Your funny, after pains come right after you give birth and usually only last a few days . However if you are breatfeeding that too can make your belly hurt for the first week or so . I have had 4 kids and never had the big plug thing happen to me . I do get up when I’m in labor I’m able to run to pee right up to about 5 minutes before I’m pushing and then I get up again to go the minute everything is done and the doctor leaves the room.

You get instant amnesia after giving birth. That’s why you do it again! 😉

LOL
What is she trying to do? Scare you off?!?!

My water never broke on it’s own and I never EVER saw the plug thingy that people talk about. Ever.

Breast feeding DOES hurt. I could only suffer about 6 weeks with each of my kiddos!

Oh and I had natural childbirth with my first 2 kids. Epidural with my last one. I wish I had known. I would have NEVER gone thru labor with the good ol E!

Oh No!!! Don’t believe half of this stuff! (And before I get going on all this, remember I am pretty crunchy!) Your “due date” is really just a reference. Your baby may need longer, or maybe shorter, time. Don’t worry about how long it may take! Your water will keep coming, because your body is so cool that it replenishes the water all the time, even after the sac breaks! The “plug” may come out all at once, not at all, or may be just like regular mucus. You shouldn’t sit in bed during labor at all! You need to move around to facilitate the baby moving down and out the birth canal! Let down during while lactating can come on by a number of things. I, personally, don’t have a let down when I hear other babies crying, but I do let down when I am really surprised/shocked. Some women spray, some don’t really leak at all. Breastfeeding shouldn’t hurt, if it does, you (or the baby) are doing something wrong…probably a bad latch. Thrush is a yeast infection in the mouth, and it can transfer to the breasts. It itches…and may be a cause of breastfeeding pain! (There are several ways to get rid of it, the most effective may be to just see your doc, to keep it from reoccuring). My feet didn’t grow. It may depend on how high your arches are. When you are preggo, your body releases hormones that cause your ligaments to relax, which could cause the arch to relax too. Afterpains just show that your uterus is returning to normal size. They don’t hurt as bad as real labor (usually). And epidurals can be extremely dangerous. There aren’t nearly enough studies done on their safety. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone. (And you can get the shakes without one anyway. It is pretty normal.)

Sorry, I just wrote a book. But, this stuff is my number one passion. And I really like to make sure people are educated!!! Ok, I’m shutting up now! 😀

Okay…Let me tell you what has been true during my two pregnancies.

You’re prego anywhere from 36-42 weeks if I remember correctly. That’s about 9 – 10 1/2 months. My first came two weeks early and my second was six weeks early.

The doctors had to break my water both times. I’ve read that it doesn’t come gushing out though. You leak about a pint of fluid every once in a while. That’s only if your water actually breaks before you get to the doctors. Once you get to the doctors it’s no big deal.

The “plug” didn’t come out until right before I started labor. I didn’t even notice it with my second baby. With my first it ended up in the toilet and just looked like discharge.

I did get to sit in bed the whole time I was in labor. My labor pains weren’t even bad until the last few hours. I noticed them before then but they didn’t really hurt.

I never had a problem with my breast leaking until it was actually time to feed my baby.

Breast feeding only hurts until you and your baby figure out how to do it correctly. Once you get it down to a science (It took me about two months before I didn’t notice it anymore) it’s no big deal and you really do bond with your baby in a way you can only experiance through breast feeding. I know because I bottle fed my first baby and breast fed my second.

I’ve never had to deal with thrush. Apparently it looks like cottage cheese inside the babies mouth. I know…it sounds nasty. If you don’t get it taken care for your baby then it can spread to the breasts. I have no idea what that looks like though.

Your feet don’t grow. They can swell while you’re pregnant but then you wear flip-flops or go bare foot all the time. It’s not that big of a deal. Just keep your feet elevated and talk to your doctor if you’re worried.

The afterpains definitly DO NOT hurt as bad as labor. It’s more like painful cramping and I only noticed it while I was breastfeeding for the first six weeks.

I had no problems with the epidural on either of my pregnancies. In fact I plan on using it for every single pregnancy I have. I don’t ever want to deliver without it!

I hope this helps a bit. Pregnancy isn’t as horrible as everyone makes it out to be. I enjoyed being pregnant with both my kids. I’m serious too!

Every pregnancy is differnt. I just had my second baby (2 weeks ago) and everything was completely differnt than my first. I’ll be the first one to tell you that I dont love pregnacy. It’s hard. But like all good things it’s SO worth it. I think the one thing that nobody told me was how spiritual labor was. It was the hardest, most spiritual, beautiful thing I’ve ever done. I had both my babies natural and I would do it again.

Oh the joys of being pregnant! My feet are now a size 8 and they used to be a size 7 1/2. My breasts always leaked when a baby did cry…man that sucked. But overall you just forget all of that stuff…until you are reminded again. So all of that stuff might not happen to you, but if it does, then you wont remember.

Every pregnancy is different.
I was pregnant for 39 weeks & 6 days.
My water never broke, the doctor had to break it. And of course it never broke till 1 hr later. But it was all one big gush.
I didn’t see much of my plug.
I sat in bed the whole time while I was in labor, I did get bathroom breaks though. I was induced and hooked up to pictocin & IV fluids, so there was no walking for me. I was limited to the bed, rocking chair & bathroom. So uncomfortable. I wish I could walk around.
My boobs never leaked for no other baby but my own. LOL
Breast feeding only hurt in the beginning. Later on it felt much better.
I never got thrush on my boobs. But I did get an infection & had to take antibiotics.
My feet got swollen, oh yes it did.
I never had afterpains, sounds scary.
I had a last minute epidural, I was going o’natural, when they increased the pictocin & it was killing me & I punked out and got the epidural when I was still at 6 cm for 8hrs. But it never took. I felt the whole thing, and I never got the shakes.

Would it give you comfort to know that not all of those are true? Certainly not in all cases.
(I will say that I find it interesting the way these stories are spread…it’s no wonder that so many women are scared of their bodies natural processes, and that they fear childbirth. I hope some of these facts will be comforting to you and to other readers here.)

First of all, the 9 vs 10m pregnancy thing…well, a calendar month is about 4 1/2 weeks, but for some reason people count pregnancy months in 4 wk divisions, which 40/4-10 months. In calendar months it’s 9 months plus one week. But even that is misleading, because pregnancy is counted from your last period, so for the first two weeks of the 40 you are NOT EVEN PREGNANT yet. By the time you miss your period and take a test, you’re probably 4-5 weeks along (2-3wks after conception)and have roughly 35-6 weeks or 8 calendar months left.
Feel better?! 🙂

Some people’s feet grow, some do not. MY YW leader went up a half size with each kid–so she only had 3. My mom had 8 kids and her feet never grew…then the 9th one she went up a half size. Many women get swollen feet in the later months, but they go back to normal afterwards.

Water MAY come in one gush, or it may leak, or it may leak a bit and then stop and then start again. By the time it really gets going there’s a good chance there will be a baby in with it–or at least you’ll be far enough into labor that you’ll be sitting on a big pad anyway (or in a shower/tub) so I wouldn’t worry about it. I used to stress about it too, but seriously, it wasn’t a big deal.
The Depends might not be a bad idea though–a lot of women like them for the first day or two postpartum. There’s lochia (the postpartum bleeding) but some women also need a little time to get full bladder control, especially if they had any tearing in the muscles (which is RARE, I swear!)… In most cases though if you do your kegels you should be ok. 😀

Mucous plug, ah yes, the mucous plug. Um, you know how there are certain fluids in that region every month? Well, some of them sortof solidify and make a little plug in your cervix so that infection can’t get in to the baby. Obviously when things start loosening up to let baby out, that plug will fall out, and it’s called ‘losing the plug’ or the ‘bloody show’ and just means that delivery is nearing. Some women see a little spotting, some see what looks like a blob of snot. Some don’t see anything at all. It may happen a week or two before delivery, and it may happen during labor.

In labor you can sit in bed if you want to. On the other hand, gravity works…if you move around it can help the baby move down. Using gravity to get the baby’s head pressing on your cervix will help it open faster (ie, walking around usually makes labor shorter). Getting onto hands and knees can help rotate a baby that’s not in a great position, and some women find they prefer that position for delivery. Due to the angle of the birth canal, laying flat on your back actually means that you have to push the baby uphill to get him out… I had hoped to move around more than I did, but labor was long and I was tired so I did spend the last few hours laying in the bed.

I can’t speak to epidurals…I don’t believe in them except for emergencies, but I have heard plenty of stories about how awful the side effects can be (one reason I don’t believe in getting a routine one). I wrote a post about epidurals a few months ago–search under ‘birth’ on my blog. 🙂

After birth, the uterus needs to squeeze back down to it’s normal size–this is a good thing! Sometimes the contractions involved are painful–some women say that afterpains are worse than labor, other women do not get them at all. I had roughly the equivalent of regular menstrual cramps. They have good painkillers for that sort of thing though. 🙂

Breastfeeding can cause tenderness, but if it’s truly painful on the breast then you should talk to a lactation consultant because you’re probably either latching on wrong or else have an infection. Infections can be treated, and if you have latch problems you can learn to correct them. The nipple stimulation of breastfeeding DOES release hormones that cause uterine contractions (ie, breastfeeding helps the uterus clamp down), so if you’re getting afterpains then breastfeeding *can* exacerbate them. HOWEVER they are short lived, and within a week or two it shouldn’t be painful or sore anymore.
Personally, I never had pain when breastfeeding.

Thrush is essentially a yeast infection–they can take hold in any warm moist part of the body. The natural sugars in breastmilk feed it, so babies sometimes get it in their mouth, and of course as they are nursing they then can spread it to mom. Both of you can take antibiotics for it, but one of the most effective things mom can do is to wash off her breast after each feeding–vinegar will kill all the yeast, and then water will wash off the vinegar. Make sure the breast is dry before putting your bra back up. Many babies never get thrush, many moms never get yeast infections in their breast, and even when one of you gets it, the other may not.

As for the involuntary letdown…well, they make nursing pads. 🙂 When you hear your own baby cry for you, your body responds by wanting to feed him. (The milk doesn’t leak all the time, just when there’s suckling or the hormonal release.) I always got a letdown on both sides when actually nursing him (ie, he was on one side and the other side would leak). Some women get letdown whenever they hear another baby, or one on TV, or even when their teasing husband makes baby noises. (Yes, I had a friend whose husband used to do that to her). Again, I say, breast pads are your friend. I like the soft washable cotton ones.
Incidentally, I may as well warn you now…those hormones that release when you hear your baby? They are the same ones as when you orgasm…so if you wanna talk about milk spraying… 😉

My gosh, I just wrote a whole post back to you. Again. Well, you had questions, so there ya go, I’ve got answers. LOL!

As for the gory things you don’t know…hmmm, vaginal ultrasounds maybe? Separation of the muscle wall over the belly? 4th degree tearing during delivery? I dunno, there’s stuff that CAN happen, but the choices you make during your pregnancy and pre-pregnancy can have a huge effect on what happens, and most of the horror stories are just that–stories. Some of the things are avoidable, some are not as bad as they sound from the outside, and some, well, yeah they’re as bad as they sound, but they’re just not that common. 🙂
And babies are totally worth it.

Good gravy, you made me giggle! Yes, it’s possible for all of those things to happen, however, whether they actually DO or not during a pregnancy is up for grabs.

The thing with pregnancy is that it’s kind of a crap shoot. You never know EXACTLY what you’re going to get. Some are difficult; some are “perfect”; and most are somewhere in between.

As a momma of three, I’ll tell you, whatever happens during your pregnancy is NOTHING compared to the prize at the end!

LMAO OK this is funny! First every pregnancy is different, my water didn’t break on it’s own, no plug here LOL just light spotting like 4 hours before contractions began, my shoe size did go half a size up but I can still wear most of my old shoes 🙂 and don’t get scared, it’s not that bad…breastfeeding could be tough, but there is help or bottle :)so no big worries, all the pains of labor are soon forgotten as soon as you hear and see the little one 🙂 trust me 🙂

Every pregnancy is different, but 10 months isn’t really that bad. Considering the first month of the count you are only pregnant two weeks and you don’t even know until you are 4-8 weeks along.
And I absolutely loved breastfeeding. It hurt for the first few days because my daughter was about a week old before we could start, but I absolutely loved it. It never hurt and it felt great.
I did hate that I leaked everywhere when another baby cried. My daughter is 19 months old and I weaned her at 9 months and I still have milk and leak when a baby cries. It’s a pain, but at least I had enough to last. A lot of people now don’t make enough milk so I am still super grateful I had enough to feed 3 babies.
I had my daughter before I went into labor and before my water broke and everything, and I had to have an epidural with my c-section and I absolutely hated it. The first one they gave me worked, the second only numbed half of my body at a time so they had to give me triple to dosage. I never want one again as long as I live.
And I never felt my afterpains. My uterus actually shrunk back to size within 3 hours of my daughter being born. So I can’t really comment on that…
I want a natural VBAC more than anything. My best friend has had two water births, her latest was a home water birth. I am so jealous and I want one too.
No matter how much you don’t want to be pregnant anymore, don’t let them induce you. It ends up in c-section more than not and they are major surgery and things go wrong and people do die. Especially with the second and third and fourth c-section. They make it out to be routine, but they are operating on you to get a baby out, even if it isn’t medically necessary, they are just impatient.
I wish I had read more when I was pregnant with my daughter. The doctor’s made everything sound like all was good and normal, and I ended up having an external version (she was breech so they turned her, ripping the placenta off in the process) and then had an emergency c-section, then my daughter was in a NICU for a week because she was premature and needed oxygen. I trusted them on everything because they never told me the downsides to half of their procedures. It is “informed concent” and it is completely ridiculous.
I have heard that labor is the roughest thing you will ever go through, but it is the most empowering experience of your life. Having that taken from you to have a doctor surgically remove a baby because they messed up an “easy” procedure just makes me so mad. And people say all the time that having a healthy baby is all that matters, but I think it is also about how you feel about your experience. If it is a positive experience to you then it will be a better memory, if it is negative and you find out more that the doctor could have done or didn’t tell you, it festers until you are upset about it and just bitter.
I am going to be a home birth midwife, so I am a strong advocate of natural birth, people have done it for centuries, and I have read over 10 books so far about the issues between hospitals and home and midwives vs doctors and one book I would recommend to you is “Birthing from Within” and also “Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth”. They are written by the top midwives in the country and I learned the most from them. More Ina May’s than the other.
But don’t be scared about what you don’t know. Always go out and find out. Books are the best way for me, but for you it might be something else. There are TONS of documentaries about birth and things like that.
Sorry I rambled… I am just very passionate about birth and pregnancy. My husband and friends get so sick of me talking about it

Great post- but I have to agree with many of the commenters here, some things on you list happen in pregnancy but there’s no guarantee that all of them will happen to you. It is amazing to learn so many of the details that people just never speak about though- knowledge is key but nothing to be fearful of. The reality is no one can tell you what your pregnancy will be like. My prayer for you whenever it is time for you to get pregnant is that you never deal with hyperemisis, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

Hiya! Wow… i must say I was really impressed. Firstly by your post and then by the VOLUME of comments! Wow – the people above me are passionate! Haha!

I’m a mommy of a 13 month old, and I can tell you SOME of the things are true… some are not as bad as it sounds! I think it is all part of motherhood, and like what Mammatalk said above: “Mom-nesia” is a common ailment that makes you remember only the good stuff… and give birth again! I know I don’t mind Baby #2 myself! 🙂

hi im an intern in Obstetrics you can get the shakes after birth with or without an epidural because your body gets cold. alot of women’s water doesn’t break and the obstetrician does it in the labor room you can go over your 40 weeks gestation but usually not by alot normally the doc would induce you. breast feeding will hurt! im sorry:( but only for a little while you should get used to it after a while. and trust me i’ve seen women give birth with and without epidurals and unless your SUPER SUPER pain tolerant then go with the E.

idk about anyone else… but when my water broke.. it was like a tsunami….

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