I’ve never looked down there myself but the scar feels like a rope." - Redditor Spazmer
"I didn't see the clot shoot out of me since I was focused on my baby on my chest, but I did see my husbands face after it shot out of me. It's the most horrified I've maybe ever seen him. He said it looked like a human heart blasted out of my vagina." - rebren
We've all seen the picture: the newborn baby is lying on the mother's chest after she just gave birth.
While the moment looks sweet, it's not always so emotional for everyone. And that's okay.
"For me it was intense itching that made me nearly lose my mind. I spent a solid hour begging my partner to scratch my feet, but I couldn’t feel them being scratched." - Redditor MyStingersAreFicky
You might poop yourself and not care one bit, get used to random strangers checking how dilated you are and absolutely love the stretchy underwear they give.
Let your freak flag fly!
In case you don't know what this is, it's your tailbone.
If you are positioned in a way during labor that applies pressure, it could break or pull. "16 months later and my ass STILL hurts," wrote one Redditor.
"Sometime in the next six months, you will lose a lot of hair. An incredible amount. Giving birth is like any traumatic event and can trigger hair loss several months down the road. At one point, I spent so much time trying to remove my hair off my baby, it was gross." - Redditor deleted
According to Redditor P8II, certain doctors tend to light up when they see a good placenta. Don't be surprised if you're commended on an area of your body that even you have never seen before.
In a since-deleted comment, this Reddit user said that when her water broke — only blood came out. She was utterly terrified until she got to the hospital and the staff assured her that this was perfectly normal.
"I had a really hard time breast feeding[sic] but even so my breasts leaked milk like... well, a water fountain for about a week. Also, breastfeeding was harder than my Masters[sic] degree." - Reddit u/Nylonknot
This is precisely what happened while Redditor leasuar was giving birth and she was completely caught off guard. To make matters even worse, she explains in her post that she has a debilitating phobia of throwing up.
Attention fathers; this one is for you. If the mother of your child has a scheduled C-section and she's chosen you to be in the room with her, whatever you do — don't look over the curtain.
"I had known about PPD and the "baby blues", but it was honestly sickening to me how sad I was after getting home from the hospital," said Redditor Kiwigirl80. "I had wanted a baby for so long, finally had him and then just hated it."
Reddit user Spazmer says that the best piece of advice she ever received was to wear an adult diaper after birth. This will allow you to move more freely and comfortably around the house — especially in those first few weeks.
"THAT SHOWER! That first glorious shower... you’re filthy, sweaty, covered in body fluids. You’re marinating in hormones that make you feel rapturous. That SHOWER! So amazing." - Reddit u/gosglings
