How did your body change after pregnancy/birth? And was it permanent?

[53rdWay]

Learned from another thread that many people don’t know your ribcage can expand - and stay expanded. I don’t think I did either until it happened to me.

Like many people I was expecting my body would be bigger after pregnancy. Getting it back to a pre-pregnancy state would be all about “losing the baby weight”. As it turned out, the baby weight wasn’t ever much of a thing due to HG, but four years later my ribcage is still wider and I still have a numb patch over my c-section scar. My teeth are a mess (HG again) and my gall bladder packed in a few weeks after birth. My eyesight changed as well but that at least seems to have gone back to normal.

Anyone else find their bodies changed in ways they weren’t expecting?

Yes! My eyesight improved, poker straight hair now has a wave in it, hips much wider and feet an annoying half size larger as well.

Following

Hips are wider, boobs have gone to shit.

Boobs bigger, hair thinner, rib cage wider, csection scar has changed how my abdomen holds fat.

Other things... not sure if they're down to age or pregnancies.

Yes, my ribcage expanded too which is horrendous when you're already short so now I am wide and squat... also my feet! I thought I was just being old and moany but I've come to realise all my shoes hurt because they're now too small for me.

Also the c section overhang/shelf. No one told me about this. My SIL was the only person I knew who had had a cs before and her stomach was back to smooth previous shape just with a scar. The shelf was a big shock to me and has blighted my day to day since (as it's almost impossible to properly hide it) and after I have baby I'm currently pregnant with my next port of call is a tummy tuck surgeon!!! Not even joking.

Ds1 nothing different post recovery and bf
Ds2 all went wrong. Despite being 1.45kg. Ended up have surgical corrections - bowel and bladder moved to correct positions and hernia repair - 5 years later. I’m also carry an extra 4kg and am much softer all over.

Oh God yes the c-section shelf. I’m really hoping mine will go away by itself after my last section, but... not confident.

My hips and rib cage are wider and my boobs have changed shape and sagged, although that might be breastfeeding. My vision has also changed. I now have lots of floaters in one eye that I never had before. They're hugely irritating but have had them checked and they're harmless. Nothing they can do about them, I've just got live with them.

One pleasant, and very unexpected, side effect is that my stomach seems much flatter and I'm less prone to bloating. I don't know if it's just that I'm wider and therefore it's spread over a greater surface area, or if it genuinely is flatter, but it's the first time in my life that I've felt confident in bodycon dresses, as I've always had a "pouchy" tummy before.