This woman shared a potential side effect of pregnancy, and how have we never heard of this?

Giving birth happens literally countless times a day. It’s so common that it can be easy to forget the fact that it’s a serious procedure which can entail complications and side effects. We just heard that one women experienced something called an umbilical hernia. She generously shared her story so that other women can be armed with information should the same thing happen to them.

The woman, Kari Horn, was experiencing discomfort about a year after her c-section. Specifically, she developed a lump around her belly button that “popped” when she sat in certain positions, and eating gave her an uncomfortable bloating sensation. When a colleague convinced her to see a doctor, Horn was diagnosed with an umbilical hernia (meaning part of her intestine was popping through the umbilical opening…omg OUCH), which she got from carrying a baby over eight pounds.

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Later, when she went in for surgery, they realized she actually had THREE hernias. Her recovery has been intense to say the least.

"It hurt to wear low-rise jeans with my C-section scar, but now it [also] hurts to wear high-rise jeans with my hernia repair," she told Cosmopolitan.com. "[But] the hernia repair has really been the worst, I'd take another C-section recovery over this."

In a (now private) Instagram post, Horn was honest about the trauma of her postpartum body struggles.

"Sometimes, despite what your dream of child birth is, you have to have an emergency C-section. Sometimes, no matter how much coconut and vitamin E oil you put on your pregnant belly, you still get all of the stretch marks. Sometimes, even when your baby is now a toddler, you find out that you have not one, but three umbilical hernias, and you have to get your abs and muscles cut into again. Then sometimes you’re allergic to the bandaging the doctor used and end up with burns and a rash all over your already sore tummy."

Despite all this, Horn is adamant about women taking good mental care of themselves during these tough times.  “Don’t hate on yourselves, ladies. You’re beautiful no matter how many scars you get.” And that’s important to remember, no matter if you’ve just given birth or not.

We hope that Horn’s recovery goes well. It might be a long road ahead, but us girls are tough as hell!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFWohp9LPRR

Thanks for sharing your personal story, Kari! We know that was not easy.