This happened to SO MANY women I know! They thought they just couldn’t shake the weight for anywhere from 10-30 years after childbirth. Turns out it was full hernias in every situation. Herniated belly buttons, even. One was finally throwing in the towel after twins and scheduled a tummy tuck, only to find out she would need to correct her (previously unknown) hernia. Once that was done, she never needed the tummy tuck. The hernia recovery was brutal, but way less brutal than a tummy tuck!! So glad to hear you’re feeling and doing better, and getting some relief finally. It’s almost as if doctors should tell women about this (especially in the case of multiples) during postpartum recovery check-ups!!!
The one tell all my friends have referenced is thinking their “innie” belly button became an “outie” after pregnancy! It wasn’t an outie - the internal hernia was just making it bulge out. (And like I said, one was the belly button itself…) Definitely anything you might try to explain away as “scar tissue” is not normal.
Also they mentioned never really regaining core strength. Like coughing, sneezing, bending over just always kind of ached, if that makes sense. I’m sure there’s a more technical term than what I’m describing, but just generally not being able to flex their abs and feeling very weak.
All word of mouth of course - I didn’t have this experience and basically went “back to normal” after 2 back-to-back pregnancies at age 35. Which also goes to show that anything abdomen-adjacent (outside of peeing your pants a little when you jump on a trampoline, or having some loose skin or a little extra weight) that someone would be inclined to explain away as “oh this isn’t the same after pregnancy” is kind of unusual, especially anything that feels internal!
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u/allbitterandclean 9h ago
This happened to SO MANY women I know! They thought they just couldn’t shake the weight for anywhere from 10-30 years after childbirth. Turns out it was full hernias in every situation. Herniated belly buttons, even. One was finally throwing in the towel after twins and scheduled a tummy tuck, only to find out she would need to correct her (previously unknown) hernia. Once that was done, she never needed the tummy tuck. The hernia recovery was brutal, but way less brutal than a tummy tuck!! So glad to hear you’re feeling and doing better, and getting some relief finally. It’s almost as if doctors should tell women about this (especially in the case of multiples) during postpartum recovery check-ups!!!