Pregnancy and childbirth are some of the most intense experiences a person can go through.
No pregnancies and births are exactly alike, and there will be positive and negative moments throughout.
Maybe you’ve been vomiting for months but have a smooth delivery. Maybe you’ve had an easy pregnancy but all of a sudden it’s all hands on deck in the hospital because the baby is stuck. But in depictions of pregnancy and birth in movies and TV, it’s clear to most women that the gross or inconvenient stuff is left out.
On Reddit, women are getting real about what is not included in media — stuff like pooping while in delivery, hair and teeth loss, the troubles with breastfeeding, and emotional issues.
Look, having a baby is amazing, but it’s definitely not as simple as the media makes it look.
1. Loss Of Teeth And Hair
“Pregnancy messes with your body in a major way. You can lose your teeth and or hair. Some people get gestational diabetes, like, that’s a thing. I know one girl who was pretty healthy before she was pregnant but during her pregnancy her organs began shutting down. Afterwards she came out lactose intolerant, gluten intolerant and STILL has liver and kidney problems. And that’s only physical! Mentally – post partum depression is REAL and even if you’ve had multiple kids, no problems ppd can kick you in the face with your next kid with no warning.” — anon-nsfw-504
2. Intense Physical Symptoms
“To add to the physical symptoms; your brain shrinks and loses some gray matter, you can develop/worsen scoliosis, your uterus stretches to 500x it’s normal size, your gums and jaw bone can become slightly looser, which can lead to tooth loss, your body will divert as many resources to the baby as necessary, even if it means your body suffers or it ends up killing you, birthing a baby regularly tear the perineum, effectively giving you one big hole between vagina/anus, women frequently defecate during birth, and birth cause your womb and/or bladder to prolapse and push out through your vagina.” — Catnapper_Sakura
3. Bad Doctors
“Oh let’s not forget the impact of terrible doctors. A few weeks after my first birth, I started hemorrhaging. I went to the ER and the doctor told me, ‘I must’ve forgot what a period was.’ Then with his head between my knees and a speculum inserted he said, ‘oh, I guess you weren’t lying.’ I ended up needing emergency surgery and just narrowly avoided a blood transfusion. I had retained placenta. If that doctor had sent me home, I likely would’ve developed sepsis and could’ve died.” — Ok_Individual9340
4. Gestational Diabetes And Hemorrhoids
“They show morning sickness, cravings, back pain, and waddling. Where’s the character with the worst acne of her life? Or the one who can barely walk because her pelvis is literally splitting into thirds? Or the one who gains 50 pounds before they get diagnosed with gestational diabetes and are allowed one tortilla or glass of milk every 3 hours so they can only eat meat and green veggies for 6 months? I want a movie where the pregnant woman needs to have an emergency procedure done to suck the blood clot out of her hemorrhoid so she can exist without excruciating pain.” — Cdmelty1
5. Peeing All The Time
“I would like the one where her pelvic floor gets so weakened that she pees every time she coughs, sneezes, laughs or HAS SEX for the next year, no matter how freakin’ many Kegels she does.” — Murderbot_of_Rivia
6. Pain
“Also, you don’t see snoring from having a stuffy nose for 8 months straight, not wearing contacts because of eye dryness, and sudden yelps from pain from lightning crotch or round ligament pain after peeing or sneezing.” — VeronicaPalmer
7. You Don’t Always Know You’re In Labor
“I think it’s funny in movies/tv how a pregnant person has one contraction and immediately knows she’s in labor, not really how it works lol. My water broke with my second child and I still took my like two hours to be convinced it was actually my water. I also think it’s weird how labor is always depicted with screaming and pain when a large portion of people get epidurals.” — Ok_Individual9340
8. Not Every Mom Feels “The Magic” At First
“I’m not planning to be a mother but from the experience I heard from other women, new mothers aren’t always head over heels with a huge grin on their face when they first see their first baby and feel like it’s the happiest they’ve ever been in their life. The way Mama Doctor Jones often reminds in her videos on YouTube, not every mother will feel this “magical” feeling and that’s okay; the baby didn’t do anything but make you suffer for 9 months for now and you still have to get to know each other, some will immediately adore it when their child is handed over to them and others will need some time for it to happen.” — MissInfer
9. Hyperemesis Gravidarum
“Hyperemesis Gravidarum. I figured pregnancy would be pretty easy but I almost died. I violently threw up throughout my entire pregnancy. Lost about 20kgs. Could not eat or drink because my senses were so heightened that EVERYTHING made me violently ill. Everything smelt and tasted putrid…so rancid. I just wanted to die. I was so depressed with how miserable pregnancy made my life. Needing IVs to survive. NEVER AGAIN. One and done.” — NicoleChilton
10. The Placenta
“After birth. The placenta etc. I mean I’m not sure it needs to be seen but birth doesn’t just end when the baby comes out.” — DinosaurDomination
11. Pooping While In Delivery
“You poop yourself on the table and you’re split from vagina to anus. We don’t talk about any of that…” — AustinTreeLover
12. Breast Feeding Is Hard
“How hard breast feeding can be for some of us! It’s not always as easy as stick the baby on the boob after delivery and off ya go. It’s a real skill and can be hard to learn and doesn’t always work for everyone, despite best intentions.” — DrVerryBerry
13. Exhaustion
“Fatigue. Pregnant women in shows and movies have non-pregnant levels of energy. It’s pretty common to be completely exhausted all 9 months. Growing a human is tiring.” — kinkyspidersex
14. Realistic Weight Gain
“I’ve always hated that pregnant women on TV only see weight gain in this perfectly round belly. Yeah, you gain weight in most other places when you’re pregnant, too.” — allworkandnoYahtzee
15. Differently Shaped Baby Bumps
“In tv shows where they just strap on perfectly, round and high-sitting baby bump. Imagine my horror when my first was more of a ‘triangular’ cone-shape bump than a round basketball.” — StarGazer071
16. Postpartum Depression
“Postpartum depression is real and can be deadly. Please don’t try to tough it out, or think that you’re weak, or less of a mother if you need some help. Please don’t think that medication is poison or that your body just needs to catch up. It’s ok to go on medication. It’s ok to reach out to your doctor for help, to your friends for help, to your family for help. I mean this sincerely, your mental health is just as important as taking care of that new life.” — seeseecinnamon
Featured Image: Giphy