Three things you didn’t know about labour and delivery
Congratulations!
You’re having a baby. Half your friends will be over the moon, and half will wonder what the heck you’re doing. But the fact remains, something wonderful is happening. A brand new human is growing and developing. That’s amazing!
Photos by Janine Knowal www.janinekowalphotography.com
As you go through pregnancy you’ll no doubt turn to Google a million and one times about a thousand different questions that you have. This article is not to answer those.
These are three things about labour and delivery that you didn’t know. That you didn’t know you needed to know. That you probably don’t, in fact, need to know. Three things that are nonetheless pretty interesting. At least, this weirdo over here thinks so.
- It’s not like the movies!
Okay, this one’s probably pretty obvious, but labour is 100% not like you see in the movies. Unless you’re watching “The Business of Being Born” of course, then it’s exactly like you see in the movies.
Most movies start labour with a gush of water breaking. Fact is, this only happens 1 in 10 labours. The rest of the time, your water breaks after you start having contractions, or is manually broken by your healthcare professional sometime during delivery. An excellent place to start finding out what real labour is like, is by watching birth videos! You can find birth videos of all kinds on Youtube - from unmedicated water births to hospital births and c-sections - there’s a huge variety on there!
- Newborns aren’t always cute
Guys, your baby just got squeezed and squished through a tiny little place! Their heads are specifically made so that they are move and reshape, but odds are your little one might look a little bruised and battered for the first few days. Of course, this won’t stop you from thinking that they’re the most perfect thing in the whole wide world.
- Pee and poop
Sorry guys, but your bowel and bladder are like, really close to where your baby is coming out from. So they’re kind of centre stage, along with all your lady parts.
Imagine a toothpaste tube. Now, imagine something squeezing that toothpaste tube up against something hard. Where does the toothpaste go? Exactly.
And in case I’m being a little too subtle, the toothpaste is actually urine and feces.
You’re welcome.
Okay so, those were three things I didn’t realize before I went through my own labour and delivery. And there’s a million more things I could say! It’s truly something you have to go through to understand, and everyone’s experience is different.
Tell me, what happened during your labour that shocked or surprised you? What did you learn? Leave a comment below!Leave a comment
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