Things Nobody Tells You About Pregnancy

Everybody knows some things about pregnancy, but there are some things that us women have no idea about – even though many of us may be pregnant at some point in our lives.

So today I’m sharing with you my list of things that nobody tells you about pregnancy/labour/post-pregnancy – many of these I learned the hard way!

Before, I begin I just want to apologise for potentially putting some of you off of ever having children, haha!

In no particular order:

1. It is possible to have morning sickness throughout your entire pregnancy! It can also be so bad that you have to be put on anti-sickness medication or you could end up in hospital
2. It feels really weird not having a bump after the birth
3. After giving birth you bleed for up to six weeks afterwards – think of it like a very long period
4. Whilst you’re pregnant, your hair becomes really thick because the hair that you would usually shed doesn’t fall out
5. However after your baby is born, that hair that didn’t fall out? Yeah, it’s coming out in clumps for months on end!
6. Labour isn’t necessarily 16 hours of not dilating and a million contractions – it can go pretty quickly and smoothly
7. Bleeding gums
8. Baby brain is a real thing – just trust me on that one
9. Hello hairy belly!
10. Itchy skin
11. Hiccups that come from inside your womb are creepy in an adorable way
12. There’s no such thing as the glow – it’s sweat! Carrying all of that extra weight is hard work
13. More discharge than usual
14. You’ll be prodded and poked so many times by so many different doctors/nurses/midwives that you’ll get used to it pretty quickly
15. If you have to take iron tablets due to anemia, your poo turns black – luckily I was warned about this side effect by my midwife
16. Hearing your baby’s heartbeat for the first time is one of the best moments of your life. However, it’s also pretty terrifying because hearing your baby makes it become more real
17. Is your baby trapping a nerve or do you have sciatica? Good luck, there’s nothing the doctors can do. You just have to deal with it! Worst few months of my life!
18. Restless Leg Syndrome – on top of the excruciating pain from the trapped nerve/sciatica… it’s great!
19. Skin tags
20. That first scan! Seeing your baby for the first time is so overwhelming – it’s okay to cry!
21. The constipation – I didn’t go for a week and a half!
22. CRAZY emotions – damn those hormones
23. Having to pee what seems like every three seconds
24. Heightened sense of smell. That’s about as close to a superhero as I ever got haha
25. The joys of hemorrhoids
26. You don’t necessarily get cravings! Or not weird ones anyway – I craved pancakes and hot chocolate! Oh, and gherkins but I loved those before I was pregnant
27. Braxton Hicks contractions are evil! They’re only teasing you, but they don’t even begin to cover the actual pain of a real contraction
28. When you’re breastfeeding from one boob and the other is just pouring milk
29. The last month of pregnancy is hell! You’ve just started your maternity leave and now you find yourself with nothing to do so you’re just sat there waiting and willing the baby to come because you’ve had enough
30. If your baby cuts or scratches you on the way out, good luck with peeing and hot water for the next few weeks!
31. Breastfeeding is evil (in some cases)! Baby can’t latch properly … sore, cracked and bleeding nipples … you don’t produce enough milk so baby is hungry and is always attached to you, which in turn means you can’t produce enough milk – it’s a vicious cycle
32. By the time you actually give birth, all of your dignity has gone out of the window. So many people have seen your vagina that you don’t even care any more
33. Your waters breaking is more like weeing yourself rather than an explosion of liquid – mine carried on breaking in the car and on the way up to the maternity ward
34. You’ll probably think you’re about to poo yourself during labour. Pushing a person out of you feels a lot like straining for a massive poo, except with a hell of a lot more pain! I tried to climb off the bed because I was convinced it was a poo and not the baby
35. You will be too scared to have a poo for the first few days for fear of something else coming out of you, since you push like you do for a poo to get your baby out
36. You have contractions after the birth too! Your uterus needs to shrink back to size somehow
37. Once you’ve delivered the placenta, you feel really hollow
38. Pregnancy is hard – its okay if you don’t love it
39. It’s all worth it! As soon as you’ve got your baby in your arms, you instantly forget all of the inconvenience and pain because you finally have your baby!

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Email: lifeaccordingtojade@gmail.com