Everyone knows that the body changes after someone gives birth. But with so much pressure to "bouce back" and be completely perfect mere days or weeks after giving birth, one new mom probably didn’t expect that needing to borrow a few of her newborn son’s diapers might be part of the process. About eight weeks postpartum, the mom had an accident of her own, and instead of hiding it she's lifting the veil on glamorous and instant postpartum recoveries and sharing what her own experience.
The mom explained that after her natural, no epidural birth “my downstairs is still pretty weak.”
“My muscle control is nonexistent,” she explained in a post on r/breakingmom. “My body is so weak and I'm physically and emotionally done.”
In fact, when the mom does get time alone, all she really wants is her phone and a nice cup of coffee.
Like most new moms, the window for “free time” is small — like 20 to 30 minutes small.
“Because my son is so needy he needs comfort during his naps as well,” she continued. “If I don't run to comfort him mid naps, the naps just don't happen at all. So you can imagine how my ‘free time’ is.”
In truth, the new mom says she probably is neglecting her body.
So much so that she’d rather do nothing over taking a shower or going to the bathroom “for the sake of my sanity and feeling like a human with a life.”
It wasn’t the best system, but it was working for the mom — until recently.
"I s–t myself 8 weeks postpartum … and I don't know how to feel about it. Lmao Maybe I should borrow some of my son's diapers," she joked.
But she explained that in her defense “I didn't feel like I had to go at all.”
“It just happened while peacefully sitting and drinking my coffee that already got cold because of interruptions,” she wrote. It being — well, poop.
“In the end, I still didn't finish my coffee. I had to run to the toilet and shower.”
Of course by the time she actually finished her shower, her son woke up.
Thus ending the precious free time she desperately needed.
“I spent my precious ‘me time’ cleaning my own s–t.”
Other women had to admit they’ve also been the victim of a weak postpartum body.
"Happened to me…twice," one commenter admitted. "Spoke to my OB and it was obviously pelvic floor issues. Went to Physical Therapy for it twice and did some exercises at home. It has gotten a lot better over time!"
"I had the same thing happen to me," a second commenter shared. "I was probably about the same time postpartum (it was 8 years ago so, hard to remember exactly). What I DO remember exactly was sitting outside on my phone, having a smoke, and then all of a sudden, with no warning, not even a little toot, I f—ing s–t myself. Welcome to the club!"
"I had no urinary or fecal control after having my second — turns out my pelvic floor was overly tight and therefore I couldn't contract any further to hold anything in," someone else wrote in. "Highly recommend pelvic floor PT, I have succesfully not s–t myself in almost a year!"
Unfortunately, "accidents" can be part of the postpartum experience that no one talks about. But on the bright side, at least the mom probably had a bunch of baby wipes on hand?
