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There’s no doubt that pregnancy puts your body through the wringer, but we can count on most of the changes to return to normal once the baby’s born.

You might be surprised to hear, though, that pregnancy can have a lasting impact on your body in ways you never expected.

Here’s a collection of 16 changes you might see after you deliver your first bundle of joy:

1. There’s a mental connection.

We all know that moms develop an incredibly special bond with their babies that’s unlike any other, but did you know that it can actually verge on the psychic?

We’re going out on a limb, here—never trust a writer who uses the word “psychic”—but it is true that one study found that cells from the baby’s body migrate all the way to the mother’s brain. We have no idea what those baby-cells do up there, but it’s tempting to think they could contribute to the connection between mom and baby.

What we do know is that the mom’s brain actually changes during and after pregnancy. The Atlantic reports that regions of the brain associated with empathy and almost obsessive-compulsive levels of anxiety are way more active in pregnant women, even before they give birth. Once the baby is born, moms get an extra dose of oxytocin—a hormone associated with love and bonding—when they look at their babies. In short, the mom’s brain turns into a baby-caring machine.

2. You could need new shoes.

Swollen feet are a pretty common part of pregnancy, but many moms are surprised to find out that their foot size can remain altered even after they’ve given birth. Apparently, all of the extra pressure put on your feet during pregnancy can actually alter the arch of your feet and make it flat.

With that little bit of additional length, you may need to start buying shoes a half-size larger than you did before you were pregnant.

3. Feelings just aren’t the same.

No, we’re not just talking about feeling super high one minute and super low the next, although we’re not saying that’s out of the question. After giving birth, many mothers begin to see and experience the world in a different way because they are their child’s ultimate protector, and this tends to make them feel the full weight of the world’s most tragic events.

Every car accident they pass is no longer just an inconvenience to their morning commute—the person in that car is someone’s baby who’s in trouble.

The child reported missing on the morning news could’ve been theirs, and the toddler who ran in front of a car while playing gives them a sense of dread and sadness they’ve never experienced before.

On the other hand, not all the emotional changes are bad. Remember that thing about the oxytocin? And some moms report increased joy after they give birth, at least some of the time.

4. The soreness is real.

We’re bringing this up with much difficulty because, even for those of us who won’t be experiencing childbirth soon, the very thought of this happening to our bodies is worthy of a good cry. We’re talking about the possibility of a perineal tear, which—prepare yourself—is a nice way of saying that the skin below your lady bits has split open while giving birth.

Sometimes doctors even have to perform a procedure called an episiotomy, in which they go ahead and make an incision before the tissues can tear.

Even if you don’t have a vaginal birth, there’s also the recovery required after having a c-section, which involves cutting through the muscles in your abdomen. Spoiler alert—either option is going to hurt for a while.

5. You could get a little leaky.

In addition to typical aches and pains—and possibly larger feet— women’s breasts also experience a lot of changes throughout and after pregnancy.