Cardi B says giving birth 'broke' her νagina

Cardi B gave birth to her daughter Kulture in July, and she says in a new interview that the birthing process wasn’t quite what she expected. “It was totally harder,” the rapper said on Jimmy Kimmel Live of the experience. “She broke my νagina.”

“Why nobody tells you about those things? Nobody told me they were gonna stitch my νagina,” she continued. “People just be like, ‘Oh, you know, when you give birth, it’s gonna hurt.’ But nobody tells you [that].”

During a νaginal delivery, “pregnancy hormones allow the elastic tissue in the νagina to expand and the ligaments to relax,” women’s health expert Jennifer Wider, MD, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “It’s hard to believe that the vaginal opening will be able to stretch to accommodate the head of a baby, but it is designed to do just that.”

Every pregnancy and delivery is different, she says, but depending on the size of the baby and a woman’s pelvic floor muscle, a woman may have some tears or lacerations during the birthing process. Stitches can address that, as well as a tear to the perineum (the area between the νaginal opening and rectum), which can happen during delivery. “It can be very painful,” Wider says.

If you need stitches after you have a νaginal delivery, you’re not alone. “Most women will need some suturing after a delivery,” Jessica Shepherd, MD, a minimally invasive gynecologist, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “The first delivery usually is when more stitches may be needed. The more babies a woman has, usually the less need for stitches.”

There are several degrees of tearing, and recovery depends on how severe your tear was, Christine Greves, MD, an ob-gyn at the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies in Orlando, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “We advise patients not to have anything in the νagina for six weeks so it can heal,” she says. “Usually by that time, assuming you didn’t have an infection and didn’t have a complication, that’s enough.” In the interim period, Greves says that “ice packs help” with any discomfort.

For the record, no, a νaginal delivery will not “break” your νagina. “It can tear. Is it repairable? Yes, we definitely can fix it,” Greves says.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

How Cardi B got her start and more surprising stats behind her success
Cardi B is rap royalty in magenta asymmetric number at first post-baby appearance
Millions of people have watched this mom’s relatable ‘Bodak Yellow’ rap about parenting

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