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New mum shares a brutally honest photo just two days after giving birth.

Autumn can be seen holding her newborn to the breast, wearing a large pair of hospital-administered mesh knickers, while eating a piece of steak.

She shared the “hard parts of the aftermath of giving birth and the ultimate sacrifice that mothers make from day one.”

“This was 2 days after I gave birth to Layla. Eating my “nice meal” provided by the hospital. An over cooked steak and sides. I was in new territory. Learning to breastfeed this little human being that I just brought into the world. Wearing these big mesh panties, still sporting a pregnant belly.. no one told me your belly doesn’t go down immediately. No one told me I’d be bleeding out.

No one told me that I would spend hours crying and full of emotion. I remember just laying there in the hospital bed crying. I was crying because my baby girl was finally here.. FINALLY! But wait.. that means she isn’t protected inside of me anymore. And that’s a scary feeling.

At what point, I think Kevin was at a loss. I realized that when I was being held by him in the hospitals shower and I was just crying uncontrollably. It’s all a blur but I do remember saying “she’s not safe inside of me anymore” and that was a really hard thing to work through.

I was also in so much pain.. no one tells you that typically with a “quick delivery” comes a bad rip. I ripped all the way up and down, and also side to side.

The weeks following I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t use the bathroom. I wore these big depends diapers. I never thought I would be normal again. Kevin had to help me do EVERYTHING from pee, to walk up stairs.

Being a mom is the ultimate sacrifice.

You give up your body for 9 months to grow this little baby.
You go through labor and delivery.
You go through the emotions that come with childbirth.

You let go of all shame as you walk around your house in diapers and ask your SO to spray warm water on your rip while you pee to avoid that burn.

You spend tireless hours latching your baby and feeding your baby to establish and keep up your milk supply because you want to breast feed so. damn. bad.
You remain patient through leaps, growth spurts, and cluster feeding.

But most importantly, moms give up who they were before they were a mother. Most moms give up a lot of their hobbies, dreams, and plans.

Moms put their lives on hold so their babies can live out theirs. We deal with so many emotions that we internalize- just so we can be mothers to our babies.

Don’t ever discredit a mother. You don’t know the half.

I used to be Autumn. Fun loving, crazy, outgoing Autumn. But now I’m Layla’s mama. And I’m okay with that.”

Autumn’s post has gone viral with over 129,000 shares and 22,000+ comments and reactions.

Women can definitely relate to her honesty.

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  • Yes, it’s a shame we can’t all be like Tammy Hembrow and have a flat stomach the day after giving birth!
    I remember feeling so embarrassed but also angry when I walked into special care to see my boy and one of the dads visiting his baby asked me if I just gave birth because my stomach was still big!!!

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  • Did she really need to whinge about her steak being over cooked.

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  • Wow, this takes me back. I also recall no-one tells you the harsh physical and mental reality of those first few days. We may not do it if we knew!!

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  • Suck it up princess my misses wasn’t in hospital long enough to enjoy a steak and WE had three,Your not sick,Your having a baby that you wil have to care for,for the rest of your life,Your life is now over,You gave up your right when you layed down with the man you claim to love.Feed the child,Play with the child and Love the child.Cheer’s Krusty

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  • Love the raw honesty in this post, from the writing to the picture.

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  • Very real.

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  • Good post and so very true. Once you are a mum you will be a mum all of the rest of your life. But you’ll love it too.

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  • Haha, true this!

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  • I’m so glad autumn has received a positive response in relation to her post. There are a lot of trolls out there and this was a raw statement which could have gone either way. Well written and very true.

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  • First baby is all new and a little daunting.. but exciting and joyous at the same time .

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  • I love the way she’s written this. There are so many things you aren’t told before having your first baby. I remember being shocked at how agonizingly painful breast feeding was – like surely if I was doing it right it shouldn’t hurt? This brings to light how bloody hard it is for us to do what we do, we should cut ourselves some slack and tell all the judgemental aholes to shut it.

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  • What on earth are the mesh pants things she’s wearing? I’ve had a baby and that wasn’t my reality!


    • Maybe she got given them due to the way she tore during birth. I know I haven’t had any of those and neither has anyone I know.

    Reply

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