We know that giving birth is anything but easy, but we still rarely talk about the physical impacts it can have on a mother . Bruises, scars, and sometimes, even permanent physical side-effects can result from labor and delivery.
Moms are taking to social media to spread awareness about these conditions with raw and real photos. Take a look for yourself.
Swollen feet are one of the many so-called joys of giving birth.
Often, an IV or any medications that you receive during your labor can lead to swollen feet and legs. Thankfully, they should go down after a few days, but they can make getting around a little tricky.
Teaching others about post-birth pain.
This mom shared her raw post-birth photo along with an emotional caption about how much physical pain she was in after giving birth. We really don’t talk about this side of postpartum life enough.
A happy and slightly delirious new mom.
This photo was taken following an emergency C-section and this mom wrote in her Instagram caption, “…don’t know if I was just overwhelmed by loads of different emotions or just absolutely out my face on whatever drugs I was on.” Totally understandable!
This mom shows off her postpartum mesh undies and belly bump in this selfie.
This mom decided to take in her “hormones” and “leaky” breasts with a postpartum selfie that kind of sums up what it’s like to be a new mom in one honest photo.
Capturing a “metamorphosis”.
In this mom’s honest post, she opened up about how becoming a mom didn’t just change her physically but also changed her outlook on life.
“I stopped thinking about myself and what I wanted to what was best for this new person,” she said.
The first latch.
In this beautiful photo, a mom nurses her newborn baby. For many moms, they are encouraged to breastfeed as soon as possible after the baby is born, so they really don’t get much of a chance to recover.
Moms always put themselves last.
“Friend gave birth today with no epidural or pain meds. Here she is asking boyfriend if he’s okay,” said Reddit user desmosabie.
What an amazing moment to have captured that shows how much this mom cares about her family.
This mom isn’t ashamed of her C-section scar.
“I’m actually really proud of the capabilities of the human body & what MY body did to get these girls earthside,” she said.
Stretch marks are a package deal when carrying a baby.
As the baby grows, our bodies need to make room for them.
This means our whole torso must stretch, but what’s left are the beautiful battle wounds of new life.
Your body doesn’t just “bounce back” to what it was before pregnancy.
It’s not like a slight bloat, where drinking a ton of water and ginger tea might alleviate your expanded stomach.
This is the reality of one day post-birth.
There may be some real scars left behind from giving birth.
This is especially the case when going through a C-section. They really are no joke. It’s a very real surgery and careful care must be taken afterwards.
Your body goes through major changes.
When your torso begins to settle back, what’s left might not be a super smooth stomach. But that is perfectly okay. This is the reality.
Sometimes, you can only eat what you can take.
Your body has just taken a massive toll after going through hours of labour. Maybe toast and some water is all you can keep down for a few days.
Giving birth is just straight up painful.
There is so much joy in birthing new life, but it doesn’t make the process any less painful.
But as they say, you forget about all that pain soon after as you raise your new bundle of joy.
Bruises and scars are signs of a warrior mama.
After I gave birth to my son, my arms were covered in bruises from multiple failed IV attempts. We don’t give moms enough credit for how much they go through during labor.
