Expectations Vs. Reality Of Giving Birth In 16 Brutally Honest Comics By A Mom Who Just Gave Birth
If you spend lots of time flipping through Instagram and magazines, it’s easy to get the impression that childbirth is a glamorous walk in the park. The reality, though, is that for most women, it’s pretty much the polar opposite. One woman recently shared the story of her son’s entry into the world in a unique and creative way – by turning it into a series of frank, brutally honest comics. The anonymous mom, who runs a blog called How We Came To Be, has gone viral after uploading the comics to Imgur, and is now being applauded by the Internet for her accurate portrayal of the miracle of life.
“Every birth is different and it is good for people to hear that nothing goes as planned. Thank you,” one user commented.
Scroll down to see it all for yourself, and let us know if you think more stories like this need to be in circulation.
More info: How We Came To Be
Quite some time ago, a relative of mine gave birth in her bathtub. Prior to that, she gave birth in a kiddie pool. And after what seemed to be a fairly easy process, she cradled her healthy newborn in her arms, surrounded by her family, so happy and full of love.
She even had a photo of what looked like a big, red, pancake, which, I found out later, was her placenta.
At the time, I thought, that would be me very soon. Hopefully. I was in my late 30s, and my so-called biological clock finally caught up with me and started banging on my ovaries.
And like a lot of events in my life, things don’t always go according to plan. It would take a bit over a year to conceive as I had a couple of issues in my reproductive plumbing. But after help from an OB, a lot of scheduled unsexy sex and temperature monitoring, it happened.
I don’t remember much of the medical jargon, and I was in a daze half the time. But this comic is pretty much the gist of what went on.
I had placenta previa. And based on my blood pressure readings, it was assumed that I was also preeclamptic. I was put on a schedule to give at 36 weeks and 6 days early — basically the same day I was scheduled for a routine checkup. It was expected that I’d be giving birth anyway as my placenta had barely moved. So I wasn’t surprised. I just wish I had my hair and makeup done that day so I’d look halfway decent in photos. I’d check Facebook and a lot of my friends who had given birth had crisp eyeliner, airbrushed skin, and blow dried hair. But not me. I looked like a marching band had trampled on my face in all of my photos. You bet I didn’t share those on Facebook.
I’ve always dreaded needles because in my case, needles are rarely inserted successfully the first try. It usually takes a few tries in one arm, for example. If that doesn’t work, they’ll try the other arm. And if that doesn’t work, they’ll usually call another nurse in who, apparently, is THE expert at needle insertion — until they try me.
Based on nurse and nurse assistant comments, I may hold the record for “tiniest veins in the world”.
I don’t know what’s more unpleasant: getting a catheter inserted into your pee hole, or a paper cut on your eyeball.
Was I nervous? I don’t quite remember. I did know of someone who had to stay at the hospital for a month after giving birth. She was also preeclamptic. She had a seizure, and was “out” for what seemed a very long time. So seeing I could have possibly gone through that frightened me a bit. But it frightened my husband quite a bit more.
I just hoped the baby would come out okay. I was eventually wheeled into the O.R., and I can’t recall if I was given a spinal block or epidural. All I know is that I couldn’t feel my bottom half moments after.
My husband was a good companion as always. He comforted me. Caressed my head. Told me that I peed a lot upon checking the pee bag on the side of my bed. Apparently, it was a good sign that I peed quite a bit. I forget why.
“You will feel a lot of tugging”, the doctor exclaimed. That has got to be one of the strangest sensations. That tugging. It’s like you feel like your entire bottom is being pulled apart, but you don’t feel any pain — until later, when the medication wears off.
I gave birth to a beautiful, red-headed little boy. The nurses seemed pleasantly surprised. I, too, was sort of surprised. But not really, considering how genetics works. While my husband has light blond hair, green eyes, and skin as white as snow, I on the other hand, have black hair, brown eyes, and skin as yellow-beige as Nars Creamy Concealer in Custard.
I had to stay at the hospital for a little while longer. The doctors and nurses seemed very concerned about my blood pressure not going down. It hovered around 200-something over 100-something, so I was given a combination of medications to help keep things at a normal level.
My son didn’t latch on. And my milk output wasn’t Niagara Falls great. I was given a hospital-grade breast pump to draw more milk out. That, and I was given a supply of formula to supplement. Though I tried my best to feed the baby breast milk exclusively. Out of everything I’d been through, this is what caused me the most stress. It’s often said “breast is best”, and I felt like a failure every time I couldn’t pump enough milk, and my son was given a bottle of formula instead.
Nights were a bit lonely because everyone was asleep. But the nurses would come in to check on me every once in a while.
I loved my nurses. One gave me ice chips when I was feeling dehydrated. One wiped my bloody, clotty vagina when I was writhing in pain and couldn’t get up to the bathroom. And when things were unbearable, I was given lots of pain medications.
Leaving the hospital was bittersweet. I felt like I made some good friends.
But I couldn’t wait to bring our son home. And at that moment, I was happy. Everyone was happy.
And my cat had something new to play with.
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Share on FacebookThese are lovely. Much better than the "IT'S AWFUL" horror stories that make me never want to have children or the "IT'S AMAZING" beauty pageant that makes me feel I'd never do it right. These are so human.
I'm actually in labour right now. Things are slow moving but hellishly painful for me (nerve disorder) so I have an epidural and my husband is out getting our baby car seat, to answer any questions on why I'm here :p I'm hooked up to a bunch of machines and even before latent phase was over I was shaking and crying with the pain. But that said, rainbow births do exist. Some women hardly feel a thing, it's amazing! Little jealous but mostly thankful for the existence of painkillers right now. :')
Congrats. Hope everything goes picture perfect.
Load More Replies...I got goosebumps reading this . It is funny but also made me feel uneasy. I asked my own mom if birth was as hard as advertised but she said no.im guessing if she lied in hope she would get grankids sometime ?
I guess it just depends on the person. I have a twin brother, and we were born just about 2 weeks earlier than expected and without any need for medication or surgeries, only 10 minutes apart, and both my mother and father said it was indeed pretty easy and painless. She didn't even put on nearly as much weight as expected for twins. Though it was a close call because I was apparently in the wrong position until a few days before my mom went into labor... a bit more and she'd need to be cut up to get me out. My mom was 31 when she had us. She conceived pretty quickly, and never had much trouble with cramps or pms. So I guess she was just lucky to have a friendly reproductive system?
Load More Replies...This: "Out of everything I’d been through, this is what caused me the most stress. It’s often said “breast is best”, and I felt like a failure every time I couldn’t pump enough milk, and my son was given a bottle of formula instead." is a massive problem. A baby recently died because it wasn't feed additional formula due to this obsession with breast milk. Yes, it's great if you can feed your baby exclusively on breast milk but there are a ton of cases where it doesn't work and that is ok, too. There's way too much pressure on moms.
I fed breastmilk exclusively for two years but never saw a problem wformula when itd be necessary. We all want whats best for our babies. I object a bit when the reason is 'my boobs will get saggy' but thats cause the reason is just kinda selfish imo. And untrue. Tho its still their choice.
Load More Replies...And that's the easy part. Now she has to be a mom. Hard no for me on every single level.
She will worry for the rest of her life now. Just not about the physical pain of childbirth. She will never get another day where she doesn't worry.
Load More Replies...So so so true. Expectations v's reality.......miles apart!! That feeling when your baby is placed on your chest is the most amazing feeling ever though!! 💖
I liked the comic, and the story is very interesting and informative and very much not flowery. But... does everythign have to be called "brutally honest" these days? Everything is "brutally honest", why not "non-violently honest", or "truthful without harming others"? It's just the caption that was bothering me - the post itself is very much fine and good.
Yeah I had to get an unplanned c-section too, twice! The tugging sensation was the worst part for sure, but they kept me well drugged :) The nurses were so sweet and helpful. Over all I'd have to say it really wasn't so bad you just gotta be careful for the first few weeks
For me, being pregnant sucked, and giving birth was terrifying. I was separated when I found out I was pregnant, moved back to my hometown at 6 months pregnant, started leaking fluid at 6.5 months, was hospitalized 2 hrs from my family at that point because the aforementioned hometown didn't have any neonatal ICUs, while they tried to keep my son from being born early... Up until my liver started failing and I was rushed into an emergency c-section, which I went through alone as my family was 2 hrs away. It was painful and scary, and I was unbelievably lucky. My son was born at 34 weeks, small, but relatively healthy.. Speaking of, he's up from his nap!
Oh, giving birth is the most wonderful and terrifying thing ever. With my first child I was in labor for 3 days and I felt like I was in hell every time the nurses checked for the dilation. I cursed them so bad in my head. The actual delivery went so quick and smooth. The second is 6 months old today, but I still get heart palpitations thinking about what I went through. She was in the posterior position and I was induced. Labor came on pretty fast and pretty bad, I should say UGLY bad. I so hated those nurses and my Gynae so much. I was dilated to a 9 and my body was pushing the baby out, my body was doing all the work but they kept telling me not to push as they could not feel the baby's head. I had to work against my body, hold my breath and be stiff everywhere to stop the baby from coming. They decided after what felt like 50 hours to give me a C-Section. Sorry for "horror", this just brought back the pain. Even though it was horrible, I am looking forward to baby #3 in the future
Thats bad..... Girls have nothing better to do than hook up at 14 and have kids at 16? Wtf?
about 7 weeks pregnant and will be 43 in 2 weeks. Husband is hot on me doing a water birth. I'm feeling like I wanna be in a hospital. I'm actually hoping this will sufficiently scare him to get on board.
scary. i mean that with the red hear baby. what did you husband say? :P
What is with the perfect make-up during birth? Just...WHY? It's childbirth, you're not supposed to look model perfect! Honest question!
Facebook is like TV (or the movies.) It's sole purpose is for people to provide a clone of reality that isn't really real (like a reality show.) How it works is you make pictures and posts that would ideally be you and everyone all the time, that you post on FB in an attempt to convince yourself that that is everyone all the time.
Load More Replies...These are lovely. Much better than the "IT'S AWFUL" horror stories that make me never want to have children or the "IT'S AMAZING" beauty pageant that makes me feel I'd never do it right. These are so human.
I'm actually in labour right now. Things are slow moving but hellishly painful for me (nerve disorder) so I have an epidural and my husband is out getting our baby car seat, to answer any questions on why I'm here :p I'm hooked up to a bunch of machines and even before latent phase was over I was shaking and crying with the pain. But that said, rainbow births do exist. Some women hardly feel a thing, it's amazing! Little jealous but mostly thankful for the existence of painkillers right now. :')
Congrats. Hope everything goes picture perfect.
Load More Replies...I got goosebumps reading this . It is funny but also made me feel uneasy. I asked my own mom if birth was as hard as advertised but she said no.im guessing if she lied in hope she would get grankids sometime ?
I guess it just depends on the person. I have a twin brother, and we were born just about 2 weeks earlier than expected and without any need for medication or surgeries, only 10 minutes apart, and both my mother and father said it was indeed pretty easy and painless. She didn't even put on nearly as much weight as expected for twins. Though it was a close call because I was apparently in the wrong position until a few days before my mom went into labor... a bit more and she'd need to be cut up to get me out. My mom was 31 when she had us. She conceived pretty quickly, and never had much trouble with cramps or pms. So I guess she was just lucky to have a friendly reproductive system?
Load More Replies...This: "Out of everything I’d been through, this is what caused me the most stress. It’s often said “breast is best”, and I felt like a failure every time I couldn’t pump enough milk, and my son was given a bottle of formula instead." is a massive problem. A baby recently died because it wasn't feed additional formula due to this obsession with breast milk. Yes, it's great if you can feed your baby exclusively on breast milk but there are a ton of cases where it doesn't work and that is ok, too. There's way too much pressure on moms.
I fed breastmilk exclusively for two years but never saw a problem wformula when itd be necessary. We all want whats best for our babies. I object a bit when the reason is 'my boobs will get saggy' but thats cause the reason is just kinda selfish imo. And untrue. Tho its still their choice.
Load More Replies...And that's the easy part. Now she has to be a mom. Hard no for me on every single level.
She will worry for the rest of her life now. Just not about the physical pain of childbirth. She will never get another day where she doesn't worry.
Load More Replies...So so so true. Expectations v's reality.......miles apart!! That feeling when your baby is placed on your chest is the most amazing feeling ever though!! 💖
I liked the comic, and the story is very interesting and informative and very much not flowery. But... does everythign have to be called "brutally honest" these days? Everything is "brutally honest", why not "non-violently honest", or "truthful without harming others"? It's just the caption that was bothering me - the post itself is very much fine and good.
Yeah I had to get an unplanned c-section too, twice! The tugging sensation was the worst part for sure, but they kept me well drugged :) The nurses were so sweet and helpful. Over all I'd have to say it really wasn't so bad you just gotta be careful for the first few weeks
For me, being pregnant sucked, and giving birth was terrifying. I was separated when I found out I was pregnant, moved back to my hometown at 6 months pregnant, started leaking fluid at 6.5 months, was hospitalized 2 hrs from my family at that point because the aforementioned hometown didn't have any neonatal ICUs, while they tried to keep my son from being born early... Up until my liver started failing and I was rushed into an emergency c-section, which I went through alone as my family was 2 hrs away. It was painful and scary, and I was unbelievably lucky. My son was born at 34 weeks, small, but relatively healthy.. Speaking of, he's up from his nap!
Oh, giving birth is the most wonderful and terrifying thing ever. With my first child I was in labor for 3 days and I felt like I was in hell every time the nurses checked for the dilation. I cursed them so bad in my head. The actual delivery went so quick and smooth. The second is 6 months old today, but I still get heart palpitations thinking about what I went through. She was in the posterior position and I was induced. Labor came on pretty fast and pretty bad, I should say UGLY bad. I so hated those nurses and my Gynae so much. I was dilated to a 9 and my body was pushing the baby out, my body was doing all the work but they kept telling me not to push as they could not feel the baby's head. I had to work against my body, hold my breath and be stiff everywhere to stop the baby from coming. They decided after what felt like 50 hours to give me a C-Section. Sorry for "horror", this just brought back the pain. Even though it was horrible, I am looking forward to baby #3 in the future
Thats bad..... Girls have nothing better to do than hook up at 14 and have kids at 16? Wtf?
about 7 weeks pregnant and will be 43 in 2 weeks. Husband is hot on me doing a water birth. I'm feeling like I wanna be in a hospital. I'm actually hoping this will sufficiently scare him to get on board.
scary. i mean that with the red hear baby. what did you husband say? :P
What is with the perfect make-up during birth? Just...WHY? It's childbirth, you're not supposed to look model perfect! Honest question!
Facebook is like TV (or the movies.) It's sole purpose is for people to provide a clone of reality that isn't really real (like a reality show.) How it works is you make pictures and posts that would ideally be you and everyone all the time, that you post on FB in an attempt to convince yourself that that is everyone all the time.
Load More Replies...
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