There are things that happen to our bodies during and after pregnancy that women are often embarrassed about and ashamed of. But ladies, there’s no need to be, it happens to the best of us! Growing and carrying a baby is a blessing and what our bodies are built for. We should never be embarrassed about what happens in the process. It’s all part of the journey.
So what might happen to me?
Well, ladies, yes you might get piles. Luckily for me, it’s not something I suffered with in either of my pregnancies (phew) but very common. There’s a lot of pressure down there so you can understand why it happens. Don’t be alarmed if it happens to you. It’s normal. Unless you’re like Lucy from Mrs H’s Favourite Things, who according to her midwife, had piles that would be visible from space, then I’d be worried! đ Ha. What an awful and ridiculous thing to say. To to be fair, once you’ve had a baby you definitely find things less and less embarrassing so I’m sure Lucy got over it.
You might get stretch marks. Big ones, faint ones, purple ones, silver ones. On your belly, on your bum, on your boobs, on your legs. You can use as much stretch mark cream/oil as you want (which may improve them) but if you’re gonna get them, you’re gonna get them. Again, I’m a lucky one and only got them in places that didn’t bother me, however the midwife who checked me when I was in labour with Lamb kindly pointed out I had “a lot of stretch marks” on the back of my thighs. Yeah, thanks. She’s lucky I didn’t kick her in the head. I already hate my legs as it is and now I hate them even more. But, they are my markings from being pregnant and I can deal with that.
We all hope and pray it doesn’t happen to us, but yes you might have a little accident in your pants every now and then. Our muscles down there go through a lot and can struggle a little due to the weight of the baby. Then once the baby is here our lady bits just might not be the same and little accidents just can’t be helped. To avoid embarrassment invest in some decent incontinence pads and carry on as normal. No one will ever know. Poor Chelle from The Lifestyle Log struggled when she had morning sickness during pregnancy and had a little accident from all of the retching. But hey, now she has her beautiful boy so who cares about the little accidents.
I’m sure most women struggle with this after giving birth is constipation. Yes ladies, you might struggle to go. After Lamb was born it took me 8 days to go and that was after taking a double dose of Senekot (herbal laxative) and after BB it took me 7 days but this time I didn’t need any extra help. Jenny from Great North Mum describes it wonderfully. “Oh, the agony of going to the loo after suffering a severe tear! Terrified of popping stitches with a number two, and the indignity of pouring a cup of warm water over your bits just to have a wee as the stinging is unbearable otherwise. I would be in tears every time. Makes me shudder now just thinking of it!” Going for the first time after birth is probably the one thing new mums worry about the most, but once you’ve been it’s really not that bad! C’mon ladies we’ve given birth! We got this. đ
Another embarrassing one from Jade who blogs at Raising The Rings, ladies yes you might struggle with wind. “I could not hold my trumps after Toby. Literally any movement had me letting rip. I remember I farted so loud in the middle of the night when Toby was a few days old my OH said “that’s my boy” and I had to confess it was me!”
Not only babies get nappy rash. Poor Lauren from Belle Du Brighton found wearing maternity pads after giving birth during the summer months a real struggle and ended up with nappy rash herself! “I got nappy rash from wearing maternity pads for so long in a heatwave. The post birth bleeding lasted for weeks but the nappy rash was 10x worse. Sudocrem all round!” I’ve also heard of women getting heat rash under their breasts due to sweating so much in those first months. So ladies, you might get heat rash.
Finally is something every new mum will experience, you might bleed heavily. Kate from My Family Fever was told at her antenatal class that the bleeding after birth would be ‘like a period’ but it was much worse. She thinks its important for mums to be to know how heavy the bleeding can be so they aren’t surprised when it happens. It certainly wasn’t like a period for me either. During the bleeding you might also experience the loss of blood clots, which is also normal if they are small. Poor Hannah from Budding Smiles had a really scary experience. “I lost a blood clot a couple of days after Toby’s birth, I was in the loo at Kiddicare and thought I was dying because it was so huge. I had to ask a cleaner who came in to go and fetch Phil because my phone was dead so I couldn’t call the midwife to see if it was normal or not”. Luckily it wasn’t anything to worry about, but if it happens to you and you’re worried then don’t be afraid to call you midwife of health visitor.
The aim of this post was to 1. make new mums/mums to be aware of the ’embarrassing’ things that may happen to them during or after pregnancy, and 2. show you it’s totally normal and every mum has their own experiences with it, some better than others.
You can easily be prepared for any of this to happen by making sure you’re stocked up on useful products.
- Senekot is great for constipation and fine to take when breastfeeding.
- Incontinence pads will catch those accidental leaks.
- Maternity pads look bog and scary but I had to two at once so don’t be alarmed at their size, you’ll need it.
- Sudocrem is magic. Nappy rash, heat rash, whatever. It should be in everyones cupboard.
I want to thank the lovely ladies who took part in this post to help normalise the things our bodies go through during/after pregnancy. There’s really no need to be embarrassed, we’ve all been there.
~A~
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I wish I was told about the clots afterwards, I had one about the size of a small tennis ball after my first baby. Scared the living daylights out of me, called up and was told it was ok. Wish they told me that before I had left!
The joys of pregnancy hey? I’ve had all of the above bar stretch marks across my four pregnancies. I don’t find them embarrassing though now
All the joys hey!! I think j suffered with nearly all of these except piles. The bleeding was horrendous.
Oh the joys of pregnancy! It is great that you wrote this post, especially for first-time mums, that whatever happens to your body, it is normal! x
They should include posts like this in the literature they had out at antenatal classes, so we can all be more prepared. I hate my legs too before and definitely after pregnancy X
Lots of great and honest insight into what could happen to your body after giving birth. You told it in a much nicer and supportive light than I would have done…but then I just spend most of my days grumbling away :).
Thegrumblingsofasahm.com
it is such a marvellous time isn’t it đ i was baffled at how much I bled afterwards. like a period? Yeah right. i was leaking all over the place đ
And don’t forget during pregnancy, your hair stops falling out as it naturally would do so after birth it seems to fall out more and in some women it can feel really noticeable especially if your hair wasn’t that thick in the first place! xx
Great post, I didn’t suffer too badly post birth but I didn’t know what was normal and what wasn’t and so everything became a worry. I don’t know why they don’t explain these things to new mums!