BEHAVIOUR PARENTING MY BIRTH...

20 Women Share Their Postpartum Horror Stories

13 min read

Being a mother is a dream for most women. Yet, it is scary.

Pregnancy is hard. Once you give birth then you have to sacrifice a lot and it’s only the beginning. If you’re extremely lucky, giving birth and postpartum might be easy and less painful.

However, there are other extreme circumstances you’d never want to imagine… Read some of these postpartum horror stories and see if you can relate to any of them.

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1. The Uncontrollable Shaking

I wasn’t prepared for the uncontrollable shakes I got immediately after giving birth. Honestly, I still don’t know what that was about. It’s only happened to me three times in my life-twice when I had my girls, and once when I busted my head open and I was getting stitches. It was mildly disturbing and I hope I never experience it again.

Postpartum Horror Stories

A Penne

2. I’ve Given Birth, And I Still have Contractions?

The contractions don’t go away just because the baby is born. First, you need to give birth to the placenta, preferably through your ripped cervix. Then, your uterus has to take it’s time to get back to its normal size. To do so, there will be contractions, especially during nursing.

20 Women Share Their Postpartum Horror Stories I Stay at Home Mum
Postpartum Horror Stories

3. Blood entered the lungs.

Serena Williams shared that the next day after her C-Section delivery, she began to feel shortness of breath. She requested a CT Scan only to found out that blood clots in her lungs. It’s because of her intense coughing that the wound on her C Section reopened, leading to a large hematoma on her abdomen. Fortunately, the doctors entered a filter into her major vein to keep more blood from reaching her lungs.

Source: Postpartum Horror Stories at Lily.com

3. Depression

I felt alone, scared, miserable and like I couldn’t handle anything. I felt like a complete failure. I felt inadequate as a wife and mother and felt enormous guilt. I felt like I was to blame for how difficult the birth was, my daughter’s NICU stay and because I couldn’t exclusively breastfeed. I also felt that my family would be better off without me and didn’t need me around.

I often thought of packing some of my belongings and moving elsewhere by myself. After suffering with the feelings of guilt, disappointment and frequent crying for months, I finally admitted to myself that the way I wasn’t ok – this wasn’t me. After seeking help, I eventually got better and felt more like myself.

I started a new hobby that I always wanted to try, I made more of an effort to see friends and do things for myself. I slowly began to “forgive” myself and allow myself to “let go” of the disappointing experience and began to realize that even though it wasn’t what I planned, it was ok. My daughter was fine”¦and I would be too.

Postpartum Horror Stories

Bridget Croteau

4. Complications after birth

The deep cut (around 10 cm) resulted in a lot of blood loss and my hemoglobin dropped to 6 (from 12). I was given two bottles of hemoglobin and when that didn’t work, I was given a bottle of pure RBC blood. I spent four extra days in the hospital, being hooked to an IV, unable to hold my newborn or nurse her without pain.

All the poking resulted in nerve damage on both my hands, to the point that I couldn’t lift them because of throbbing pain for two weeks. Since then, numerous complications surfaced: thrombophlebitis, fissure, intense pain in the coccyx and perineum. But my daughter’s smiling face kept me sane through all of this. And of course, love and support of my family and friends.

Postpartum Horror Stories

Meenakshi Iyer

5. My Uterus went out

My abdominal muscle wall clamped down, and they could not get my uterus back in my body, had the OB, two residents, two nurses and the anesthesiologist trying to pull on my muscle layer enough to stuff my uterus back in, but it wouldn’t budge.

Carrie Hornbeck

6. Bled for awhile

I bled for quite a while… Probably close to a month, if not longer. It’s pretty bad at first and you’ll pass fairly large clots. I used the pads and ice packs the hospital gave me until we ran out and then I used the biggest pads I could find WITH wings. It helped if there was any leakage on the sides.

Postpartum Horror Stories

Krista 721

7. Removed Uterus, Husband changed

My partner was left alone in the room surrounded by blood which he said was all over the floor and this really distressed him as he wasn’t sure if I was going to make it. He has since been diagnosed with stress and very high blood pressure which delayed an operation he needed at the time.

This whole situation has changed him beyond recognition, I am all his has. He said he could not have raised our baby alone. NO father ever wants to be put in a position of thinking like that

Postpartum Horror Stories By Polly

8. C-Section reopened

Got home a couple days later and stood up from peeing to a massive rush of blood and fluid. My C-section had reopened itself. Six weeks of tape and wound vacs and daily nurse visits, and I was mostly back to myself.

Postpartum Horror Stories by Apple Cary

20 Women Share Their Postpartum Horror Stories I Stay at Home Mum
Postpartum Horror Stories

9. Hair Loss

There has been a lot of scary stuff about Monat going around the internet. I suffer really badly from Post Partum hair loss and have just recently started using it. My hair is still falling out but I have seen a lot of new hair coming in

Postpartum Horror Stories By Jacquie Whitely

10. The Doctor didn’t Sew Her Up

A couple weeks ago, I was with some girlfriends, we started sharing our children’s birth stories. I had a fairly non-complicated delivery and recovery. My one friend said how the delivery was great for her. However, apparently the doctors didn’t sew her up right? And left one of her nerves loose?

Or something like that. Anyway, she said she was in such horrible pain that she couldn’t even sit. Just the thought of a nerve being so vulnerable like that gives me the heebie-jeebies. I think she said they had to burn it off? Which makes it a million times worse. Anyway, maybe take a note to tell your doctor to be sure to get everything where it’s suppose to.

Postpartum Horror Stories By smiles 325

11. Wrapped in an Umbilical Cord

It’s not making me cross my legs tighter, but I just went to go visit my friend today who had her baby on Wednesday.  She went all natural, and other than a couple issues with white coat syndrome and her BP, she had no risks or signs of anything wrong her entire pregnancy.  

She told me today her baby was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck 3 times and was completely grey.  They immediately started doing work on him to resuscitate him, which obviously was successful since I met him today.  Then she got to hold him for 3 seconds to kiss his head, and he was off for tons of IVs and work done.

Beachy730

12. Farther Down

So with ds1 I labored and was pushing for 3hrs at that point my OB said we need to try suction if it dosent work then we have to do a emergency csection. At this point I felt everything bc my epi wore off. Well it was all unsuccessful since I couldn’t get my ds head under my tailbone.

So I had a csection well needless to say my ds was alot farther down then expected so a nurse had to push him back up so they could get him out. Well doing this tore my entire uterus. I had to be knocked out after my ds was

Postpartum Horror Stories

Schmitz

13. Rushed for Surgery

Fifteen minutes after birth I started hemorrhaging so I was rushed away to surgery to control the bleeding and to get the placenta out. They were talking about a possible hysterectomy and blood transfusion.

Tonja M

14. Scary Thoughts

I was constantly on guard, needing to check and recheck my thoughts to make sure that I was not dangerous. It consumed me. I couldn’t eat, I had no appetite. I couldn’t sleep, my thoughts were constantly racing. Then one morning, a new thought came. “What if I hurt both of my boys and no one was around to save them?”

This thought scared me so much that I wouldn’t stay at my house alone with them anymore. I stayed on my dad’s couch for two weeks. I stared at the kids all night to make sure they were still safe. I felt like I had to constantly check myself to make sure I didn’t go crazy. I believed I had to stay alert at all times and if I thought I was going to hurt my children, I would go get my dad to save them.

Postpartum Horror Stories

Ashley Ryder

15. Severe Anxiety

“I experienced severe anxiety after the birth of my first son, to the point where I couldn’t leave the house because I was afraid he would cry in public and people would think I was a terrible mother. After my second son was born, I was so depressed that I could barely eat, and I lost 50 pounds in 10 weeks. But I thought women with PPD were suicidal or didn’t want their babies, and I was neither of those things.

So I thought I was fine. Things changed after I had my third child. I was severely agitated and cried a lot. I couldn’t stand myself, and I felt like I was a terrible person because I was mean to my husband and aggravated with my kids.

That’s when I found HOPE, a PPD-based support group in Carlisle, PA, where we lived at the time. Hearing their stories was like a lightbulb going off in my head. I sought out a counselor and was officially diagnosed with PPD.

Postpartum Horror Stories

Source: Self.com

16. Heavy Bleeding

Secondary Post-Partum Haemorrhage is excessive blood loss occurring more that 24 hours to 6 weeks after delivery. It is a significant contributor to maternal mortality.  A week after I’d just feed my baby girl and put her down to sleep, I noticed stomach cramps. They felt similar to a period pain. I hopped into bed and assured myself that it was normal.

10 minutes later, I felt a heavy bleed. I’d filled one pad in an hour. I changed and upon agreeance with my husband, we’d wait and see. ‘Google’ had told us the rule of thumb of when to act, being when you had filled two pads in two hours. I went to sleep treating it like afterbirth pain. I woke up two hours later, only to have blood gush out of me as I stood up. It was everywhere. From that encounter, it took me four months post recovery to actually want to sleep in our bed again.

Postpartum Horror Stories

Author Anonymous

17. Stopped Breathing

While I was in recovery I stopped breathing and they had to keep telling me to breathe and they put oxygen on me. The saddest part of all is that I was so completely out of it I couldn’t even hold my baby till the next day(( everyone else held her, fed her, changed her before me 

BrilynnGrace2011

18. Felt everything

As they cut into my uterus I could feel EVERYTHING. I lost it I started kicking and screaming and begging them to stop. There was a rush around the room I heard the baby cry then I was out. My c section took 2 hrs and because of my meds didn’t hold and feed him till the next morning.

tigereyes91342

19. Had a blood infection

I got a phone call that I was going to be induced that night because of pre eclampsia which was a relief because I had been on bedrest for blood pressure for 3 months. I was in labor for 24 hours and only a 2. That was the easy part. They opted to do a c section. Right when she came in and told me they were going to do a c section my bp got higher and things got blurry.

I remember thinking I dont feel right something is wrong. I dont remember her birth much which breaks my heart. I had a seizure on the table. Luckily she was alright. My bp was not high enough to cause the seizure so the cause is unknown. They closed me up and stabilized me, moved me to the ICU. My lungs then filled with fluid and I stopped breathing, luckily lasiks was able to bring them back without a ventilator. Then excrutiating head pain began.

Like a migraine but much worse. It is almost like being electricuted in my head. It has still not stopped so I am on high dose seizure and pain medication at 17 weeks out. They found a rare blood infection that is usually only found on autopsys so God was looking out for me. I was in the ICU for 2 weeks.

Luckily Jaylee was able to stay with me as long as I had a family member there to supervise because I was unable to move much at all. My condition is still not completely determined. I was healthy prior to the c section. Never had a seizure before ever. They have no idea what happened. I do seem to be improving in the last 2 weeks which is very promising so we are thanking God for the baby steps that I am making!

Postpartum Horror Stories

princessjes

20. C-section reopened

Was having constant fevers and very very bad pain for a week so went to the ER. had so many tests done but my DR told the ER just to have me go to her office since everything seemed to be okay. Walking out of the ER I smell something horrible and feel something dripping from my leg.

I look down and POP! MY C section had busted open in front of the hospital. blood and puss everywhere and I am screaming not knowing what’s going on. went back to the ER room and the ER Dr was checking out what had happened. she had me sit at the end of the bed and it looked like someone had turned on the fawcet on high cause everything was just spewing out. All of this led to a painful extra week in the hospital & coming home with a wound vac on that I had to wear for at least a month.

Postpartum Horror Stories

LeosMomma09

How about you? What’s your experience?

20 Women Share Their Postpartum Horror Stories I Stay at Home Mum
Postpartum Horror Stories

Jody Allen
About Author

Jody Allen

Jody Allen is the founder of Stay at Home Mum. Jody is a five-time published author with Penguin Random House and is the current Suzuki Queensland Amb...Read Moreassador. Read Less

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