Nobody talks enough about how difficult breastfeeding is. You’re told it’s the “best” for the baby but then people assume it’s always a choice when it doesn’t work out. It’s not as if baby or mother automatically know how to latch and it can cause so much stress, which affects milk supply as well. There are physiological things with baby and mom that can make it difficult... and it can be extremely painful. I bled and my first even gnawed off a piece of my nipple. It was more traumatic than childbirth for me but I felt guilty about quitting. Advice to my younger self or new moms: breast is not best, FED is best. Don’t beat yourself up and switch to formula if breastfeeding is too difficult.

TwoIcedCoffees , fancycrave1 Report

POST

View more comments

That no matter how much you planned and wanted your baby, postpartum depression can happen to you and it is very, very real.
It is not something you can control. Hormones are liars. Partners of new moms, please pay close attention. Get help. Do not try to tough it out.

Drumwife91 , Megadeth's Girl Report

POST

View more comments

You do not have to enjoy EVERY minute of parenthood. It's ok to have bad days and days when you think your kids are jerks. You're not f**king this up - it's just THAT hard.

Drumwife91 , neildodhia Report

POST

View more comments

Do. Not. Join. An. On-line. Mom. Group.

No.

Impius_Operandi , Nenad Stojkovic Report

POST

View more comments

Miscarriage is ridiculously common.

I say this as someone currently carrying a dead baby waiting for the NHS to give me a surgical removal.

rexrat , Free-Photos Report

POST

View more comments

Having a baby CAN destroy your body for many women. Forget the “women have been doing this for generations” bulls**t, which I think can dismiss the very real toll that pregnancy/childbirth can have on a body. Many women suffer long term incontinence after birth, much of the time this can be improved with therapy but maybe never fully healed—and some women it never heals for. Your stomach will never look the same. I had a small waist and flat stomach before kids and now I have an unbelievable fat sack on my stomach and so many deep red stretch marks that haven’t faded. I gained a lot of weight despite not eating much due to bad food aversions. I’m leaking poop after giving birth due to a third degree tear and pelvic floor issues, and I’m told that there’s a high chance that future pregnancies and births will only exacerbate my issue, especially if it doesn’t improve soon. And I’m a first time mom and only 27!! WTF!! I don’t hate my new baby, but I certainly don’t know if I would say it’s “worth it,” considering my body feels ravaged and will never be the same. I basically lost 9 months of my life due to being very sick most of my pregnancy, and now will lose many more months due to a difficult recovery.

Miserable_Painting12 , Vasile Cotovanu Report

POST

View more comments

Miscarriages are not spoken about enough. No-one tells you how much it's going to hurt nor how long your hormones will take ages to go back to 'normal' and how much it affects your mental health.

traceyjanie21 , 1388843 Report

POST

View more comments

How difficult it is to raise a teenager.

mference123 , marcino Report

POST

View more comments

You stop being able to sleep way before the baby gets here.
Everyone loves to tell me to 'sleep now while I can' but pregnancy leads to unexplained insomnia and I’m a total wreck already.

tibbymoon , Eli Duke Report

POST

View more comments

No one ever told me about the 'third delivery,' aka your first poop.
The first delivery is the baby, second is the placenta, and the third is the poop. I was struggling for so long to poop.

omOfRPM31 , aarsvoln Report

POST

View more comments

Lochia, it’s basically the biggest “period” ever as your body expels the leftovers from carrying a baby, and it can go on for weeks. I will never forget being told that I might pass clots as big as a tennis ball and that was normal. So gross.

Also, babies in the womb can have hiccups. Hiccups are weird enough when they’re your own, it’s bizarre to feel someone else’s.

Obi-rice-a-roni , Cparks Report

POST

View more comments

For some people, labor doesn't start with water breaking and 30 minutes later there's a baby. My water broke and 29 hours later the baby decided to show up.

ksozay , Matthew Paul Argall Report

POST

View more comments

That everyone has an opinion on what you do whilst pregnant and how you want to raise your child.

black_lilies , Pexels Report

POST

View more comments

You can mess with them in utero.

When I was close to the end of both of my pregnancies one of my favorite things to do was, when he would push up against my rib cage I would pound back a glass of ice water or eat a bowl of ice cream and as soon as that coldness hit my stomach he would back down. Also, my first liked to push his butt up against the front wall of my stomach pretty hard, so that there was a tiny little bump that you couldn't see but I could feel, so I could sort of grab it and shake it around a little bit.

uh-oh_oh-no , futurestreet Report

POST

View more comments

Baby kicks don’t feel like butterflies. They feel like something crawled across your skin quickly but from the inside.

chrisP__bacon , Greyerbaby Report

POST

View more comments

How hard it can be to get and stay pregnant. Everyone imagines it will happen easily and quickly and, unfortunately, it's not the case for so many women.
And for women who've dealt with infertility or loss, how much anxiety you'll have throughout the pregnancy.

travelcbn , Nate Grigg Report

POST

View more comments

From my mom: I paralyzed her from the waist down for a few hours because I decided to take a nap on her spinal cord in the third trimester. The doctor's response was "yeah you'll be able to move again once they wake up." Pregnancy is pure body horror.

AbsolXGuardian , Masahiko OHKUBO Report

POST

View more comments

That not all gynecologists are competent. And if you have a feeling yours isn't, find a new one.

Mine was very personable, did my d&c for my miscarriage before my first born, didn't really give me any red flags until after I was pregnant again.

Long story short, he forgot (I guess?) to have me tested for gestational diabetes, and I had it. There were OBVIOUS signs that he didn't catch, that I didn't even know were signs until my new doctor told me. My son ended up having to be in NICU for 3 days after he was born because he couldn't regulate his own blood sugar.

Every doctor and nurse I talked to along the way was appalled I hadn't gotten tested. He also didn't catch that I was anemic the whole pregnancy either.

Thank God we're all healthy and happy now but looking back I should've changed doctors

Ghostseverywhere , orzalaga Report

POST

View more comments

Your body does not magically go back to normal once the baby is out. You have weeks of healing.
You either had your vagina rip or your stomach cut open, your boobs are still on baby mode, and you have a whole new set of problems now. Pooping will be terrifying and depression risks are higher.

Davis1511 , Crystal_1979 Report

POST

View more comments

If you lose 10% or more of your body weight due to nausea and vomiting, it is a BIG deal and could put you and the baby's life in danger. If your OB acts like it isn't, find another doctor!

written by a two time Hyperemesis Gravidarium survivor. Lost 42 lbs during one pregnancy and 35 with the other. And that was WITH constant zofran and IV's and a PIC line and hospital bed rest.

Lets-B-Lets-B-Jolly , Holly Lay Report

POST

View more comments

You’re going to need to pee ALL the time. And only a drop will come out. Then you need to pee again 15 mins later. The most annoying time is during the night when you should be sleeping, but instead you’re just getting up to pee every few hours.

prettydarnfunny , Rusty Clark Report

POST

View more comments

That cravings aren't just food. I craved dirt, particularly beach sand. The smell of the beach was excruciating, I just wanted to shovel handfuls into my mouth. I never ate dirt or sand and the craving went away when baby was born.

A friend of a friend told me she craved freshly poured asphalt so in a way I'm glad my craving was just dirt.

DoxieBalls , Clément Chéné Report

POST

View more comments

Currently pregnant and due to have my first kid in about a month. Wish I’d known I would end up doing everything by myself. And I wish I’d known how difficult the 3rd trimester would be without a partner to help me. Or that the baby’s father would show up at the ninth hour with a new girlfriend demanding shared custody. I’ve always been a believer of “everything happens for a reason” but it’s getting very difficult to see the good in all of this.

kfl2021 , Frank de Kleine Report

POST

View more comments

Seeing a pregnant woman makes strangers:

Want to touch her and touch her belly. Which they often do without even asking.

Makes them tell their worst pregnancy and delivery stories. If they had a hard delivery, they'll tell instead the story of their friend who was even worse. It makes childbirth into a one-upmanship contest of horror stories, which is probably about the last thing any pregnant woman wants to hear, let alone hear it every time she's out in public.

countingin Report

POST

View more comments

Stuff stays with your body afterwards. I developed allergies after I had my second child, and my feet definitely got bigger. Hormones are no joke.

Shakenbake1811 , cenczi Report

POST

View more comments

Everyone talks about pregnancy cravings.... no one tells you that the opposite can happen. During this pregnancy, my 2nd, I had aversions to most food until about 22/23 weeks. I’m 27.5 weeks now and finally starting to feel better about eating, but certainly don’t have cravings.

mrsctb , homejobsbymom Report

POST

View more comments

Pregnancy brain is REAL. It's not a joke. It's not exaggerated.
When you start forgetting, misplacing, and outright losing things, you can start feeling like you're also losing your mind.

TheWritingNeverEnds , Miia Sample Report

POST

View more comments

How I'd get loads of random skin changes.

Skin tags, so many skin tags!

Moles growing into skin tags then dropping off, like WTF body

Sandpaper dry skin, which I still get from time to time, just this one patch on the back of my right hand

My facial skin changing from t-zone oily to t-zone flaky and never going back

My psoriasis on my scalp going away, this did come back but not as bad

Hair - so you stop shedding hair whilst pregnant and you get really thick lovely hair. A few weeks after birth you start to lose all that extra hair. Literally handfuls will come out in the shower and it's really freaky

DuckyMcQuackatron , Matthew Bellemare Report

POST

View more comments

You can order one, but get two.

YourAverageTiredDad , Dion Hinchcliffe Report

POST

View more comments

Each pregnancy is different, even with the same person.
I have three kids. The first pregnancy was very typical and followed the normal timeline. The second pregnancy was awful. I was miserable and sick the entire time. The third pregnancy was easy peasy and I finally understood why some women liked being pregnant.

Tallerc , Tony Alter Report

POST

View more comments