Why don’t we talk about it more? Is it so bad and embarrassing that we just hide it from everyone? No one prepared me for what happens after you have your baby.

2-3 hours after your baby is born, so many things happen to ensure your health while everyone else gets to gush over your new baby.

The nurse comes in and does uterine massage (use this term very loosely) where she is basically squeezing you like a lemon with her fist to expel blood from your uterus. This happens every 15-30 minutes for anywhere up to 3 hours (mine was 3 from heavy bleeding). They pump you full of drugs again to firm up your uterus. Then you must wait for your epidural to wear off so you can get up to pee after having a catheter in for who knows how long. I actually ended up getting straight cathed 2 times to drain my bladder which was causing me to bleed more.

So you do your best to walk into the bathroom where you discover you have been stitched up in your most sensitive area. Now you just use a squirt bottle of water to clean your bottom, pat it dry, and spray some antibacterial numbing spray down there. You then are introduced to mesh panties and pads as big as a diaper. By this point, it should be time to move to a regular postpartum room (not me 🙄) where the real fun begins.

When you’re home and not getting that good medicine, you start to feel all the stitches in your lady parts and you basically can’t move anything without feeling like you’re ripping apart. Don’t forget your stool softener or you’ll want to cry when you have to go to the bathroom.