Why does nobody talk about how trippy birth is?

[Sobloodyexhausted]

I’ve had three babies and each birth (and subsequent week or so) was like being on heavy-duty mind altering drugs. All your senses change - food tastes amazing, colours are more vibrant, you see things from a new perspective, your brain functions differently (after my last birth I swear I became really wise, eloquent and insightful for about two weeks before the new born tiredness kicked in and it ebbed away).

It feels like this is a very well kept secret in Western society That it would somehow not be proper and seemly for a new mum to admit to tripping her tits off instead of experiencing more gentle feelings of love and serenity for her newborn?

It tickles me no-end that seemly ‘ordinary’ women like your grandma or Tina from accounts, or Mary who volunteers in the charity shop around the corner may have all experienced something so ‘out there’ it would make a 90’s raver swoon. How can women ever feel we are anything other than extraordinary and amazing having been through this and brought a new person onto the world? It’s at once earthy and crystalline shiny, raw and spiritual. An experience that changes you like no other.
Without meaning to sound like a hippy, I think it gives you an insight into the meaning of the universe that is totally unique. Even if you hold no religious beliefs I don’t think you can experience it without feeling you are part of something amazing and so much bigger than yourself. After giving birth I’m no longer afraid of dying because I’ve already been to the end during labour - if that makes sense?

Can you relate? I hope it’s not just me and that others out there will say yes! I know what you mean - I had this too!

I wanted to add that I’ve also experienced the flip side of this after a bad birth (my first) where I still got the soaring highs but also crashing lows too. Most terrifying experience of my life felt like I’d fallen into a pit of mental unwellness which took a good year to climb out of.

Wow, lovely thought but I absolutely did not feel like that.

Yep, I remember going to a party at 8 days PP feeling great, and calling and asking about a baby group at 2 weeks PP and not understanding why the woman on the phone sounded so surprised when I told her when I gave birth.

Oh, this was me - I went to a baby group for new mums when DS was a bit less than 3 weeks old and was actually a bit embarrassed that everyone was so surprised that I was out and about with him - theirs were all about 3/4 months - and felt like I'd done something wrong without realising! I'm crap at loads of bits of being a mother and I'm especially not great with the baby stage but I still don't quite understand when people talk about not leaving the house for weeks/months after a baby is born, so I must have been very lucky in that regard. I also have a terrific urge to show mine off and would happily fill the house with visitors daily - obviously not possible this time round - so I think I just lack some nesting instinct that other women get!

Oh yes, I felt like that too. Except it actually was the drugs. Gas and air and morphine has a fabulous effect on me

Maybe for you but loads of women experience the opposite. Every smell, from faint BO on the underground to cheese and onion crisps, made me want to throw up. That craving thing made me put on so much weight it was unbelievable. Couldn't sleep towards the end of pregnancy and felt like I was on sleeping tablets all day, walking about in a daze. Felt like an old lady because I became extremely forgetful. So no, for me and I suspect for many women, it's not exactly a pleasant trip.

As for after the birth, I felt like I'd been hit by a bus, after a 48 labour and an emergency c section. I was crying pretty much all the time.

Errr... nope. I felt exhausted, sore and confused and then after the first day super emotional and teary. It was absolutely NOT in any way a high.

I especially was definitely not “ wise, eloquent and insightful”, I was mostly sobbing to my husband and when he asked what was wrong saying “I don’t know!”

My first birth emergency csec and I felt like a truck had hit. And subsequent pnd followed
My second was an elective csec and I was out of hospital within 24 hours and on the school run 4 days later babe in a sling. Not sure if it was a high per se but I did feel like I could conquer the world second time around. Think it's a state of mind tbh I'll take it though and it put a lot of my first time birth trauma to bed so I'm grateful for that.

I had this more after Dd than DS (DC2) I think it lasted the best part of 9 months really.

Not the births - I was out of it but not in a good way. Breastfeeding (oxytocin? Prolactin?) got me high though. I loved it.

That same pallid jacket potato and salad that was the vegetarian option every time on the wards did not taste amazing, either before or after birth. NHS, I love you, but no.

Not did this thing. It tasted of nothing at all, which given that I gave birth at the beginning of the first lockdown was not really helpful in a foodstuff. (I didn't have covid, it was just a horrible trifle.)

I was well loved up (like an E feeling) after DS but not after DD. Love them both with no PND. No trippyness either.

Oh yeah I definitely felt like this! I thought it was all the gas and air post first child but 2nd child I didn't have any painkillers and it felt the same!

God, no. It was dreadful.

I normally really lack empathy, I'm one of those people that inadvertently slights others or shows a lack of interest even though it doesn't reflect how I feel. The year after DD was born, I was practically Oprah. I remembered the minutest details of everyone's lives, who was feeling what, how X felt about Y, who'd done Z thing three weeks ago and how they wanted to speak about it. It was like a switch had flicked.

Sadly DD is now three and I'm back to being useless as fuck.

I know what you mean, I think it's a case of your body has been through some serious stuff and it's totally relieved its all over!

Could not be further from my experience during the hours of contractions less than 30 seconds apart with an epidural that barely touched the sides. Nor afterwards during 2 hours of being stitched up in theatre. And definitely not during the next week or so when I was hobbling round like I’d lost my Zimmer frame before my stitches popped. Less “trippy high”, more “hit by a bus crotch first”.

I think I was too knackered for this to be the case for me. However, my sense of smell did go absolutely haywire post birth where it hadn’t happened in pregnancy. I have a supersonic sense of smell now since having my daughter! 😂

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

I don't remember the first few hours after DD1s birth. Last thing I remember is telling DH to get help as the baby was coming now (in hospital, she was born less than a minute after that pronouncement, with no one else around). I then remember arriving on post natal ward, halfway through the night they took her away as I was still in a dream like state,... Then completely fine the next morning. Just 12hrs sort of missing.

DD2 I remember everything.

I had Gas and air between the births for an injury, and I was out of it. I didn't use any drugs in either birth.

I have pics if me and DS where I look thrilled.

Apparently I also called my best pal to rave about him. I have no memories of either of these episodes!

Can totally relate and it isn't the birth for me but that post birth 2 weeks .
I think we disregard the impact of the hormones, endorphins, adrenaline, pregnancy hormones all readjusting. I think for some people it feels other worldly in a good way (a nice trip) but to others it can feel alien and unsettling ( a bad trip).
I think if we talked about it more woman who have a bad trip would cope better as they would understand why it was happening. It is a physical response to not being pregnant anymore not in their heads.

I can't say I experienced this, but I enjoyed your post OP 😁

My births are just a blur in my memory, but the styrofoam cup of tea and slice of cheapo white buttered toast they gave me after might be the best thing I've ever eaten, no exaggeration. I've never recaptured how amazing they tasted.

Totally get this, especially the aftermath of a very distressing birth experience, when I had was flying on endorphins while simultaneously crashing from trauma.

I even remember thinking during one of my births, "I'm going to have loved this tomorrow" - and I did!

I have photos of me holding my 1-2 days old dcs, looking like I have a face-full of makeup and solid nights of sleep under my ear, whereas in fact I am just , literally, glowing from the post-birth rush. Looked quite different a few days later

I wish I experienced this but no.

Thinking about it, I did feel good & energised after. One thing I remember is I went from so much pain to nothing whereas normally if you bang or hurt something the pain subsides slowly. Max pain to zero pain, that was odd.

I felt shit after my CS.