Not too long ago, we asked moms in the BuzzFeed Community to tell us the surprising thing that happened to their body after childbirth, and their responses, along with some stories from our readers, were totally unexpected:
1. "I'd always heard that having children loosened you 'down there.' But I actually became tighter after each child!"
2. "Breast tissue developed in my armpit. I call it the 'third boob.'"
3. "I grew an inch-large patch of super-curly, kinky hair at the crown of my head after giving birth, when my hair has been straight my entire life!"
4. "Part of my labia fused together, and I had to have surgery to separate it."
5. "Everybody tells you to exercise your vagina muscles, so I did, but nobody told me to exercise my butthole muscles! I've had the hardest time holding in my farts since giving birth!
"They pop out at the most embarrassing times!"
6. "I completely lost my appetite after my son was born. I ended up losing 40 pounds the first two weeks."
7. "I have stretch marks 'down there.'"
8. "I had never grown armpit hair before, but after I gave birth, it started growing and hasn't stopped!"
9. "My belly button came back in a totally different shape."
10. "Since giving birth, I'm insanely hungry all the time! I eat way more now than when I was pregnant, and I'm not even breastfeeding!"
11. "My daughter is 6 years old, and a large area of my stomach is still numb post-cesarean."
12. "My perfectly straight teeth from having had braces 20 years prior completely shifted!"
13. "My hair changed color when I was pregnant, and now I have a blonde ring around my whole head."
14. "I used to have a pretty drastic meat allergy that would cause me to get a blackout migraine and Exorcist-puke, and it completely went away after I had my daughter. I can eat any type of meat now without issues! SO weird."
15. "My body odor was so bad the first six weeks after delivery, and not from lack of showering!"
16. "I started pooping from my vagina! It's called 'rectovaginal fistula,' and I had no idea it could even happen!"
17. "Two years later, I can still feel pain in my spine exactly where I got my epidural."
18. "I didn't know how much my vagina would swell after giving birth — it was so swollen that I couldn't even sit all the way down to pee because my vagina would hit the toilet seat before I could get in position!"
19. "My stretch marks came in different colors."
20. "The weirdest for me was the night sweats! I would sweat through my clothes and the sheets every night! It even got to the point where I would sleep on two blankets just so that I could peel the first one off in the middle of the night and have a dry one underneath!"
21. "My immune system completely changed. I don't think a single month has gone by since giving birth nine months ago without me having some sort of illness."
22. "My feet grew from a size 10 to a 12, with no wiggle room. It's been three years, and my feet still haven't shrunk back down!"
23. "I was pregnant seven years ago, and I still have weak bladder control — and I didn't even have my kid vaginally!
"I can't hold it in too long, or I will pee right on the spot!"
24. "I developed seasonal allergies after childbirth I'd never had before. I literally had an allergic reaction to my work building."
25. "My skin starting peeling after childbirth, like I had sunburn."
26. "I developed lactose intolerance during my first pregnancy."
27. "And I got all my stretch marks 10 days AFTER I gave birth! I thought I was safe!"
What about you? Did you have any strange, unexpected postpartum body changes? Tell us about it in the comments below, and you could be featured in a future BuzzFeed Community post!
Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.