For all the first time pregnant women out there, here's an eye opener to before, during AND after pregnancy. Warning; please do not read any further if you want to go in to childbirth blind and innocent.
Alright, you find out you’re pregnant, yayyy. You stupidly look up the stats of miscarriage, so you freak out until you clear the 12-week tests. Then, you are a little more settled heading into the 20-week scan and from there it’s a matter of how organised you are because you’re only thinking about how awesome you’re nursery is going to be. Next in line is your antenatal class, where they go through everything in so much detail you wish you were a male. However they plan the classes to allow just enough time for you to do a 360 turn around and think that your iron'woman' ready for anything and everything. And there you are, in the birthing suite, ready and praying you have a good story to tell at the end of it.
You want it to be natural, you’re praying the pain isn’t as bad as what people tell you and that your labour is quick so you can smash through it without an epidural, because that’s what people aim to do. There’s no logic behind it, you just want to follow the trend. You don’t want to tear or need an episiotomy. You don’t want a big baby and you definitely don’t want forceps. You unrealistically want your vagina to be perfectly normal by the end of it and back to running on your first day home.
Next minute, reality hits, the contractions are long and excruciating. You finally realise what everyone is going on about and now you start to weigh up when the right time is to consider drugs. You finally cave to wanting epidural and it is literally the best moment in your life. You are in mind-blowing, excruciating, indescribable pain and suddenly it disappears. That anaesthetist is god and just saved your life, you pretty much thought you were about to die when suddenly you’re brought back to life.
So now it's time to push, you spend the first 30 minutes getting over your fear of pushing out a big log and then you turn into a beast and grunt your way through it. Sweat dripping, capillaries bursting, discs popping, vagina tearing and noises coming out you never thought existed. And suddenly you’re done. You’re alive. Your husbands’ alive. You have your baby. And your baby is healthy. You take a sniff of that newborn baby spell and you're cured. Wrong, you're not cured. This is when you question; 'why am I still in so much pain'?? Your vagina throbbing, like someone has stabbed it a million times, your back aching, like it has been hit by a truck, your baby crying and cameras flashing. So this is where the aftermath begins. No one tells you about how destroyed your body is after birth.
Here goes…
You have absolutely 0 pelvic floor strength, which you don’t really understand until after childbirth when you can’t start or even stop a poo, that squeeze sensation is non-existent. Unfortunately, that just takes time. Toilet issues felt 50 % better after 9 - 10 days and 90 % better after 10 - 12 days. Make sure you go see a physio to strengthen your pelvic floor correctly.
My stomach, well pretty much every organ that lives in the abdomen felt like they were floating around all over the place. I couldn’t sleep on my stomach or side because it felt like my organs were tangled. I was unbalance and couldn’t stand or walk without the amazing SRC shorts my cousin donated me. Definitely get yourself some (tight post pregnancy recover shorts), they are well worth the $$. It wasn’t until day 12 when I could function through my daily tasks without wearing them.
My back, the worst of the lot, throbbing 24 / 7. This unfortunately, will not go away until you strengthen your core. I was getting weekly chiropractic adjustments and deep tissue physio massage. I was also consistent with performing my core and pelvic floor exercises daily. It took me 3 weeks before my back pain subsided.
Vaginal bleeding, different for everyone, and can linger from 3 - 6 weeks, make sure you have a variety of pads to cater for the different stages.
Night sweats, wow no one warned me of these. I literally woke up in a pool of water on multiple occasions. That’s just the wonderful world of hormones and you’ll have to ride it out.
Mastitis, no one wants to experience this, so keep your eyes out for cold and flu symptoms (headache, fever, body aches) and breast redness and tenderness. Panadol, rest, hydrate and empty your breast milk more frequently whether using a pump or simply feeding more.
Please note, this is purely my experience, there are many lucky women out there who have a chilled pregnancy, short labour and symptom-free post-pregnancy experience. Lucky bitches! But all in all, I absolutely loved my whole experience, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way and I still laugh about it to this day.
