Postpartum Symptoms Your Midwife Doesn’t Want You To Know

1. You Could Have Weird Body Chills

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We don't mean you feel all goosebumpy when you look at your little pride and joy, we mean literal body chills! Postpartum chills exist, where your body is literally shaking in a way you can't control. This can apparently be caused by the adrenaline in your body after pushing your baby out!

2. You'll Be In Pain If You Can't Let The Breast Milk Out!

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Some people aren't physically able to breastfeed, but that doesn't mean your body is going to stop naturally producing the breast milk. If your breasts are full of milk and you can't let them out, it's actually going to hurt quite a lot. They'll feel full and painful - which can be treated by pain killers and home remedies.

3. You Might Sweat Like Crazy

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Soon after having a baby, you may find that you sweat uncontrollably - and especially at night. You may wake up a lot in the middle of the night to find yourself - and your bed sheets - drenched in sweat. So the sad fact is, when you're exhausted from being a new mom and need all the sleep you can get - you're probably going to get woken up by sweat anyway!

4. You Might Pee In Public - No Bladder Control!

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You might have thought issues with your bladder and needing to pee all the time were only reserved for when you're actually pregnant - but nope. You can actually have a very weak bladder even after you've had your baby, with limited vaginal control, so you might find you literally pee yourself from laughing!

5. Postpartum Depression Is Sadly A Thing

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As many people know, one of the biggest postpartum symptoms can be to have depression after having your baby. Many mothers go through PPD, where they feel very negative emotions towards their new baby, hate the fact they have a baby or feel like they can't cope. It's important to always seek help if you feel this way.

6. It Might Take Longer Than You Think For Tears To Heal

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And by this we mean vaginal tears, not tears in your eyes! If you suffered vaginal tearing when you gave birth, some people may say that it heals quite quickly - or maybe in their experience, theirs did. But it's never guaranteed, and it can actually take months after birth for the tears to heal.

7. Which Means Sex May Also Be A Nightmare For Months!

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Sex of course doesn't stop because you've only just had a baby - but it can make it very difficult if you had vaginal tearing during the birth. If this is the case, you might suffer a lot of pain during sex for months and months later, while the tears are still healing! Maybe enough to put you off altogether!

8. Your Hair Might Change Drastically

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Did you know you can have drastic changes to the natural texture of your hair after giving birth? We don't mean your hair suddenly feeling dry or different, but some people experiences vast changes, like curly-haired people having suddenly straight hair, and vice versa!

9. Or You Might Lose It Altogether!

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Another reality of having a baby that many people might not be aware of is that you can actually lose some of your hair. Postpartum hair loss can actually occur because of the change in estrogen levels in your body - and some people might have their hairline changed permanently as a result.

10. You May Need To Force-Feed Yourself - Because You Might Not Be Hungry!

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This one will probably come as a surprise based on how hungry you were during pregnancy! You might have thought a huge square meal would be exactly what the doctor ordered after pushing out a baby! But it's possible that you might even not have an appetite whatsoever, and eating might be more forced than enjoyable.

11. You Might Still Be Bleeding For A Long Time After Tearing - Ouch!

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Going through tearing in the first place and then waiting for it to heal is bad enough - but did you know that bleeding doesn't just stop after the initial tear? It can still bleed even for weeks after giving birth. The good thing is that postpartum underwear exists for this reason!

12. You Might Suffer Prolapse - When Your Organs Fall Down

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Prolapse is when internal organs fall down, or even out of your body, through the anus or vagina. And prolapse is entirely possible after you've given birth, specifically with the uterus which may fall down after the baby has left your body. Treatments do exist to help with this, though! Thankfully.

13. Your Pits Might Stink The House Down

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We already mentioned how sweaty you might get, but you might have been hoping it was just the non-smelly body sweat kind - but nope. You can expect to have very sweaty pits as well, and specifically very smelly

sweaty pits! You can thank your changing hormones for this one.

14. Breastfeeding Can Actually Be Really Hard Work

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If this is your first baby, and if you've absorbed TV and films of characters giving birth, you might have thought breastfeeding would be a breeze - because everyone makes it look so easy, right? But actually it can be A LOT of work, and VERY painful. Your baby might not latch on, for starters, and you might have to use a pump instead.

15. You Can Still Have Contractions AFTER Having A Baby!

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What? No fair! Those painful contractions you suffered before pushing the baby out can still happen even when you don't have a baby to push out! This can happen during the breasfeeding period, because of the hormone oxytocin in your body at this time. This can result in the uterus contracting and bleeding.

16. You Might End Up Using Milk Supplements Because Breast Feeding Is Too Painful

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Breastfeeding can be problematic, stressful and painful - but for some new parents, it can be too painful to handle, and you may have to look at an alternative because it just hurts too much. Many mothers out there are made to feel bad using supplements instead of natural breast feeding, but it's a valid alternative if you don't have a choice!

17. You Might Feel Very, Very Weird Without Your Baby In Your Belly

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Another strange thing you might experience is a weird, upsetting feeling when you look in the mirror and see your body without the baby belly. You might feel upset that your baby isn't actually inside you anymore, because you feel that protection and feel like you've lost your baby because they're now separate from you!

18. Postpartum Depression Doesn't Always Mean You Hate Your Baby - The Opposite!

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As mentioned postpartum depression can leave some parents feeling negative and hateful towards their baby - but did you know that postpartum depression can also mean you love your baby, too much? It could be that you're so attached that you're having negative reactions in different ways, like wanting to hide your baby away from the world, or becoming jealous of people spending time with your baby when you can't.

19. The Anxiety Is Real

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Anxiety isn't touched on often enough in terms of postpartum experiences, with a lot of focus being on the depression side - but anxiety alone is possible too. This anxiety can show itself in extreme ways, like you not being able to sleep because you're worried your baby will die while you do!

20. It's Easy To Forget To Take Care Of Yourself

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With so much focus on caring for your newborn baby - understandably - what many women don't realize is that self-care can go out the window completely. You can forget to eat, drink water, find it impossible to sleep - and even stop showering or cleaning yourself. That's why help is so important!

21. There's A High Chance You'll Be Mom-Shamed

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There are so many opinionated people out there - even worse thanks to social media and celeb parents - but it can also happen from the people closest to you, like your own parents or friends. Some new moms may find that they're constantly told they're doing things wrong, or made to feel bad for the way they're raising their newborn - and that can be tough.

22. Your Body Might Never Be The Same Again

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While it's no secret that it's going to take a while - and probably some crunches - to iron out that post-pregnancy belly and get your body back to how it was before, it's also possible that that might never happen. Your body might have changed so much that you just don't get back to the original size you were.

23. Your Experience Will Be Unique To You

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With so many different things that can happen after having a baby, it's also important to remember that your experience, with your own body, is unique to you. Other parents might tell you their tears healed quickly, they didn't have any bleeding or their body was back to normal in no time - but that doesn't mean you'll have the same experience!

24. You Can Have Vaginal Bleeding Even After A C-Section

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This one can be very surprising for moms who have delivered via a C-section, because it's easy to think that bleeding will only occur as a result of actually pushing the baby out through the vagina. But every new mom will get some postpartum bleeding, no matter how the baby was delivered.

25. You'll Get Frequent Blood Clots, Too

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The regular bleeding you might have thought about, but you will actually get blood clots after giving birth - usually a lot during the first few days after. Clots can surprise many new moms because you might have expected a steady flow of blood, but it's not the case.

26. You'll Likely Have A Lot Of Swelling!

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You had to deal with a swollen belly, swollen legs and swollen feet all through pregnancy, so this hardly seems fair postpartum, does it? But alas, it's very likely to happen, too. This is because a lot of new moms have IV fluid to help them during labor, so you can expect some swelling because of that.

27. Your Poop Cycle Will Probably Be All Messed Up

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You might also experience a lot of discomfort, pain and unpredictability with your bowel movements postpartum, too! You can shift between being very constipated, to having a lot of diarrhea, and it's likely that every movement will be quite painful when it comes out!

28. You'll Probably Have Really Bad Gas, Too

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Just to top off all the digestive discomfort and problems, you'll likely have bad gas, too! And we mean the super smelly kind. At the end of the day, it's better out than in, though, isn't it? You just might have to be careful where you're doing it, especially if you're in a busy elevator...

29. Surprisingly, Your Teeth May Go Super Sensitive!

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What do your teeth have to do with giving birth to a baby, we hear you ask? We agree, it seems very strange, but apparently some moms have developed teeth sensitivity after having a baby, which eventually goes away after a few months - although some find that their teeth are permanently more sensitive than before they had a child!

30. Your Vaginal Discharge Will Probably Be A LOT

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Your vaginal discharge can go haywire after you've had a baby - to the point where it's coming out so often and so thick it can actually feel as uncomfortable as if you'd peed yourself! A lot of new moms turn to pads to soak up excess discharge - and, beware: it can also smell rather strong!