While pregnancy can be exciting, there are often a host of side effects that can be extremely unpleasant. From body aches to gestational diabetes, pregnant people have to deal with a lot.
Recently, we rounded up the realities of pregnancy that women wish were depicted in the media, and the BuzzFeed Community had a lot of experiences of their own to share in the comments. Here are some of the less glorious parts of pregnancy these women had to deal with.
Note: These are real-life stories. However, not all pregnant people will have the same symptoms or experiences.
1. "Pregnancy insomnia. I feel like no one talks about this, and it ends up catching a lot of women by surprise. You get a lot of comments about how it prepares you for life with a baby, but the truth is it really does suck to go into the biggest event of your life completely depleted of energy."
2. "I never had hemorrhoids before pregnancy, but now I keep getting plagued with them. They're very uncomfortable and embarrassing to deal with."
3. "Every stage felt like a nightmare. My pelvis separated at about seven months, I had a blood pressure of 220/180, and I had to have an emergency C-section two months early. My daughter was in the NICU for a month and wouldn't latch, so I had to exclusively pump for six months."
4. "Morning sickness isn’t always just the first trimester. I had it all day, every day until I gave birth. My baby was growing, but by the end, I’d lost 21 pounds. My pregnancy was like a 10-month-long flu."
5. "I had pelvic floor dysfunction, prolapse, and postpartum anxiety after the birth of my first son. Now I’m dealing with really bad GI symptoms during my second pregnancy."
6. "When I was pregnant with twins, I had horrible coccydynia (tailbone pain). Everything below my neck hurt all the time, and when I had a headache, my whole body hurt."
7. "I got debilitating carpal tunnel, which I never knew was a pregnancy symptom. No matter what I try, I can barely use my hands to do normal tasks (like brush my hair, cook, shower) without making the pain worse. For most, it disappears shortly after birth, but some end up with lasting damage."
8. "I would get sudden (and very painful) cramps in my legs while I slept. Even worse, I would have restless legs."
9. "I got pubic symphysis dysfunction in three pregnancies, and it got worse each time. The ligaments that hold my pelvis together loosened too early and mimicked the symptoms of a broken pelvis. I could barely walk, roll over in bad, bring my legs up from sitting to lying, or get up out of bed."
10. "I had an incredibly traumatic delivery where I lost 2.5 liters of blood in five minutes after having my placenta manually removed. I was vomiting, bleeding, and begging the doctor to take out my uterus to stop the bleeding."
11. "I had a dislocated pelvis during my third trimester from too much of the hormone relaxin. My hip bones would pop every time I turned over in bed. My baby is 3 months old now and I still have popping."
12. "Heartburn, acid reflux, and indigestion have been staples of both my pregnancies. It's so bad that I usually can't eat after about 2 p.m. in my third trimester if I want to be able to sleep at night."
13. "I had such severe back problems when I was pregnant that my husband had to help me walk some days. I never knew that was something that could happen to you."
14. "During my second pregnancy, I found out that being pregnant can cause recurring yeast infections. I went from never having one in my 34 years of life to having five over a period of 20 weeks."
15. "I never knew that all of your immunity goes to the baby when you are pregnant. In my first pregnancy, I had a cold sore that lasted a whole month and only fully went away after I gave birth. And now I’m in my second pregnancy and have had a cold sore in the same spot for two months. Your body can’t fight off even the smallest of ailments."
16. "The bladder issues during pregnancy are awful, and they don't fully go away. I can’t tell you how many times I fully peed my pants because I was throwing up so hard. I had to constantly pack extra pants for fear I would have a bad coughing fit or an unexpected sneeze in public."
17. "Nobody told me about the long, sustained, almost unbearable rectal pressure I would experience during labor. For hours, it felt like I had to take the largest, most uncomfortable poop of my life!"
18. "After having a baby, I learned that you can get gas bubbles anywhere on your body. I actually had a 'fart' on the inside of my shoulder about three weeks after labor."
19. "The bloating! I can barely eat a few bites of something without feeling super full!"
20. "When I was pregnant, I had hyperemesis (severe nausea and vomiting) and lost 14 pounds in a two-month period. I honestly thought I was going to lose my son or my own life during the months that the symptoms were at their worst."
21. "They never tell you what it’s like to have a very premature baby. My baby was born nine weeks early and I had to have an emergency C-section, despite wanting a natural birth. My daughter was taken away to the neonatal unit as soon as she was born, and I didn’t hold her until she was days old."
—N75
22. "All four pregnancies I had gave me huge teeth problems. I am four months postpartum and I am still getting it sorted, waiting for a surgical extraction."
23. "When I was in labor, I had heart failure and nearly died. None of the baby books mentioned that pregnancy and delivery could cause heart failure, even in young or very healthy mothers. It's a rare complication, but serious complications are way more common than people think."
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.