I must have really negative friends and co-workers! Everyone talked about how I will never sleep again, I will never leave my house, I will not feel like a human being for atleast 18 years, I will never see my fiance again, c-section (or labor) is the worst day ever besides getting to hold your LO, I was expecting the worst!

Well written article. So much pressure is put on women to have natural births with no pain releif. News flash! You don't get am award for it and your baby isn't any better for it! I had a lovely birth plan - didn't even get chance to get it out of my folder onthe day. I had paIn releif, I had interventions and I just kept saying "it's how our baby needs to come out". I dealt with it but so many people afterwards looked at me like I'd failed to have my baby as it wasn't natural. This time, there wi be no birth plan, I will go with it - what ever happens.

As for asking for help, I didn't want to but realised People actually want to help. So in the end I let them.

I've always been a "do it all" kind of person and having a baby was a definite reality check! When I was pregnant I spent too much time worrying about the birth and not enough thinking about what comes after. Four months on and I'm still grappling with the fact that I can't do things like I used to. My little girl is so amazing and I wouldn't trade her for all the good nights' sleep in the world, but it is hard to deal with sometimes.

Great article!!!

I left the hospital wearing my skinny jeans though

It's a great article and I'd definitely post it on 3rd tri

Don't expect people to believe it though ... people will read it and think 'well that doesn't apply to me'. Only once LO has arrived will they remember it and be grateful that you posted it

I think we are pre-conditioned to a large extent not to think about the negative when it comes to childbirth and parenting - particularly as first time parents ... lets face it, most of us who already have children have tried to warn expectant friends about the realities and even if they aren't outright dismissive you can see the disbelief written on their faces lol

How many times have you heard 'having a baby won't change our lives at all' and 'I was sleeping through the night at 2 weeks, so I expect my LO will do the same' or similar assumptions ... even when they witness your colicky baby or rampaging toddler they just secretly think that it's down to your poor parenting skills and that their child will be a perfect little poppet who they bond with instantly, sleeps through from day one, never cries, fits in perfectly with whatever they want to do and will never have a tantrum as a toddler

I've always figured it to be a mechanism for ensuring the continuation of our species ... if people really knew how tough being a parent is then no-one would ever fall pregnant