What No One Told You About Pregnancy

When you saw your sisters, cousins and friends getting pregnant, you could not help but marvel about what a lovely feeling it would be to be able to bring a new life on earth. Their pregnancies intrigued you. And then, one fine day, the stick showed three lines and you realized that you were pregnant yourself.

Since the moment you announced your pregnancy, people have been flooding you with suggestions and opinions on what you should or should not do. All of this made you so confused that you reverted to books and magazines to find out about all of it yourself.

The wide variety of news, health articles and other details that were available to you and the thorough research on your part ensured that you were a pregnancy-know-all. Yet, as your pregnancy progressed, you realized that there were things that no one told you about.

How you wished that someone would have mentioned these things to you and how much easier your life would have been. In order to prevent such a thing from happening to anyone else, we bring to you a list of 10 things that no one usually talks about in a pregnancy.

1. You Might Poop In The Delivery Room

If you are in for a natural birth, you must be well aware of the fact that you might not have to push a lot. The way you need to push is similar to the pushing you need to give in order to get your bowels cleared when you are constipated. While doing so, you might end up giving out a whole lot of poop instead of a beautiful baby. However, the silver lining here is the fact that you might not even realize that you have done something like that. In fact, even if you do realize it, chances are that the nurses and other service providers will act like nothing has happened at all.

2. Your Baby Might Be Vacuumed Out

Just like the way you vacuum out dirt from the distant and unreachable areas in your bedroom, your doctor might use the same technique to get your baby out of your womb if you are exhausted with all that pushing or if your pregnancy is a complicated one. Chances of this are even higher if you suffer from conditions like thyroid, high blood pressure or diabetes. However, on a positive note, most of the times when situations like this arises, the mother is seen to be giving birth to a healthy child.

3. Your Water Breaking

Thanks to all the dramatics on TV, you may be of the belief that the water breaks only once. However, that is far from being true. The amniotic fluid that is your baby's protection is what bursts before your delivery. This is popularly known as water breaking. This particular act may continue long enough for an entire day. Since you obviously would not want such a mess, you will need to use pads to tackle the same.

4. More And More Pads

Since your teenage when you got to know that for the nine months of pregnancy a woman does not bleed, you must have been elated at the idea. However, after those nine months are over, your body will take out all those lost periods on you. This might cause you to bleed continuously for the next couple of weeks following the delivery. The cramps and other discomforts that are associated with periods may also be experienced. Needless to say, all that blood loss will call for more and more pads.

5. Pain

The pain that you have to go through during your labour is something that everyone tells you about. However, what no one tells you about is the fact that the pain does not restrict itself to the tummy. It quickly expands itself to the lower back and goes all the way to the lower abdomen sometimes, becoming unbearable in the process. If you want to avoid all of this, and yet have a healthy child, you can talk to your doctor about an epidural.

6. Squirt Bottle

Perineum irrigation (or squirt bottles) are used every time you need to go to the washroom for the first few times after your delivery. The main purpose of these bottles is to squirt out warm water. This will ensure utmost comfort for you and also ensure that you are not too harsh on yourself while attending to nature's duties. All of these precautionary measures are taken in order to ensure that the stitches you had as a consequence of childbirth are not irritated by your course of actions.

7. Hair Fall

During your pregnancy, you must have been blessed with beautiful hair and everyone must have complimented you on the pregnancy glow on your face. However, remember that all of that is transitory. The reason for all that beauty during your pregnancy is because of the rising levels of oestrogen in your body. Post delivery, there is an abrupt drop in the same. As a result, you may experience a sudden and rapid hair fall. You may also face a number of skin care-related issues due to the same reason and the same may continue for a couple of months.

8. Sweating At Night

This is another symptom that may continue for the first few weeks. While this is nothing serious and you need not be scared about it, the fact is that you may wake up multiple times at night due to profuse sweating that may be troubling. It may even cause you to think that you are down with a flu. However, this is one of the many side effects of child birth and you must not freak out about the same. Changing your sheets at night or turning on the AC may help in this regard.

9. Mommy Diaper

As we are well aware by now, there will be a considerable amount of blood flow after the birth and to avoid the mess associated with it, you will have to wear pads. But did you know that you can substitute your regular pads with special types of mommy diapers? Although the primary purpose of these diapers is the same as that of the pads, they have a thin icy coating in them. This icy coating provides the new mom with post-birth relief, thus making things more comfortable for her. After all, it is only when the mother is healthy and comfortable that she can provide the best of care to her little one.

10. Swollen Feet

The swelling of feet is one symptom that is typically associated with pregnancy. It is true that the swelling of feet reaches its peak in the third trimester and the same comes down after you deliver a baby. However, even after you deliver, the size of the feet does not immediately drop down to its old size. A certain amount of swelling may still be noted. This may last for a couple of weeks following the birth of your little one, However, in the case of many women, this continues for the rest of their lives, resulting in an overall increase in the shoe size.