“What Is Something You Wish You Knew Before You Got Pregnant?”
What is something that you wished you knew before falling pregnant? There is a lot that isn’t covered in the books, online, or things that other women or medical staff gloss over. Maybe it’s something that you thought that no one else experienced, but once it was discussed, it turned out to be very common?
Recently, someone going by the fun name of “BonkBoi” asked women of Reddit “what is something you wish you knew before you got pregnant?” and the thread took off like a rocket. Many women had a lot to say, and here are the best responses.
- I wish someone would have warned me about the constipation.
- During labour, the “water breaking” is not one rush of liquid. it’s continuous and can occur for several hours. it’s horrendous and messy and incredibly awful to deal with. it feels like peeing but you have zero control over anything and if you tense up then everything is much more painful and weird feeling. Nobody ever told me that and I was VERY surprised to find out for myself.
- From my mum: I paralyzed her from the waist down for a few hours because I decided to take a nap on her spinal cord in the third trimester. The doctor’s response was “yeah you’ll be able to move again once they wake up.” Pregnancy is pure body horror.
- Your body produces a hormone called relaxin that helps loosen your pelvis in preparation for birth. Some women get waayyy too much too soon and it loosens everything to the point you lose mobility and every day all day is painful.
- The stuff that stays with your body afterwards. I developed allergies after I had my second. My feet definitely got bigger. Hormones are no joke.
- That morning sickness isn’t in the morning. And that I would be puking the whole time not just in the beginning.
- Hair loss! After I had my kid I lost a ton of hair. I would pull fists full of hair during my showers. I thought there was something wrong with me because no one told me about this. Went to Google, totally normal and it happens to everyone. It grows back eventually and you’ll go through an awkward baby hair phase.
- I wish someone had told me that no, your body does not magically go back to normal once the baby is out. You have weeks of healing, either your ripped vagina or cut open stomach, your boobs are still on baby mode and have a whole new set of problems now, pooping will be terrifying lol depression risks are higher, just a lot of stuff continues on after the baby. I don’t know WHY people insist on visiting right after delivery. I am tired, I am busy with this baby, I am tore up from the floor up, please come in a month when I can at least have some sort of a routine.
- My boobs hurt so bad. I hit one in my sleep and woke up in excruciating pain. Like…wtf. I knew they got bigger, but the pain was a surprise.
- Miscarriage is ridiculously common.
- Baby kicks don’t feel like butterflies. They feel like something crawled across your skin quickly; but from the inside.
- How tired you can be in the first trimester. I was falling asleep at my desk most days.
- Each pregnancy is different, even with the same person. I have 3 kids -the 1st pregnancy was very typical and followed the normal timeline. 2nd pregnancy was awful. I was miserable and sick the entire time. 3rd pregnancy was easy peasy and I finally understood why some women liked being pregnant.
- Your hormones are crazy, literally making anything and everything that happens to your body a pregnancy symptom. Bloody nose? pregnancy. Hands dry? pregnancy. Itchy skin? pregnancy. Pregnancy is the wild f@cking west, y’all.
- That everyone has an opinion on what you do whilst pregnant and how you want to raise your child.
- No one ever told me about the “3rd delivery” aka your first poop. I was struggling for so long.
- How hard it can be to get, and stay, pregnant. Everyone imagines it will happen easily and quickly and, unfortunately, it’s not the case for so many women. And for women who’ve dealt with infertility or loss, how much anxiety you’ll have throughout the pregnancy.
- That no matter how much you planned and wanted your baby – postpartum depression can happen to you and it is very, very real. It is not something you can control. Hormones are liars. Partners of new moms please pay close attention. Get help. Do not try to tough it out. Get. Help.
Do you have one of your own to add? Sound off in the comments!
You can read the full thread on Reddit here.
If you are commonly sick during the night get your husband to have a bowl on the floor on his side of the bed. My Dad could hear my Mum making a gurgly sound before she woke up and had the bowl ready before she was actually awake. She vomited mainly at night regardless of what she ate.
She was even put on more than one different special diet. Some of the anti-vomit injections they used then had liver in them. Both my Mum and another Mum could taste the liver – both hated the taste of liver as kids. One Mum was a Dr.’s wife and neither her own Dr. or her husband believed her until my Mum complained too. Both Mums it was their 2nd pregnancy