'It's Like You've Been Hit By A Bus': Mom's Honest Photo Nails The Reality Of C-Sections

“This is what you really look like a few hours post c-section”

If you’ve had a c-section, there are a few things you know to be true. There’s a wound. That wound hurt a lot. And that wound looked extremely rough in the days after your baby’s birth. If you’ve never had a c-section, you may not realize exactly how it goes, and one mom’s very honest Instagram post is here to educate you.

Parenting and lifestyle blogger Olivia White took to Instagram recently to shed some light on the aftermath of a surgical birth. She shared a selfie right after her child was born from an angle most c-section moms wouldn’t dream of attempting for at least the first few weeks postpartum.

White’s photo shows her super fresh c-section wound in all its taped up, stitched up, sore-looking glory. She writes, “Look I know it might not be my best angle (or is it?) but who wouldn’t take selfies hours post birth so they can see where they sliced you open and yanked out a whole person.”

Well, I wouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with another mom doing it. In fact, it’s pretty fantastic. I had no idea what to expect going into my first c-section and seeing this might have softened my shock when first confronted with the reality of my new situation.

White shares, “This is what you really look like a few hours post c-section. To anyone who thinks it’s the easy way out, well try having a 6 inch gash in your abdomen like a gutted shark who had the body parts of the surfer it ate retrieved!”

Graphic, but accurate. We do sometimes hear that certain people think women want a c-section as it’s perceived as being easier than a vaginal birth. And anyone who’s had a c-section would laugh very hard if not for the fact that it could burst the stitches and cause serious trauma. So easy!

She also mentions that wonky feeling after you’re “sewn back together with fishing wire while it feels like your vital organs are trying to escape!” Nothing like standing up for the first time post-surgery and feeling all your inner parts reclaiming their usual space.

Easy way out my ass.

And then, there’s the pain. The drugs help, but eventually, you are without drugs. “I mean sure, everything is 🌈 and 🍭 till the spinal wears off! After that it’s like you’ve been hit by a bus which then backed over you just to make sure it didn’t miss you the first time!”

The feeling she’s describing is pretty much what happens if you get behind on your pain meds by even the littlest bit. “If you don’t time the Endone exactly before the previous lot wore off then you will most certainly know you are alive (while wishing you were dead) and worst of all you’ll feel as if you’ll spend your entire life wearing nanna knickers up around your waist because the thought of anything settling in the canyon between your gut and pubic region is the stuff nightmares are made of.”

White mentions what will become a lifelong love of shapewear, “because you cannot for the life of you get rise of the ditch that is left by the scar.”

And while this is all painfully true, she has no regrets.

“I wouldn’t change it! Because if it wasn’t for the ability to deliver my babies this way they might not be here today. Plus I reckon getting cut from A to B sounds way worse.”

Either way is no walk in the park, and that’s what makes moms complete freaking rockstars.