This Body: What Comes After
After you give birth, it takes somewhere from a week to several months for your uterus to deflate back down into the pelvis. It'll never be the same as before; it's not perfectly elastic.
The rest of the body, too, will take time to recover from carrying and bearing a child. I've been warned that for a long time, I will still be living in maternity clothes.
I haven't had the baby yet. That's still 0-5 weeks out, at which time we'll learn whether seven layers of my tissue get cut to lift the baby out, or if I get torn up pushing it out myself. It's possible to escape with neither injury, but the odds are not good.
Either way should be interesting. I've requested no drape if I do go into the operating theater, and no meds if I do it the old fashioned way—though of course, anything can happen.
This is a weird thing to look forward to. Like most of pregnancy, it sounds mostly terrible, a highly unique experience, and bodily fascinating. And (somehow) pregnancy and delivery together are the easiest way to come by a baby.
I've begun to look past the birth part because it has occurred to me that it might be athletically exciting to lose 1/4 of my current body weight over a period of only weeks to months. Maybe, after training so heavy for months…
