“Big Chunk Of It Stays Behind”: 45 Childbirth Facts That Might Be Hard To Stomach

Hyperemesis Gravidarum.. Terrible. I lost 50lbs during my pregnancy from it.

The thing that frightens me the most is pelvic floor issues. Imagine suddenly no longer being able to control when you pee.

Nobody warned me that my insides would feel like they were falling out when I stood up the first few days after birth.

Obstetric violence is surprisingly common, and there is very little recourse for victims.

If you have to use the toliet and vomit, sit on the toliet and puke into the trash can.

You might need to poop while breastfeeding. Like, in the middle of it. Sit on the toliet and do your business while the kid feeds. This will not be the weirdest experience while parenting.

They go full crazy pushing your stomach after birth to make sure everything is out. I read some books but no one prepared me for that. It was like having another baby.

Currently pregnant.

Have pregnancy rhinitis, which is effectively like a cold caused by being pregnant.

Also have morning sickness.

Have you ever had uncontrollable sneezing while blowing chunks?

Not bucket list worthy, I promise.

A short time before you give birth (anywhere from 1 to a few days before), you will pass a "mucus plug" which is basically a giant loogie that dislodges from your cervix and falls out of your v****a. Somehow it's even grosser than you would think.

When you birth your baby, you also birth the placenta. When the placenta detaches from the uterine wall, it leaves a raw gaping wound the size of a dinner plate that bleeds for weeks. Make sure you have lots of LARGE maxi pads on hand.

Everything smells like old ham for basically the entire first trimester and makes you constantly feel like you're about to vomit. It's like a hangover that lasts for weeks or months. Even things you loved the smell of before, now smell like the dirty coins from your grandpa's car's cup holder. Some lucky women have this through their whole pregnancy, along with the resulting nausea and vomiting.

Your baby will come home with a huge gnarly scab attached to their bellybutton. My boyfriend wasn't prepared for this one, apparently he thought that cutting the umbilical cord made it somehow detach from the baby right then and there. Nope. Big chunk of it stays behind, but will dry up over a number of days and eventually fall off.

Can’t believe this hasn’t been mentioned- hemorrhoids. Often women don’t know they have them from labor due to the swelling, but add it to the list 😩.

If you have hyperemesis gravida, you can throw up so hard that you break blood vessels in your cervix. Thought I was losing my twins but it was just the effects of puking 30-70x/day. Did that for 5 months, while sitting on my couch hooked up to an IV.

Contractions don’t finish after labour. You have the after birth pains to look forward to when your uterus returns to its usual pre pregnancy size.

The most terrifying thing to me of this post is that none of this info is taught to us. We’re kept in the dark intentionally. That is horrifying.

While pregnant, the baby can separate your ribs. And yes, it is unbearable.

Also, a healthy person with a healthy pregnancy can lose their life giving birth. I almost died giving birth to both my kids despite having no prior issues, from hemorrhaging blood for hours. Two emergency blood transfusions and I barely made it out alive.

After birth, I sweat so much at night that I would wake up soaking wet from head to toe for the first week or two.

If you don't have adequate calcium intake, your body will pull it from your bones and teeth. Medieval European people assumed that women would lose a tooth for each pregnancy.

You can be essentially allergic to being pregnant. I had a condition called PUPPPs and my skin itched all over. It was so excruciating I needed to scratch which of course made it worse. Creams did not relieve the itching. Meds didn’t stop it. My legs and belly were the worst. I used to soak my feet/calves in ice water to try to relieve the burning. I couldn’t sleep more than 1 hour at a time. Eventually I found a soap that gave me 3-4 hours of relief (pine tar soap) so I just showered all the time and went through so much soap/water. This started at 25 weeks and went to 38 weeks before I told my doctor I just couldn’t take it anymore and she decided to do a c-section. It went away as soon as babe was out. Will NEVER get pregnant again. And believe it or not, that is the MILD condition, there is a worse one that impacts the liver and can put the baby at risk (cholestasis). Pregnancy is awful.

A large number of people have significant trouble conceiving. Many don't like to talk about it publicly or be constantly reminded of it, so you should refrain from teasing young couples about when are they going to start having kids since there's a good chance they are already trying and are having trouble.

More people need to know and talk about perinatal depression.

I was fully prepared for the chance of postpartum depression. I was not expecting to be smacked with s******l ideation mid pregnancy. Perinatal depression is not uncommon, either. It occurs in approximately 1 in 10 pregnancies because of the hormonal changes.

Please, if you’re not feeling ok, reach out to your care team. They will hook you up with the treatment and support you need without judgement.

I gave birth over 2 years ago, over 2 months early due to preeclampsia. My blood pressure peaked to insane levels and I had to immediately have an emergency c-section. Literally right after giving birth, BP right back to normal. It was crazy.

6 months ago my blood pressure started rising again, it keeps going up. Diet change isn't budging it. I go to the doctor, get formally diagnosed with hypertension. Turns out more than half of people who get preeclampsia will eventually develop hypertension. I had no idea.

Also post-birth blood clots up to the size of lemon are normal.

OH- pregnancy brain is real and is cause (at least partially) by the fact that your blood volume gets MUCH higher like 25-50% higher (and even more of you are pregnant with multiples, I had twins) BUT the amount of red blood cells stays the same. So your blood is really dillute and isn't carrying enough oxygen to your brain. Not enough to damage you, but enough for minor memory lapses. I forgot the lyrics to every song I've ever known. Came back a couple months after giving birth.

Post-partum mental illness is a thing, and it can be horrific.