- Hi guys, welcome back to my channel.
Today I have a bit of a TMI video for you,
so if you're squeamish, look away.
But today I'm going to be sharing with you
10 things that nobody told me about postpartum.
I feel like as women we're quite prepared
for the labor and delivery, but we're maybe
less prepared for what comes after that,
and there is a lot that comes after that.
So these are 10 things that I wish
someone had told me before I gave birth.
And obviously this is very fresh in my mind, because I
gave birth to our third son Jackson just two weeks ago.
This video is also in collaboration with lights by TENA.
They're currently running a competition
where you could win 50 pounds worth of Love2shop vouchers
every week, or one grand prize of a weekend away for two,
and 500 pounds in Selfridge's vouchers.
And all you have to do to enter this competition,
is visit their website noonetoldme.co.uk,
and share your story, and it could be anything that no one
had told you before, like you'll still get spots when
you're older, or hot flashes, or experience little leaks.
So that brings me to my first thing that no one told me
about postpartum, and that is that you could have
a weak pelvic floor after you give birth.
Now obviously you've been walking around for nine months
with a heavy baby inside you, pushing down on that muscle,
and then you have pushed them out of you.
But even if you've had a cesarean,
you could still experience weakness,
so it's so important that you do your pelvic floor,
or kegel muscle exercises after you've given birth.
So you may get a shock if you cough,
or you sneeze or you lift something heavy,
or you jump after you have given birth.
You may experience some little leaks,
but it doesn't only happen to pregnant or people that have
just given birth, it could happen to any women at any point.
One in three women suffer with little leaks.
Next thing that no one told me about was how bad
the afterpains would be, and that they
get worse the more children you have.
So obviously I've just had my third baby,
and the afterpains were so strong for me.
The afterpain contractions were almost worse
than the ones that I experienced in labor.
So I was taking Paracetamol for them,
but every time I breastfeed my baby,
I have really strong contractions,
and it's not only just in my stomach, sometimes I feel it
in my back, and in the tops of my legs as well.
They're just really painful, and I did not
realize that they were gonna be that bad.
The next thing that no one really talks about is
how much bleeding you will do after you've given birth.
Now obviously when you're pregnant you have an extra
50 percent of blood pumping through your body,
which is why you can swell a bit.
And obviously there has been lots of blood and liquid,
and everything around your baby, so it all has to come out
while your uterus is contracting back.
And there can even be little blood clots,
which is completely normal, but so scary to see.
So just don't be shocked if there is
loads of blood, and it can last three weeks.
Next thing that no one told me about
was about engorged breasts.
I completely forgot, and no one ever told me about how
when your milk comes in, how big your breasts get,
and they get really hard, and really sore.
I promise they will calm down after two or three days,
but on the first day when your milk comes in,
they are just huge and scary, and you'll also be
really hormonal, 'cause you haven't had enough hormones
during your pregnancy, so you might be a bit
emotional as well, but it's completely normal.
The fifth thing that no one really talks about
is how your belly is going to look after you've given birth.
You will still look six months pregnant,
so be careful what you pack in your hospital bag.
And it can look a bit like a deflated balloon.
But don't feel sad, it took nine months to
grow your belly with that baby in it,
so it can take some time to get it back.
Your uterus has to shrink right back down,
so don't be disheartened.
The sixth thing that may surprise you
is postpartum hair loss.
Obviously when you're pregnant,
you get beautiful hair because it stops falling out.
So obviously once the baby is out,
your hair may start to come out,
and I know for me it sort of comes out in the shower.
You will get regrowth, so don't worry,
but it is still a bit of a shocker.
Seventh thing that no one really talks about is
the fear of going to to the toilet after you have a baby.
It can be really scary when you need a number two
after you've given birth, because everything down there is
quite sensitive, and also it's pretty scary to like, push.
So there are some things you can take.
You can take stool softeners, or just be careful with
what you eat in your diet, but I was surprised how scary
it was to go to the toilet after you've had a baby.
The next thing that surprised me is that my stomach split.
So what that means is the two muscles that
run down my stomach, when I was pregnant
my baby was so big that it just split them in half.
So when I had a postpartum checkup with the midwife,
she was very like, chilled about it.
She was just like, you know, your stomach is split,
you're gonna have to have physio to bring it back together.
You can bring it back together,
but it will never obviously be as small as it was before.
Physio has really helped each time
to bring my stomach muscles back together,
but I didn't realize that that was something that
could happen, and I didn't realize that
it's actually quite a common thing to happen.
Next thing that no one really tells you
is how hard breastfeeding can be.
I feel like I am a natural breastfeeder,
but it's still really tricky.
For the first few days, they're just getting colostrum,
and my baby was being sick, bright yellow colostrum
which was a bit of a shock to me 'cause I just
didn't realize that it wouldn't be milk
straight away in my first pregnancy.
And also, sometimes you have to like,
reshape your breasts to get it into
your baby's mouth, and to get the latch correct.
The whole thing about breastfeeding is
that you need to latch to be correct.
So it's definitely worth doing some research into
what the latch looks like, and you really want
your baby to look like they are biting
on your breast, rather than sucking.
You want to see the jaw movement like that.
Breastfeeding to me, seems like it's just
such a natural thing, and I guess when I had my first baby
I was surprised at how hard it can be,
and how you actually have to really
persevere with it if you want it to be successful.
Next thing that no one told me about is that giving birth
on your back may not be the best way to give birth.
When I had my first baby, I just laid down on the bed
because they told me to, because then they have
the best view of the baby's head, et cetera.
But because I gave birth on my back, my tailbone,
or coccyx as it's known, broke as he came through.
So it actually cracked, they did an x-ray to confirm it.
Whereas if id given birth on all fours,
that never would have happened.
So my two subsequent births, I've given birth
on all fours, and I've not had a problem.
All right, thank you so much for watching.
I hope you liked this video,
and it was insightful, and not too gross for you.
Thank you so much for watching.
Don't forget to subscribe for more videos,
and I will see you soon.
Bye!
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