It all starts when you begin planning the arrival of your newborn. As you graduate from being pregnant to the labor room, followed by the postnatal care room, your vagina will graduate through various changes too.
These are 9 things that doctors will never tell you about your vagina.
1. Your vaginal discharge now has a new consistency
Your normal vaginal discharge is somewhat, clear or milky, and has a mild smell. But when you get pregnant, you will notice an increase in vaginal discharge, which will continue throughout your pregnancy. This will then graduate to become more noticeable (sometimes more smelly and yellow) and will become extremely thick towards the end of pregnancy.
In fact, it is through your discharge that you can get to know that you are about to pop. You will be able to notice a thick mucus with a reddish/brownish tinge.
2. Your vagina may swell up like a burger
During pregnancy, the amount of blood flow in your body increases to up to 50 percent. As the baby gets heavier and bigger in size, your vagina goes through external swelling. But this inflammation need not be equally divided! One side of your vagina may be heavier than the other.
In fact, you may also experience some itching or pain in your vagina during this phase.
3. Your urine might smell gross
There is likely chance you will notice a pungent smell of your urine. Worry not, it is normal since your liver produces more urine in response to hormones and accommodate the needs of your unborn child. You may also be rushing to the bathroom more often than you imagined. That is also normal.
4. Your vagina will stretch like a tent
You probably already saw the thing coming. But just to reiterate, during the late second trimester and early trimester your body will release a hormone called relaxin. As the name suggests, it relaxes the ligaments to enable them to stretch, soften and widen the cervix.
During the last trimester, the perineum (the tissue between the vagina and the anus) will swell up from the extra pressure on it.
5. You might develop vaginal varicose veins
Several women who suffer from varicose veins, also go through vaginal or vulva varicose veins. However, there is a scan that can identify this problem, called the TVS (transvaginal duplex scan). This scan can show which of the veins are causing problems.
Using this particular scan, doctors can treat the pelvic veins under local anesthesia and a catheter is used to deploy surgical coils to permanently close them.
6. Your labia may form blood blisters
Ouch! This may be as painful as it reads. Vaginal blisters can appear on the vaginal entrance, labia minor (inner lips) and labia major (outer lips). They appear like normal blisters except that is caused by an infectious virus. You would feel a tingle, burning sensation or pain in the vaginal area, which is a precursor to the infection.
There could be many causes for vaginal blisters including infections, ingrown hair, friction or even clogged sweat glands.
7. Your vagina may experience wear and tear
If this is your first baby, then you are more likely to go through wear and tear than if it's your second baby. And although the area between the opening to your vagina and your back passage (perineum) is stretchy, you will experience some amount of wear and tear, irrespective of which baby it may be.
This is because even though the cervix dilates, it may not be big enough to let the baby pass through entirely. Your vagina may either tear or you'll require an episiotomy (a small cut made to the perineum). In some cases, the tear is so severe that it ruptures the rectum and rectal muscles.
Your vagina may go through major wear and tear and would take some time recovering.
8. Your vagina will go through urinary stress incontinence
Another change that you will experience after giving birth is that you will no longer be able to hold the urine in your bladder. It may leak during excretion, lifting heavy objects, sneezing or even coughing. Sigh!
So in order to prepare for this, you must practice some Kegel exercises to tone the pelvic muscles.
9. You will have to deal with vaginal stitches
This is another painful ordeal you will have to go through- dealing with vaginal stitches. While they may usually heal between 7 and 15 days, it is possible that the road to recovery would be extremely painful.
These tears make every physical activity such as sitting or squatting all the more difficult and in some cases may even cause swelling and infection in the vaginal area.
However, all said and done, motherhood is a beautiful experience and once you are over these problems, you will love every bit of it.