It’s impossible to know exactly how being a parent feels until you become one. Everyone in your life will give you countless pieces of advice (some of which you will definitely want to ignore), but it’s ultimately up to you and your partner to decide how you want to raise your children.
The whole experience of becoming a parent can be daunting from the start, especially the idea of giving birth for moms. And while it’s expected for this to be intense and painful, there are still some things that moms wish they had been warned about beforehand. To help others feel more prepared and less alone, mothers on Threads have been discussing all of the unexpected experiences and side effects that occurred after giving birth. We’ve compiled a list of their replies below, so be sure to upvote the ones that nobody prepared you for either!
#1
That the second the baby latches on to eat you get so incredibly thirsty that you feel like you just crossed the Sahara.
8points
#2
The shaking/shivering afterward was absolutely WILD.
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7points
#3
How loud babies are in their sleep and how tough it is to be the only one awake in the middle of the night.
6points
#4
It doesn’t matter if you have a v**inal birth or a c-section, there is still an open wound the size of a dinner plate inside your uterus that needs to heal.
6points
#6
Postpartum blues. Standing in the bedroom sobbing uncontrollably saying to my husband, “what have we DONE!!!!” I was so overwhelmed.
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6points
#7
That 19 years after the fact, you still remember telling the anesthesiologist that you love him.
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5points
#8
No one tells you how terrifying it is to take a newborn baby home without any instructions or supervision. And the fear of going to sleep. I was terrified to go to sleep, for fear that something would happen to the baby while I was sleeping.
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5points
#9
That one week after having twins and you are stealing a moment alone, sitting on your front porch, the old man nextdoor will ask you, "When are you gonna have that baby?"
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5points
#10
No one warned me that Hyperemesis Gravidarum was a thing I was MISERABLE my entire pregnancy, literally starving and dehydrated and yet people were telling me how “lucky” I was that I was losing weight instead of gaining it.
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5points
#11
Probably an unpopular opinion but: actual birth being easier than contractions.
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5points
#12
How hard the first two months are. You are completely, utterly exhausted!!!! All you wanna do is sleep take a good shower and have some peace and lots of quiet! Beware you’re not getting that!
5points
#13
Standing in the shower in my hospital room with blood clots the size of a small animal escaping my body, pretty sure no one mentioned that part.
5points
#14
Not childbirth but pregnancy in general, that you could lose teeth during pregnancy! I lost a tooth during each of my pregnancies.
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5points
#15
The postpartum body odor, that no amount of showering can tame.
4points
#16
How pushy doctors are and how they don’t care at all about birth plans.
4points
#17
Driving for the first time with a baby was terrifying.
4points
#18
When they talked about the "urge to push," I had no idea they meant you'd feel like you were p**ping out a watermelon.
4points
#19
Your mortality matters more all of a sudden. I used to do alllll the crazy things and now I freak out over turbulence.
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4points