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When you found out you were pregnant, you knew you were in for sleepless nights and countless diapers. But your female friends and family members who have walked the motherhood road before you forget to mention a few things, like bigger feet, a saggy belly, and little to no sex drive.
Here is expert insight into the post-pregnancy body changes you never saw coming.
Combine sleepless nights with the shock of motherhood and a drop in estrogen, and your sex drive takes a serious dive.
“It can take up to a year to feel like you are really back in the mood for sex,” says Hope Ricciotti, MD, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Harvard Medical School and a practicing obstetrician at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston. “You are so focused on your child and your family that you have little to no time for yourself, and that includes sex.”
You’re also exhausted, stressed, and have almost no opportunity for romance for the first few months after baby is born to even think about the act that conceived your child, she says.
Mix these with estrogen levels that bottom back to normal post-childbirth, and sex drops to the tail end of your priority list.
“Estrogen levels rise during pregnancy, and fall abruptly after you give birth,” says Silvana Ribaudo, MD, an obstetrician at Columbia Medical Center in New York. “The change in estrogen levels means a woman’s sex drive is probably pretty low. It rebounds, but it does take time.”
"Elephant belly" is what Elizabeth Turkenkopf of Albany, N.Y.,?not-so-affectionately calls her midsection after having twins. Granted, she had two babies in her uterus instead of one, but her belly change isn’t uncommon.
“A lot of women experience loose skin on their belly after childbirth, after their uterus returns to its normal size,” Ricciotti says.
The uterus increases about five times its normal size during pregnancy, she says, so the skin needs to stretch to accommodate an organ the size of a small watermelon -- or two, in Turkenkopf’s case.
The problem is that stretched skin might stay stretched out.
“Its not the same as stretch marks, which lots of women try to prevent using creams,” Ricciotti says. “It’s loose skin, and it’s cosmetic.”
Turkenkopf's doctor told her the only way to get rid of it was through surgery. Now you have one less surprise post-baby, albeit an unpleasant one.
You give birth, you lose your belly, right? Not so fast.
“After you give birth, lots of women expect that their belly will return to its normal size almost immediately,” Ribaudo says. “That doesn’t happen. In fact, it takes about 6-8 weeks before the uterus is back to its prepregnancy size.”
Amanda Ezman of Oneida, N.Y. was among the new moms surprised by the size of her belly after she gave birth.
“I used the bathroom the day after my daughter was born, and looked in the mirror,” Ezman says. “I thought I would look a little different, but I still looked almost nine months pregnant.”
During pregnancy and as you recover from the birthing process, exercise and a healthy diet are key to getting your body back in shape (under the direction of your ob-gyn, of course).
“It takes time,” Ricciotti says. “Core exercises that focus on your belly do help in toning your baby bulge.”
Think the changes you experience from pregnancy happen mostly in your mid-section? Think again: You forgot about your feet.
"Yes, a woman’s feet swell during pregnancy,” Ricciotti says. “But after her baby is born, she may a have permanently different shoe size.”
The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends that average-sized women gain between 25-35 pounds during pregnancy. Carrying around that extra weight puts your feet under pressure.
"The additional weight you carry may flatten the arch of your foot,” Ricciotti says. “With the arch flattened you might find that you need an extra half-inch larger shoe size to be comfortable.”
Hormones play a role here, too -- in particular, one called relaxin.
"It does just what it sounds like,” Ribaudo says. “It relaxes the muscle ligaments in your body to help prepare you for childbirth, but it’s not exclusive to your pelvic area. It also affects the rest of your body, including your feet.”
With loosened ligaments in your feet and an increase in body weight pushing down on your arch, your feet are primed to flatten and lengthen. It’s time to go shoe shopping.
A lot of women expect their breasts to increase in size before and after birth, especially if they continue breastfeeding. But what they don’t see coming is the drop in cup size.
Ricciotti says. “After you give birth and stop breastfeeding... that can leave your breasts looking not only saggy, as most women expect, but smaller as well," Ricciotti says.
It’s not uncommon for women to drop a cup size after pregnancy and breast feeding, and it’s not over yet.
“The more children you have, the more your breasts tend to sag,” Ricciotti says.
Don’t blame changes on breastfeeding, though. A 2008 study of 93 women found that history of breastfeeding was not linked to their odds of having sagging breasts. Instead, the risk factors for sagging breasts were higher BMI, greater number of pregnancies, larger bra size before pregnancy, history of smoking, and older age.
Most women experience fuller, shinier locks during pregnancy. Unfortunately, the hair they’ve always wanted but only recently had is short-lived.
“During pregnancy, you have increased estrogen levels, which keeps the hair on your head there longer -- the rate at which it falls out is decreased compared to when you’re not pregnant,” Ribaudo says.
But after pregnancy, when estrogen levels drop and return to normal, your hair has to catch up -- by falling out.
The excessive shedding of hair occurs one to five months following pregnancy, according to ACOG. Most pregnant women experience this hair loss, but the good news is that it’s temporary. Hair loss peaks around 3-4 months after birth, but usually returns to normal within 6-12 months.