I'm going to have to write this post in sections, so here is #1. Please keep the previous post in mind--I'm not pulling any punches on these posts, and I'm also not worried about my intrest in boundaries.
1. No one tells you how swollen your labia, vulva, and vagina are after childbirth.
Several friends told me that these areas would be painful and that ice packs were useful and felt wonderful, but I was not prepared for how that part of my body looked! I was totally and completely shocked. After 9 months of pregnancy, I expected my body to feel more like my own after I gave birth. It felt even less like mine than it did in the last few weeks of pregnancy.
4 comments:
Yeah. I didn't look at all. I could *feel* the swollen-ness---didn't need to see it.
HA!! This is a *really* good point. I think mine kind of "shrank" pretty fast, though, because I didn't think was very remarkable. On second thought, yeah, in the first two-three days I didn't even look, so I'm sure they were really swollen.
What bothered me quite a bit was the tearing and the way the body healed later. In my case, there was a bit of a problem because there was one adhesion that the doctor just yanked at in my 6 weeks visit, it was like a "mini" birth -- it hurt horribly!
Then later, after it healed I thought that my labia looked all strange and crooked.
And after six weeks you can resume "normal" sexual activity. Ha! Sex after childbirth is hardly what you probably have come to consider normal--it's like you have to learn how to do it all over again. So maybe there's one thing to scratch off the "things no one tells you" list before you get to that point yourself.
I just realized after typing my comment that I logged in as "Sarah and Shannon." But for this one I think that's fair--he would probably agree!
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