4 Things No One Tells You About Childbirth

Childbirth. It’s the one word that is bound to strike fear into the heart of any newly pregnant woman. They all know that this is the result of making a baby, but no one likes to think about the actual event, and for a good reason. A person is going to make their way out of a very small area of your body, and no amount of reading books and scouring articles is going to prepare you mentally for that.

Not to mention that there is a lot of people who explain to you that labor hurts, but they don’t tell you that there are certain things about labor that you wouldn’t expect to happen. Childbirth does not look the same for every woman, and neither does the process of labor. You can time Braxton Hicks contractions with Bloomlife, and you can bounce on a ball, you can even start monitoring for waters being broken. However, you cannot predict what will happen when you are in the delivery room, and a baby is about to make their entrance (or exit, depending on how you look at it). So, given that there are things that no one tells you about childbirth, let’s take a look at four of those:

You Might Poop On The Table

Let’s start with the embarrassing, shall we? You are pushing a human being out, and the act of pushing a baby is rather like pushing for a bowel movement. If you haven’t had the pre-labour clear out, then there’s every chance that you could end up clearing out while the baby clears out, too.

A Birth Plan Is Pointless

It’s not an exercise that medical professionals bother with much given the fact that labor and birth is so unpredictable in the first place. You could write your birth plan for a water birth without medication and with music playing, and you could try to stick to that. But the only thing that is a given in labor is that you can’t predict how it will go. So, be prepared to go with the flow and try not to rely too rigidly on your birth plan.

You Panic

There is a moment in transition where you will cry out that you cannot do this, you don’t know how to because you’re tired. This is the moment of panic that precedes the baby crowning, and every woman goes through this moment. It’s known as “The Fear”, and you can bet that this will happen to you. Don’t worry; the feeling doesn’t last!

You Are In Control

Believe it or not, you don’t have to be hooked up to monitors while you labour; you are allowed freedom of movement. You also don’t have to go through any medications or procedures you don’t want to (need aside). You are in control of your body and your experience, so don’t panic that someone has the right to take it away from you. Go with the medical decision in your best interest, but voice if you are not comfortable with something.