After Viral TikTok, Moms Get Brutally Honest About Childbirth On Twitter

A video on TikTok that went viral a few days ago about the true pain of childbirth has gone viral and started a conversation on Twitter.

The clamor around people discussing these painful events has obviously led the word “childbirth” to trend on Twitter — and moms and parents are being brutally honest about their childbirth experiences and just how painful it was. This type of medical and open honesty is somewhat rare.

But it’s important for parents to share their experiences because it tells the truth around a painful, and life-changing experience, but it also reduces the stigma of women and parents asking about their painful experiences and trying to figure out if what they experienced was normal.

So, brutal? Yes. A little “gross” at times? Yes. A totally normal part of life that is a necessary function of reproduction that we should all talk about more honestly? 100 percent, yes.

After two moms started a conversation about the gnarly stuff they experienced after pregnancy that no one warned them about and that they hadn’t really talked about with anyone, moms across the Twitter-verse are sharing their own birth experiences. The video begins with one mom beginning to tell the story of what freaked her out about labor, and took off from there.

Another mom “stitched” the video — which is when a user takes an original video and adds their own video response to it — and began to tell a truly horrifying story, but only because the stigma of childbirth is so not discussed that many moms deal with the stresses of childbirth in silence.

But what came next is so brutally honest that it has to be appreciated by moms and dads who have gone through childbirth and who often use euphemisms to discuss the bodily functions and malfunctions post-baby.

“After I delivered my first baby and came home, I had to have my first bowel movement, which is scary all by itself. But, it was successful,” the mom says. She describes experiencing placenta infection and a uterus prolapse in great, medical, and unflinching detail — a rarity when parents talk about childbirth itself. The story is of course brutal. But for many parents on Twitter, it’s also deeply relatable. After the video was reposted on Twitter, parents began to weigh in about their birth stories, too.

One mom responded, “Childbirth was AWFUL…& people lie. You don’t forget the pain. 14 years later & I still remember EXACTLY where the pain was & the intensity.”

When one Twitter user prompted the general public about the most painful thing that had ever happened to them, one Twitter user brought up her 37-hour labor. “Baby laying on the nerve so the epidural didn’t work, and then she still didn’t want to come out so they pulled her out with forceps — assuring me I didn’t need a c-section.” In response, another mom said, “40 hours labour for me, still not dilated enough. Forceps delivery… No c-section.”Another mom said “Childbirth. Much worse than the leg with both the tibia … broken and out of place; worse than kidney stones. And went on for 48+ hours and then ended with 14 stitches in a place you do not want stitches.”

For parents who felt they couldn’t talk about the nitty-gritty of giving birth, the trending topic is for them. And for everyone else? It’s a chance to learn more about a topic that is often just discussed in euphemisms and vaguery. It’s important to know what childbirth is like. It’s the stuff that makes us.