There is so much about pregnancy and childbirth that is kept quiet. Not only the realness of postnatal / postpartum depression which I speak about a lot, but so many other things. If you are newly pregnant or just about to give birth maybe you need to grab a cup of tea and have a read of this here post.

Note: not all these things happen to every woman and the birth notes are based on c-section births.

Pregnancy

Piles / haemorrhoids

I don’t need to go into a detailed description of what piles / haemmorrhoids are, but I am going to tell you that many (actually most) pregnant woman will experience piles towards the end of their pregnancy. Some unfortunate moms get them from early on. The reason is due to the pressure of the babys’ weight, constipation & the hormones that make the veins relax. What can you do about it? Don’t be shy; now is not the time to feel embarrassed. Your gynae /obgyn has heard and seen it all before and will prescribe you some things to help. The creams and suppositories usually help within days and the haemorrhoids usually clear up by themselves once baby is earth-side.

Leaking boobs

Oh how glamorous being pregnant it! Towards the end of your pregnancy your breasts start preparing for making milk. The milk ducts will sometimes, when you’re in a bath or shower, release tiny droplets of colostrum due to the warm water. Don’t be alarmed, it’s usually a good sign that your body will be able to make the liquid gold for your imminent arrival!

Swelling

Your nether region sometimes swells. Don’t shoot the messenger please! Lol. But seriously now, your body is going through a whole bunch of changes and I’m not sure why, but this is just 1 of the oh so glamorous changes that happen to our bodies. It will all return to its normal size post baby.

Birth

In theatre

The worst part is the drip in your wrist! The rest, even the spinal block is a piece of cake. Except the nausea & vomiting after the spinal block. As they lie you down your blood pressure drops and that either makes you nauseous or you start vomiting. The anaesthetist corrects your levels quickly but that feeling is horrid.

Your gynae / obgyn will explain everything to you (if you want to chat to me I’m always available to give you the full unabridged version) but the weird pulling and pushing sensation when they are getting baby out; weird!

After the birth

You can’t walk or standup so you can’t go to the toilet… do you see where I’m going with this? You will have a maternity sanitary boat, I mean sanitary towel placed between your legs in theatre. Thereafter the nurses will come to change it every few hours. It’s not pleasant or dignified but it has to be done.

Once the catheter is removed and you can stand up for the first time to shower, don’t be alarmed by the masses of blood that comes (literally) falling out of you. You aren’t dying or haemorrhaging, it’s normal and is nothing to freak out about. But it happens.

Dignity

Let’s talk for a moment about your dignity in pregnancy and child birth. During your pregnancy your dignity remains pretty well intact, but let’s just say that once you cross the threshold to the hospital on the day of the birth, you should leave your dignity in a suitcase. You may collect the suitcase again on your way home. You won’t be needing it while in hospital.

It’s not so much the actual birth, but more what happens afterwards. You know, like I mentioned above about the sanitary towel that need regular replacing by the nurses? You just need to allow them to do their job and focus on your precious bundle in your arms. They will also help you with breastfeeding so your nipples become the centre of attention and not these preciously guarded items. We need to remember that to the nurses, this is their job, you are just another person passing through their office.

It’ll all be ok in the end

Pregnancy and childbirth is magical and weird and exhausting and undignified sometimes, but we’ve all been through it. The more at ease we can feel the better our experience.

I hope this shed some light on those hush-hush things that happen during pregnancy and childbirth but if you have any questions that you are too embarrassed to ask a friend or family member, remember your gynae/obgyn will never make you feel embarrassed so speak to them. Or you can always pop me an email and I’m happy to give you my honest, unfiltered answer.

Much love xxx