#1
You can opt for a c-section, but surgery when it doesn't affect the life of the baby is not always the best option
I was wandering around 8 and half months pregnant for for two weeks before the induction "took".
Until then it was checking into the hospital, blood work, induction, contractions, then nothing. Go back home, rest a few days, try again.
Fully pregnant, planning for after- will there be a burial? Cremation? What clothes should baby wear?
And of course, people still asking when I'm due and such.
Even the blood work lady asked about the baby all happy. The maternity blood person wS busy so they sent me to the regular hospital area. She wouldn't stop asking boy or girl? When's the big day? I figured vagues answers while pointing to my paperwork would clue her in. It did not.
She was like - you don't seem very excited.
Seriously, maybe I was a suragate, or putting it up for adoption, why did she assume it was all happiness and rainbows?
But planning a funeral for a baby while still pregnant was awful.
And the birth was difficult, it was a dry birth of course ( meaning no water in the sack so more difficult and higher infection risk)
I also broke my tailbone pushing. I don't know why, but something about that part felt extra unfair.
Behind the baby showers, Insta-worthy birth announcements, and professional newborn photo shoots lies a whole other world. One that's not spoken about a lot. Birth is often painted in soft pastels, and the less-than-happy moments are primered over to make room for celebration.
Many women across the world silently endure physical and psychological challenges. They smile, or grin and bear it. Because that's what they're expected to do, despite just having gone through a process that can be messy, painful, risky, and even traumatizing.
But more moms are choosing to speak up. Like those on this list. They're sharing the cold, hard truths about pregnancy and childbirth. A lot of it you aren't taught at school, or even in prenatal classes...
#2
I can barely control my body now, why would I FORCE this change on myself.
All you mamas are f*****g warriors.
We've come a long way with science and medicine. Nowadays, you can see your baby's features in 4D long before they're born. Doctors can detect diseases, defects and disorders during pregnancy. They can even perform surgery on a baby while in the womb.
In 2024, Kourtney Kardashian Barker revealed that she underwent urgent fetal surgery in September 2023. And it saved her son's life. “Baby Rocky had to have fetal surgery for fluid in his lung, and it’s super rare, the condition that he had, but it's also super rare and lucky that we caught it," she said.
#3
But despite all the advances in modern medicine, women are still dying while giving birth. Way too many women. The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the alarm, warning that "maternal mortality is unacceptably high."
According to the organization, around 260 000 women died during and following pregnancy and childbirth in 2023. To put it into sharp context, one mom-to-be died almost every 2 minutes that year. And most of those deaths could have been prevented.
#4
#5
#6
Edited to add: the responses and shock to this make me really angry about the level of maternal education and care that is being given.
WHO says women are dying due to complications during and following pregnancy and childbirth. "Most of these complications develop during pregnancy and most are preventable or treatable," notes the site. "Other complications may exist before pregnancy but are worsened during pregnancy, especially if not managed as part of the woman’s care."
Some of the major complications include severe bleeding (mostly bleeding after childbirth), infections (usually after childbirth), high blood pressure during pregnancy (pre-eclampsia and eclampsia), complications from delivery and unsafe abortions.
#7
The dogs need human tissue in order to train and a placenta is a huge donation as medical specimens can be costly.
All I did was email/ call a local search and rescue team in my area and ask if they would accept my donation. They were very grateful!
So I brought a small cooler with my to the hospital and let my staff know and then I kept in on ice till I was discharged and then in the freezer till the dog trainer came to pick it up. I even got a pic with the dogs it would train.
#8
#9
Completely out of left field for me, felt like my world was crashing down. Proud to say he was born with a cleft lip, operated at 6 months, and at 2.5 years he's in speech therapy, seeing a nutritionist but otherwise a healthy and happy boy.
Behind the smiles of new moms sometimes lie deep scars. A 2022 study published in the journal BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth found that 1 in 3 women described their birth as traumatic. "Birth trauma is any wound or damage that happens as a result of childbirth. Although trauma can be physical, such as a birth-related injury, it can also be psychological or emotional," explains Medical News Today.
#10
#11
Yeah, hormones WILL have you saying some weird s**t. But I was deadly serious.
#12
No one f*****g told me that the first time. I was so focused on how the actual birth might be painful, had no realization that for over a month afterwards I'd be in danger of burning to death if the house ever caught fire because I could barely walk.
According to the study, many of the women polled met the criteria for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), displaying symptoms like flashbacks, anxiety, emotional numbness, and difficulty bonding with the baby. A separate paper noted that many patients said they'd experienced trauma even when their childbirth outcomes were described as “routine” by clinicians.
#13
#14
People talk about c*****d nipples and painful latching while discussing breastfeeding but nobody talks about your uterus contracting during the first days of it.
#15
I still suffer symptoms even now and my daughter is now 10.
#16
She explained it, stretching it is a lot better than tearing during the delivery etc. My brain tried to compute what she was saying and when it clicked, I nearly passed out. Women are tough.
Same person, experienced PPD although we didn't know it at the time. Was again visiting her a few weeks later and she said something to the effect of 'I want to throw this baby at the wall'. I played it cool and took the baby and told her to go have some 'me' time, but I was freaking out internally. I called my mother, who she had never met before, to come over, and she dropped what she was doing to come help this stranger. My mother is a saint.
At the same time I also called her parents who lived a few hours away and told them they needed to come up ASAP. Everything turned out ok but it was a lot for ~20yo me to deal with.
#17
I didn't poop for a week after. When I finally did I was so excited I called my boyfriend at work to tell him about it.
Your b***s will leak. they'll also go hard as rocks if you don't massage them or express some milk out.
Breastfeeding at first can really hurt.
#18
In the case of my wife, it was two hours after delivery that she started to not feel well. The nurse came in and pushed on her belly, followed by an absolute explosion of blood everywhere. She had been bleeding internally for over two hours without anyone realizing. She lost over two liters of blood, requiring transfusions. The only way they could get it stopped is the OB going elbow deep into my unmedicated wife to manually sweep out her uterus by hand. It took us probably 6 months to get over the trauma of that experience.
Had she not been in a hospital, she would be dead.
Think twice before delivering anywhere besides a hospital. Childbirth is extremely traumatic and the risks of serious consequences is very high even in situations where you are low risk. You want to have that baby under the same roof as a stocked blood bank and an operating room.
#19
