It only makes sense that abnormal things happen to a woman's body in the whole realm of pregnancy. After all, a normal uterus must expand to gigantic proportions. This causes everything inside the body, from the stomach to the bladder to the intestines, to be squished into pancake-shaped dimensions. More strain is put on the back. The hips widen. The relaxin causes all things down yonder to go slack, allowing the hips to widen. Our breasts enlarge, producing colostrum and then breastmilk. Hormones make you feel sick, sad, or, blessedly happy. Maybe all once. Then, if there’s labor, Mom’s vagina dilates to a 10-centimeter opening and effaces to 100 percent (which I must assume it very, very thin). If the child’s birth is vaginal, you must presume that the vaginal opening is then stretched even more. Then after birth, bunches of your hair falls out.
That’s a lot of change. No wonder it takes our bodies so long to return to “normal” shape. They say it takes at least six weeks for basic changes to occur, such as size of uterus and other odd factors. But, let’s face it, it really takes longer than that, especially if you gain a lot of weight during pregnancy. I was fortunate and only gained about 35 pounds. Since 9 pounds of that was baby and an extraordinary amount was fluid, I wasn’t in bad shape that way.
But still, my stomach is a little more jello-y than I’d like it to be and my pelvis is incredibly out of whack. And I had Autumn a little over 2 years ago. I suppose I should exercise, but, really, I’m a working mother of a toddler. It’s not happening.
In the meantime, I suppose I should embrace my body (even if I don’t fully embrace the stretch marks sitting just above my pantyline). After all, it did give me a beautiful, healthy baby girl.