Though they’re now parents to two happy and healthy daughters, Chezzi and Grant Denyer have revealed that getting there wasn’t quite the smooth sailing process they had imagined.
Speaking to Stacey June and Kristie Mercer on a recent episode of The Thinkergirls podcast, Chezzi, a TV producer, said that fear struck seven months into her pregnancy with the couple’s youngest child, Scout.
“It was really strange and I don’t really know how to broach this, it’s just really personal,” Chezzi told June and Mercer. “I’m having a shower, struggling to shave my very swollen legs, when I feel at the top of my legs this lumpy grossness that feels like a swollen mozzie bite.”
Given that Chezzi was heavily pregnant at the time, she was unable to see what the lump was and understandably, began to panic.
“I’m thinking that my vagina is falling down my leg! There’s a big hard weird, squishy lump that starts at the top of my thigh and goes up to the lip of my vagina,” she said.
Listen: Rachael Finch discusses preparing for baby number two. Post continues…
It was then that the television producer asked her Family Feud host husband to “get a light” and take a look at what the mystery lump, which Chezzi said felt like an umbilical cord, was.
“It’s not nice asking your husband to look at something like that,” Chezzi said retrospectively. “He was petrified of what he was going to find.”
Then, doing his husbandly duty, Grant took a look, and it’s something Chezzi says will stay with her forever.
“His face, I’ll never forget the expression. It was like he’d seen a car crash. His first words to her were, ‘I think your vagina’s going to explode.'”
Probably not the best thing to say, Grant, but hey, sometimes the moment just shocks the eloquence right out of you.
Understandably fearful, Chezzi called both her doctor and her obstetrician.
Laughing, the obstetrician informed the couple that no, her vagina was not sliding down her leg. Nor was it the umbilical cord working its way down her leg. It was, in fact, a very common side effect of pregnancy, varicose veins.
Sharing the tale with the podcast, Chezzi asked, “If it’s so common, why don’t people talk about this?”
Consider the word spread, Chezzi.
Top Comments
Oh you poor thing - I never had them (thank goodness) but one of my friends had them so bad she used to have to hold them when she pooed on the toilet, she was so scared to give birth vaginally but she said the nurses were fantastic.
Woah woah, is it really this bad?! Im 25 weeks pregnant, I thought varicose veins were the ones you can see under the skin?!
Don't worry Banshee, it doesn't always happen, it only happened in my second pregnancy. It's when the veins get really swollen they pop out.
Varicose veins are the lumpy raised ones and spider veins are the reddish blue ones just under the skin.
I had a vaginal varicose vein pop up in my second and third pregnancy but not my first. Not very common first time around so you might be ok.
Thanks guys for putting me at ease, hopefully being my first I will be okay!