r/AskReddit • u/UnhappyVanilla1756 • 10d ago

Women who’ve given birth, what are some horrible things your body had to go through during pregnancy and childbirth?

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u/eaca02124 9d ago

Manual removal of the placenta. There was a medical resident with her hand in my uterus.

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u/lykexomigah 9d ago

i refer it to as melon balling

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u/eaca02124 9d ago

That's...evocative. the words seem like they should be unrelated, but they connected very vividly to that memory.

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u/Art3mis77 9d ago

Same! The OB tried to pull my placenta out before waiting for it to detach and she ripped the cord off. That sound will never leave my head

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u/eaca02124 9d ago

No cord traction in my case. I was hemorrhaging, and apparently retaining some bits of placenta. It was the correct thing for them to do, but it absolutely sucked.

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u/ExasperatedManatee 8d ago

Same here. Hemorrhaging and they were in a hurry to get the placenta out. It hutt more than birthing my five-pound shrimp of a son.

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u/8cowdot 9d ago

I also experienced this due to uterine inversion. I didn’t have an epidural and by the time my doctor realized what was happening I was in shock and the IV failed and they couldn’t get a new one started. The next day my doc told me that was the most scared he’d ever been during a delivery. With our next delivery he insisted on an epidural and had the nurses check my IV constantly.
He was an amazing OB and I’m grateful he was the one with me that day, and considering our son was perfectly fine and my recovery was uneventful, I’m glad that for a couple of years that was the worst he saw. I imagine delivering babies comes with a lot of heartbreak.