• image.alt
  • With Mayo Clinic certified nurse-midwife

    Mary M. Murry, R.N., C.N.M.

    read biography
The Mayo Clinic Diet Book, learn more

Free

E-newsletter

Subscribe to Housecall

Our weekly general interest
e-newsletter keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics.

Sign up now

  • Pregnancy and you blog

  • Jan. 15, 2013

    Body after baby: What happened?

    By Mary M. Murry, R.N., C.N.M.

10 comments posted

It's time for your six-week postpartum appointment. By this time, you thought you'd have your old body back. But instead, your breasts are bigger than ever. Your abs of steel seem to be abs of flab. You have stretch marks in places you didn't know stretch marks could appear — and don't even try to get a look at your behind. It still looks like someone else's.

As if that's not enough, the list continues.

You're losing so much hair that you're thinking about buying that special shampoo advertised to prevent baldness. Ironically, though, the hair that appeared on your tummy during pregnancy has remained stubbornly in place.

And let's not forget your lady parts. Will your labia look the same? Is your vagina a gaping hole? Will it all work the way it used to?

There's no magic timeline for returning to your pre-baby form. You were pregnant for many months, and it might take at least that long — if not longer — for the changes in your body to fade. Some changes might be permanent.

For example, the hair you're losing is normal. While you were pregnant, your hair stopped its cycle of growing and falling out and instead held on to the hair. Now it's trying to reestablish the pattern. Eventually your hair will return to its pre-pregnant rhythm.

If you're breast-feeding, your new cup size will stick around as long as you nurse your baby.

The stretch marks you might have acquired on your breasts, abdomen and hips will gradually fade and not be quite so red. There are many creams that claim to make stretch marks disappear, but I'm not sold on their reliability.

Now what about those lady parts? Even if you had a C-section, gravity and the pressure from the baby's weight in your pelvis will have caused some changes. You could find that you lose urine if you don't get to the bathroom right away or if you cough or sneeze. Doing Kegel exercises every day will help with that.

You might also worry that your partner will notice a difference in your vagina. Honestly, I don't think that'll be an issue. Your partner will be so happy to make love again that nothing else will matter. You might even be one of those women who find that their sexual response is greater after pregnancy and birth.

Give yourself and your body time to recover from pregnancy and birth. Love your new body. The changes you can map on your body are there because of the miracle known as your baby.

I would love to hear from all of you about the changes you noticed after having a baby. How long did it take them to go away? Were there any changes you wanted to keep?

10 comments posted

blog index

  • April 16, 2013 9:06 p.m.

    Thanks for this post. I was so excited that just three weeks after having my baby I was only 5 pounds away from by prepregnancy weight. Now my baby is nine weeks old and I'm still at the same weight. I tried to fit into my old clothes and I'm no where near being able to fit in them (which shocked me for only 5 pounds). Its very depressing when I'm trying to go back to work and look professional, but all I can fit in are sweats and maternity clothes. I've decided to make this a good excuse for a shopping trip and embrace my sagging belly as a badge of honor (at least for now). Ultimately, I'm loving being a mother, despite the lack of sleep, and its sweet when my husband keeps reminding me that some women pay a lot of money to have a larger bust size.

    - Xanna

  • March 31, 2013 10:52 p.m.

    After reading this, I can breath a sigh of relief. I am so anxious to loose the pregnancy weight so I can go back to wearing my favorite outfits but I have learnt that it will take a while to have it back. It has given me hope.

    - Gifty

  • March 22, 2013 11:16 a.m.

    I am surprisingly more 'okay' with my extra softness/squishyn-ness since my baby in early fall. I haven't gotten back into an active lifestyle which I blame partly on winter. Personal issues that I would like to go away are the extra flabbiness, skin discoloration/melasma, and tenderness 'down there' during intercourse. 6wk checkup was still quite sore and was told to take it easy. Have been...pain is less and less, but still there. Have a couple friends who said it took them a looong time to get back to pain free. Is this common? What would be abnormally long? *i plan to talk to my doc about this, have been putting it off partly due to being swamped with work and life. Things are finally slowing down. :)

    - AJ

  • March 4, 2013 10:16 a.m.

    I gave birth to a baby girl on April 1st,2012.It was a great experience and everything went good with some complications. I started reducing weight in the first few weeks and it stayed same for months. Then again I started reducing when my baby was 9 months since I started walking a lot. But the stretch marks are not gone yet and I have hair loss for last two months (since my first mensuration started after delivery). Wondering whether they are related or not?. I am still taking Materna as per my Doctor's advice.

    - Nithya

  • February 12, 2013 3:30 a.m.

    Thanks Andrea. I feel blessed to be able to be a part of miracle of birth. I never get tired of it. I'm glad you didn't call your dream a nightmare. Micheale, your nausea could be related to a lowering of your blood sugar. Make sure you are getting enough to eat and drink. Sometimes we are so busy taking care of the baby, we don't get to have regular meals and snacks.

    - Mary@Mayo

  • February 11, 2013 10:42 p.m.

    Well..after 8 babies I don't think I'll ever be back to 'normal'. (what is normal anyway after 8!? LOL) Isaiah is 5 months and I still look 3 months pregnant unless I tighten my tummy on purpose. And my hair is still falling out so much. I started taking a B complex hoping that will help. By the way, thank you Mary for delivering 3 of my precious children in the last ten years. I had a dream about you the other night, and I was in labor and my labor stalled out..it all seemed so real lol. I told hubby about it and he said..'what's new? That happened twice!' Anyway..I don't know if any more babies are in my future, so I'm just enjoying this sweet baby now..it goes by soooo quickly!

    - Andrea

  • January 30, 2013 2:46 p.m.

    This is great info. wish I had it when I had babies. my question is this: Is is normal to feel slightly nausea when nursing?

    - micheale

  • January 28, 2013 5:23 a.m.

    These are excellent posts. Thank you so much! Keep up the outstanding work! Blood Analysis

    - Blood Analysis

  • January 18, 2013 11:36 a.m.

    Thank you for addressing sexuality. Many women are afraid to ask about such intimate issues as a saggy vagina. It's true...It tightens up with time, exercise, and kegel's. Nice post!

    - -bea

  • January 16, 2013 2:58 p.m.

    Thanks for the uplifting article. Everything you say is common sense, but so many of us young moms forget it all as we bash our post-baby bodies. 6 weeks and a still-saggy tummy later, I'm going to focus more on enjoying my miracle and staying healthy and less on looking in the mirror :-)

    - Noni

Post a comment
  • Print

  • Share on:

  • Email

Advertisement


Text Size: smaller largerlarger