Otherwise known as Pruritic Uticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy, this is a severely itchy and painful skin rash that typically affects pregnant women. Lucky for me, I experienced this AFTER I delivered Leah (not before) and boy, was it awful! I can’t even describe how terrible was and how frustrating it was to suffer from this at the same time I was trying to adjust to being a new mom. To give you an idea, it is often compared to chicken pox or poison ivy. I looked up and tried a lot of different remedies including Black Tar Soap, Seabuckthorn Ointment, 0.5% Hydrocortisone Ointment and ice packs. I had these itchy bumps on my stomach, up and down my legs and some even appeared on my upper arms. The rash appeared on my stretch marks and somehow, from all the scratching, even more stretch marks appeared where I had the rash. SIGH.

Of everything I tried, the most effective treatment I found was constant moisturizing of my skin and ice packs. Because I was breastfeeding I couldn’t take antihistamines. It was particularly bad at night so I was in agony during the night time feeds. During these times, I would cool down my burning rash with an ice pack in a pillowcase. It offered a bit of relief but I still scratched like mad. It was so bad that I had bloodstains on my sheets and clothes. I have a new appreciation for women who endured this during their pregnancy… it is really agonizing. It only started to die down 3 months after she was born. Crazy! I hope none of you have to deal with this!