Mothers, what side effect of pregnancy doesn’t get talked about the most that surprised you?

49 comments

1. Blackened/darkened nipples. Wasn’t prepared for that.

2. Nobody really told me that I was going to be living off of Tums because of the heartburn.

3. Pica

4. My allergies are SO BAD.

   I’ve been getting immunity shots for 2 years. Punched right through them!

5. Hemoroids

6. That you don’t get stretch marks until AFTER the baby is born. Like shrinkage marks.

7. People talk about cravings but no one talks about the food you used to love that you now can’t stand. I used to love everything Italian and now it’s a foggy memory.

8. Stuffy nose. I had all pregnancy and found out I need treatment after. For some it goes away on its on.

9. Being so out of breath during third trimester. Everyone talks about baby pressing on your bladder but it was her taking up all my lung space that got me😩

   Shivering uncontrollably a few days after birth. I think it was the amount of blood I lost/my iron levels. It was crazy and scary!

10. Lightning crotch.

    Due to the relaxin hormones opening the hips, I had EXCRUCIATING pubic symphysis starting in 2nd trimester. SHOOTING nerve pains throughout the vaginal/pubic bone area. Impossible to get comfortable.

    I told my OB in tears and his response was to laugh.

11. To start with, my vision is terrible under normal circumstances, but during my pregnancy, I had to go to a retinologist every month and a half or so. I started seeing glowy things in my peripheral vision, and iirc he said that the pregnancy put extra pressure on my eyes, and my retinas were already at higher risk of tearing due to my eyeball shape. Once my son was born, things went back to normal.

    It was my optometrist who made that referral. My OB had never heard of nor seen it, and none of the pregnancy books brought it up.

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13. – rib and pelvic pain are assholes
    – you pee every other minute. Everyone told me to enjoy sleeping before the baby was born but how could I sleep if I was peeing 5 times during the night.
    – my míope got worse, it increase a whole degree. I’ve had to change all my glasses and it never came back.

14. It’s not just morning sickness. It’s all-the-time 40 weeks of sickness.

15. Increased shoe size.

16. Being huge and still horny AF 🙃💁🏻‍♀️🤣

17. Lightning crotch for sure! Not just your feet growing but your nose.

18. I’m pretty sure my rib cage is wider.

19. That your immune system is lowered so you catch every cold known to man. Also because of this, I got a bunch of warts and I’ve never had them any other time in my life. They were gone quickly after giving birth.

    Other bodily changes like hair/nails being stronger (but weaker after birth), skin tags, darker skin patches and more freckles, swollen and bleeding gums, larger feet, sweating, heartburn, snoring, back pain, muscle cramps. Your body changes so much, it’s insane!

20. Breathlessness, especially after eating. In later pregnancy I felt like my lungs were compressed which they obviously were. Had to talk myself down from so many panic attacks because I thought I couldn’t breathe.

21. The heartburn/reflux was the worst for me. I had never experienced that before and it would make me gag/throw up way more than the first trimester nausea ever did.

22. severe hyperemesis, your hips turning into jello at the end and the pigment changes in unwelcome regions

23. I never had headaches before and now I have at least one a week. I didn’t know pregnancy could also come with headaches sometimes.

24. Your pubes get swollen. I had an existential crisis when I saw my clit cause it looked like a mini dick 😭😭😭

25. The heartburn and the stuffy nose really had me yelling at my mom why she didn’t tell me

26. The vivid ass nightmares!! The whole time I was pregnant I was constantly having nightmares about my home was being broken into or someone was trying to kill me.

27. Look after your teeth!

28. Not pregnancy, but childbirth. No one mentioned your vag can temporarily swell up like a hot dog bun after.

29. The things that grew on my skin from pregnancy that have never gone away.

30. I have terrible posture and my ribs were always in a lot of pain, my boy would kick a lot too, so he would kick me in the ribs a bunch lol

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33. The muscle pain/fatigue doing just normal things, I gotta stop and catch my breath after like 5 stairs 😂

34. Not being able to shit for three weeks post birth.

35. I haven‘t heard anyone mention this but first trimester orgasms are actually insane. I think it‘s due to the hormonal shift and the increased blood flow in the pelvic region but it was absolutely nuts. Everything else I expected on some level or at least knew it could happen, but this caught me completely off-guard.

36. My surprise was becoming itchy all over. And I don’t mean itchy around my expanding belly, I mean itchy EVERYWHERE. Stretching barely helped and it was so bad that it used to wake me up at night.

37. Developing thyroid issues that will necessitate daily meds for the rest of your life.

38. The constipation is killing me right now. Stool softeners help a little, but I haven’t had a nice easy poo in months.

39. Bleeding gums

40. Nose bleeds. I thought everything was messed up but it seems like a normal occurrence

41. That you can develop vaginismus after giving birth. My husband and I waited longer than the recommended time to have sex again just because I had an episiotomy and we wanted to make sure I was totally healed up. Sex was so uncomfortable that I honestly thought the doctor had sewn me up too much.

42. Not a mum, but my best friend (40) has three kids and after the first one she got prolapse (tissues weakened and dropped then twice more). The oldest is now ten. She’s getting operated in a few days.

43. With my third I suffered swelling ‘down there’ literally felt like I needed to reach down and ‘tuck’ everything back in, like it was all about to fall out. I shaved once and it was that swollen and looked so bruised I didn’t dare shave again 😂. I kept making sure all my tops hung way past my waist because I was sure others would notice lol.

    She was my quickest birth though. And didn’t experience it at all with my fourth.

44. Getting Diabetes, the annoying hemmorhoids, and getting red skin coloring on my palms of my hands and dark elbows.

45. Maybe not an awful side effect, but I developed this one patch of hair on the back of my head that went waaaay curly, when before all I had was regular, wavy hair. It’s never gone away, and my daughter just turned 24.

46. I usually get cold easily but during (especially in the third trimester) I was always so hot. Also, very vivid dreams and being constantly being horny. Lasly, this might be just me but I had severe body dysmorphia and felt very disgusting most of the time.

47. I had a bloody nose almost every day, that really surprised me.

48. Carpal tunnel. Went away as soon as my baby was born. Didn’t even have it at all in my 2nd pregnancy.

49. Hair falling out afterwards and feet going up a size.