The things they never, ever warned me about during my antenatal classes

There are a lot of books and classes on becoming a parent and childbirth, and yet they still don't cover everything.

You would think with childbirth being around for several thousand years we'd have all the information locked down, but no. Two children on there are some things I had to learn without any preparation so I'm going to be a good citizen and give you a heads up on some of the things nobody told me about childbirth in antenatal class. Probably one of the most essential bits of information as a first-time mum would be knowing what the baby bearing down feels like. That's kind of a big deal seeing as once they start doing that they're basically on their way. The first time this happened to me I tried to get up out of the hospital bed and go to the toilet because I thought for all the world that's what I needed to do. Thankfully my contractions were too strong and I didn't get far before I was taken by a nurse to the delivery room. She started to tell me to push with my bum and all I could think was "if I do that I'm going to poo all over this bed". Turned out I didn't need to use the loo at all and that the sensation was actually the baby pressing down. Good thing I didn't make it to the toilet because I probably would have given birth there. I was given a cute pair of socks like these and was raging when I forgot to put them in my hospital bag. It turned out to be a bit of good luck that I didn't bring them with me because they wouldn't have looked so cute after labour. You lose a fair bit of blood during childbirth and most of it is going to end up on your legs and feet. Once I had had my baby I had to get my husband to take off my socks and throw them out because they had gone from being snow white to dark red. After giving birth I felt extremely wide 'down there' and to be honest didn't believe that I was going to go back to normal. It just didn't seem possible. Nobody warned me beforehand that I might feel like an extension of the Port Tunnel. Don't worry you do go back to normal pretty quickly but just be prepared for the sensation. We're all told to expect the placenta after we give birth, but a little bit of information left out of the pregnancy packet is that it's not the only thing that comes out. I was walking to the bathroom the morning after having my daughter and when I pulled down my bottoms I found and found a huge amount of what looked like strawberry jelly. I began to freak out but when I informed a midwife she told me it was normal. Eh, a heads up might have been nice there. While it seems like a lot of information about childbirth to digest, trust me it's better to know than not know. When I spoke to some of my mum friends about it they were in agreeance with me that they wish someone had told them beforehand that these things would happen. Once you have some forewarning it's a lot less scary. When all is said and done it's all worth it for the end result, your gorgeous new baby. What else do you think mums should know before their baby arrives? Leave a comment on our Facebook page or tweet us at @herfamilydotie.