The Doula House

10 Things No One Tells You About Birth

TheBirthingSightTBS

1. The contraction pain doesn't end when the baby is born. Your uterus will contract for days, weeks and even months after birth. The pain is especially bad during breastfeeding in the first week or two, some women describe it as feeling like their uterus is going to fall out!


2. Your vagina will look different...not just from a tear or episitomony scar (if this happens) but diferent in color...it will be a darker shade of the original color in most cases.


3. Your baby will breastfeed WAY more than you can imagine...so don't be surprised when you spend half of a 24 hour period breastfeeding. Growth spurts are a whole different issue, thankfully they often don't last longer than 7 days.


4. If birthing in a hospital they more often than not will give you synthetic oxytocin after the birth whether you need it for heavy bleeding or not (prevents hemorrhaging). Discuss this with your careprovider...if you don't chances are, you will be administered this via IV or a shot in your leg (as baby is crowing) and you won't notice it. This disrupts your body's natural process of making Oxytocin the much needed love hormone for bonding and establishing milk supply.


5. Your baby's umbilical cord will be clamped immediately at birth in most hospitals and routinely cut shortly after. This may not surprise you, but learning the benefits of delayed umbilical cord clamping, how it's recommended by the WHO and how hospitals still routinely early clamp regardless of the benefits or potential harm caused...may surprise you.


6. The foreskin that is routinely cut off of many newborn boys has a very important purpose and up until recently circumcision was performed without anesthetic: they didn't believe young babies could feel pain.


7. Induction before 42 weeks is often not necessary unless you have health complications. Induction can mean a variety of things from a membrane sweep to pitocin through an IV. An induced labour is the most painful type of labour you can have, with no naturaling occuring breaks and a lack of hormones that occur naturally. It is also particularly hard on the baby and often causes fetal distress from no break during contractions.


8. Epidurals come with serious risks that most women do not have explained to them prior to the epidural being administered. 


9. You do not NEED to tear or have an episotomy to birth...with time and patience breathing baby out, MOST babies regardless of size can be born vaginally with minimal trauma.


10. Breach baby or previous cesarean doesn't necessarily mean a cesarean section is needed.