Another woman utterly failed by our societyâs devaluation of womenâs reproductive health. We canât wait around for male doctors to decide what we need to know. This is why we need to take control and educate ourselves about our own bodies.
and hereâs some comments i saw under the post. why is this a pattern?? why is this a recurring theme?? why is this information not common knowledge? what the fuck are doctors doing??
This is news to me so letâs share it so people will know!
Gross tmi: but i passed a pretty big clot after having my daughter. It was about the size of a baseball. It actually hurt worse because while 15 hours of labor opened my cervix, i passed the clot in 30 minutes. I knew it was a possibility because of my midwife and reading, but everyone Ive told after this (mostly other pregnant women) were shocked that this could happen.
In our culture, itâs much more common to do deep research about what family cars we want to buy than we do about childbirth when we âre pregnant.
Tmi: I passed a huge clot after birth in the bathroom of my hospital room and called the nurse sobbing because I didnât know it was normal. She treated me like an idiot, but NO ONE told me it was a possibility. And the pain associated with healing for the first couple of weeks after birth was worse than the labor imo. Again, I had no idea. They didnât tell me a thing besides âsitz bath regularly and change your pads.â Before discharging me from the hospital.
I was most definitely told about this in school. Fucking hell, 4-6 weeks of bleeding? My periods were/are bad enough, why the hell donât we get told this?
I didnât know it could last so long, wtf? Is the bleeding inevitable after birth?Â
Bleeding is inevitable after birth - your uterine wall is shedding a fuck ton of lining. It can last from three to six weeks (possible longer) and it tapers off.
More TMI - I passed a MASSIVE clot after my fourth birth. At this point I already knew this could happen - itâs normal. What I DIDNâT know, was that I had caused it.
My post birth contractions were so bad after the birth that it felt like full transition labor. And they donât give you anything for the pain. So I used a hot water bottle, without the nurses knowing, and it caused me to bleed even more. I lost so much blood that by the first time they sat me up to go to the bathroom, I fainted. It took three more tries until I could sit up.
Anyway, thatâs not the point. The point is, the next morning I passed a clot the SIZE OF ANOTHER PLACENTA I KID YOU NOT, and I know what is and is not normal. So I called for the nurse and through the door told her I had passed a huge clot, and her response was - âItâs not big. I know what big is.â She hadnât even looked. So I rolled my eyes and said, âYeah, no. Itâs big, Iâm telling you.â
So, sounding extremely put upon, she asked me to open the door. I did, and after a long pause she goes, âOkay, yeah, thatâs a little big.â
YOU DONâT SAY.
The point Iâm trying to get across is that this shit is so common - women not knowing this stuff is so expected, and it keeps getting reinforced. People donât expect you to know anything, donât teach you anything, and then make you feel like youâre totally ignorant and a burden for your lack of knowledge when THEY WONâT SHARE.
Fucking learn EVERYTHING you can when it comes to childbirth, girls. It is the single most empowering thing you can do for yourself. And if you missed something, thatâs okay. But the more knowledge you arm yourself with, the more in control of your situation youâll be.
A few post partum tips:
DONâT use a hot water bottle - lol.
ONLY pads - NO tampons. Tampons can cause severe infection, not to mention, you probably donât want to be shoving anything up there any time soon.
If youâve had stitches, sitz baths DO help relieve the pain. Another great pain reliever? Dampen some pads and freeze them. Let one thaw slightly and use it on top of another pad. This will help with the pain as well as reduce swelling. Change the pad out as soon as itâs thawed completely. This REALLY helps on the first couple days after giving birth.
If you pass a clot, donât sweat it. Even the one I passed, which was fucking massive, just required that we keep an eye out to make sure it didnât happen again. If it does, talk to your doctor.
Take a pain killer half an hour before nursing. Because YES - your uterus is contracting after you give birth, to get back to its original size, and nursing causes much stronger contractions. Taking nursing-safe painkillers wonât prevent the pain, but it will reduce it.Â
Buy disposable underwear for the first few days after birth. They will get VERY dirty. Or use your ratty old pairs that youâre ready to get rid of. Double up on pads - line them all the way up your ass-crack. I am so serious. And wear dark pants.
Pee in the shower. You do NOT want to wipe down there right after birth because ow. Peeing in the shower lets you just rinse afterwards. Especially if youâve had stitches, peeing in the shower, with the shower-head rinsing AS you go, keeps stinging to a minimum. And fuck everyone else - keep on peeing in the shower until you feel ready to move back to toilet paper. Middle of the night and need to pee? Get your pants off - get in the shower and just go.
This is just a few things, but PLEASE feel free to send me an ask if you have any questions about ANYTHING childbirth/pregnancy/nursing related. I have four incredible kids. Iâve done it all - c-section, vacuume birth, episiotimy, stitches, with an epidural, without an epidural. Iâm here.
âŚ.I know I keep reblogging this but people keep adding super important information.
I feel like no one tells women this stuff because if a woman was even a little on the fence about having a baby before this would kinda make them run for the damn hills.
âŚ..you are correct, typing.
300% EXTRA SURE IâM NOT HAVING BABIES.Â
peri bottles, witch hazel or anti-pain anticeptic spray are your friends. Also passing large clots after birth is a WARNING SIGN. Bigger than a half dollar is a sign that you have not passed your entire placenta (this is most common in hospital vaginal births where the mother is not allowed to naturally birth the placenta and instead has it ripped out by the doctor) if there is any placenta left in your uterus you can get extremely ill. This happened to both myself and my mother in law
WOW I didnât know any of this and Iâm terrified of what more Iâm unaware of about my own body :( Honestly when will we fucking abolish this taboo about the female bodyâŚ
I had pretty great sex ed in school (lots of contraceptive information, and totally acknowledged that teenagers might have sex) and all of this is news to me.
And, as a 28-year-old person with a uterus, Iâm extremely appalled Iâm just learning this.
Long, but very important information, even for those who donât plan to have children, because you will almost certainly know someone who will, and you might be able to to help them. Or at least increase your level of empathy for them.
âŚHOLY HELL. REBLOG TO SAVE A LIFE, SERIOUSLY.
A lot of tmi but I had literally no fucking idea this happens
At all
And my mom was a nurse with two kids
What the FUCK?!
Iâm not planning to have children because there are so many without homes- but if you want to have your own baby, PLEASE read this information.Â
