Delivering your baby could be the most unpredictable of your life events and may be not the most pleasant one. Yes, you were overjoyed to see your baby come out of you to be a tangible little bunch of joy, whom you cuddled all day. While this happened, you couldn’t simply ignore what else was happening down there after your baby had tunneled out.
After childbirth, your body is still changing, recovering and reversing to being the old self once its mission is accomplished. Chances are that you will experience a range of things before anybody will inform you in detail about how your body is going to behave during delivery and after birth.
Here are 9 things that you will experience down there and mind you, they aren’t very pleasant.
1. Passing The Not-So-Small Blood Clots
Your doctor or midwife will inform you about passing blood and small blood clots for days or weeks after delivery. It is another way of your body to clean the uterus from the leftover bits after birth. If we keep the extremely unpleasant feeling of expelling the blood clots at one side, the size of the clots and the consistency of flow could surely terrify a new mother—she may feel she is loosing some organ of her body through her vagina.
Note: The bleeding can go for days, some experience it for more than a month or 6 weeks. You won’t have your period-like flow though. The bleeding will eventually get lighter if it prolongs.
2. The Moody Vaginal Discharge
High vaginal discharge is one of the signs of pregnancy—it starts with thin, clear or turbid, mild smelling discharge. Towards the end of the pregnancy term, the vaginal discharge may again change to become mild yellow and thick. Once the mucus plug ( that covers your cervix to prevent the leakage of uterine fluids) breaks, there is a waterfall of discharge—but, not like the way water breaks happen. It marks the beginning of your labor, which means you could be dealing with slimy and sticky mucus discharging from your vagina as the labor pain commences. The postpartum vagina prefers taking a complete rest and goes from damp to dry, sometimes itchy.
3. Swelling In Wrong Places
Thanks to the increased blood flow during pregnancy, our body is able to cater to our baby’s needs. So, what happens to this fluid volume after delivery? While most of it is expelled through the urine, some just snug somewhere between the legs, giving moms an uncomfortably swollen crotch.
4. The Consistency Of Urine Incontinence
Urine incontinence will follow you from the last few weeks of your pregnancy to the coming weeks after childbirth. You may by now develop a habit of frequently visiting your bathroom with the slightest of an urge—you can’t hold your pee for long. During pregnancy, your urine may even smell more pungent than usual as a result of various chemical changes happening inside of you.
Kegel exercises could help strengthen the pelvic muscles. Here is what you can do about urine incontinence.
5. Bruises And Itchy Rashes After Delivery
Vaginal childbirth could give you bruises along with pain, bleeding, and swelling—Moms are very much familiar with that. Developing itchy rashes after pregnancy is another story of discomfort and trouble. Some women also develop a rare allergic condition called PUPS(Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy) rash in the postpartum period. Though they aren’t that common, an ugly itchy rash on your abdomen and nether regions must stay as uncommon as their strange name.
6. The Nightmare Of Hemorrhoids In Pregnancy
That is the last of the problems a mother wants to deal with amid so many other strange things happening to her body. Hemorrhoids result in swelling of veins near your rectum and surrounding area—it could cause a lot of pain and may even bleed when you are doing your business. Constipation during pregnancy could make it worse.
Note: Eating a fiber-rich diet and drinking plenty of water can help with constipation. Use hold or cold packs (which ever suits you), try sitz baths to get relief from itching and pain. Don’t pressure your muscles when pooping. Hemorrhoids demand a proper medical attention—you must definitely visit a doctor to diagnose and treat it.
7. Vaginal Tear During Birth
Vaginal tears do happen for first-time moms. The vagina stretches to accommodate the baby’s head during delivery, but since it isn’t as flexible down there the first time, the skin between the vagina and anus may lacerate. It could either be spontaneous during birth or might be performed as an episiotomy when the doctors make a smaller tear in the perineum—the tissue between the vagina and anus. Find out how to reduce the risk of vaginal tearing.
All the discomfort, trouble, and pain seems worth it when you see your baby quietly breathing in your arms.
