Welcome to the motherhood! You are on board to start the new journey with your little bundle of joy.
You have made it all a long way for several months, pregnancy and child birth. For some of you, it would have been something very easy to deliver the baby; for some of you, there would be a terrific story to share the childbirth story with all of us! Be it anything, you are in for a big change. Your physical and emotional health turns upside down during the labor and for a few days after delivering the baby.
You are going to celebrate wonderful time with the little bundle of joy, for which you should remain healthy, gain back the pre-pregnancy health and recover completely from the post partum blues.
Some of the common symptoms of different health (but mild to moderate) concerns experienced by mommies immediately after delivery and during the first month of postpartum.
- Depression (undergoing too much pain, drama and complications during child birth)
- Vaginal soreness
- Constipation
- Backache
- Body aches
- Exhaustiveness
- Mood swings
Don’t panic. All these stay put just for a few days. You will start loving your new life with the baby very soon.
Give space
First 4 to 6 weeks is called postpartum recovery period. So, don’t worry much about the physical outlook. The impact of the labor is so hard on your body and you should give sufficient space for recovery.
Specific health tips for mothers who had C-section
In case of surgery, you would need more time to recover. Anesthesia and loss of blood may make you feel weak and low for more than a week. The incision and switches remain sore for a few weeks.
- If you had C-section, meticulously follow what your doctor advised in terms of diet, daily routine and medicines.
- Don’t take head bath before doctor’s approval. It may lead to chronic fever and apparently may affect your baby too if you feed the little one.
- Scale back all your activities and avoid putting strain on the incision.
Relishing on large meal?
Most mother feel ravenously hungry after delivery. Apparently, you have lost all your energy during child birth. It is so certain to relish a large meal, eat large quantity that you have never eaten before in your life. This is so normal for the mothers if you had vaginal birth! Yet, stop eating when you don’t feel hungry.
The scenario completely changes in case of c-section mommies. While you may feel hunger scorching you, the surgery already had ruined your digestive system. You should specifically follow the dietary recommendations as prescribed by the doctors. You cannot go for large, heavy and rich foods.
Walk around to improve circulation
Okay you gave birth to a baby and it’s a massive thing! But it doesn’t mean you should stay in bed 24 X 7. Take some short walks in the house for 5 to 10 minutes per session. You will feel relaxed.
Sit with support on your back
Be it normal delivery or c-section, give proper support to your back. Your spine and pelvis has worked a lot to help you bring out the baby. They remain sore for a few weeks. So, get proper support with a firm pillow whenever you sit.
Eat, sleep and feed!
Make yourself a baby during the first month of postpartum. Get rest, sleep a lot (of course there may interrupted sleep due to breastfeeding) and eat right. You will certainly have a lot of support from the family during this time.
Hot water bath
Take bath in hot water (as long as you tolerate the heat of the water), every alternative day for first two weeks. It relives the soreness and random body aches and hot water bath increases circulation, which can literally make you active.
Harder, bigger and tender breasts
This is the major complaint from most of the mothers, in a few days after delivery. Since your body starts secreting milk, the size of the breasts increases (don’t bother about how you look at least for a few weeks after postpartum), sometimes become tender and harder.
It is called breast engorgement. It generally happens in 3 to 5 days after delivery.
To manage the pain, apply heating pads or ice packs on breasts. You can also wrap the breasts in frozen cabbage leaves for a few minutes to reduce pain and tenderness.
You should wear, soft, comfortable and flexible brassier to support the breasts. Invest in good quality feeding bras to avoid irritation and itchiness.
Managing the postpartum bleeding
Bleeding postpartum is generally heavy and is called lochia. You should wear sanitary pads until the bleeding stops. It happens until the uterus stops contraction, which happens any time during 2 to 4 weeks after delivery.
Make sure you meticulous follow hygienic practices to prevent infection. Fortunately, in case of c-section, mothers won’t experience heavy bleeding after delivery.
Go for adult diapers, which are easy and comfortable to wear, and it can also manage heavy bleeding. It is easy to use and dispose off.
Never ever use tampons to manage bleeding!
Drink warm water to manage constipation
Constipation is one of the major health problems experienced by many mommies. Drink warm water whenever you feel thirsty to ease constipation.
Health is the priority of the mothers. It becomes too harder on your, your baby and even on the whole family if you don’t stay healthy. While baby is your priority, your health also counts a lot.
Care for the perineal area
Vaginal birth is no inferior to c-section when it comes to unlikely things that make women suffer a lot. If you had episiotomy or tore during vaginal birth, give extra care to reduce the pain and inflammation. Give ice pack massage to reduce swelling and wash your genital with sanitized water, keep the area clean.
No Nipple caps
Please say no to nipple caps. It will affect the nipples and you should learn how to feed the baby properly, at any cost.
Feed breast milk in bottle
Do you experience pain and discomfort to feed your baby? It is okay to feed the breast milk in bottles for a few days until you are comfortable.
Seek help from sun i.e vitamin D
Yes! This is one of the time tested remedy to get rid of most of the post partum problems. Of course, you are not allowed to go out for a few days after child birth. Yet, you need sun exposure to absorb the goodness of vitamin D. In fact, low vitamin D level is connected to depression. Sun will heal you faster than any medication.
Vitamin D helps healing the bleeding, cracking nipples, and generally makes you feel good. Spend a few minutes in your home getting the sun exposure (preferably in morning or evening when the rays aren’t too harsh).
Manage PPD
Postpartum depression is too common. Again, you should sleep well. When you are awake, try to concentrate on something that could be entertaining, like reading, watching movies or hearing music.
What are the common signs of postpartum depression?
- Feel like crying or crying
- Feeling low, irritated and restless
- Not able to sleep inspite of exhaustiveness
- Unable to focus or care for the baby
- Raging pain at different parts of the body
- Feeling guilty, worthless and extremely worried
These signs may arise at any time post child birth, need not be in the first month. Some mothers may fall for PPD after two or three months when they are unable to cope with the work.
Sex isn’t likely to be a part of your life immediately after delivery. Still, most mommies (especially the first time mothers) need a lot of attention from the partner. Spend quality time with each other and this could probably beat the postpartum blues.
Take a nap, whenever your baby does. It is only way you can catch-up with sleeping. Be it 3 hours nap or 30 minutes nap, your body and mind need the sleep!
Seek help! It makes no harm in seeking help from family members, rather help you stay healthy.
You almost took nine months or more to bring a baby to this world, where you underwent a lot of changes physically. So, it is definitely going to take a lot of time, long and even longer to arrive at any state that you call normal, which actually ‘new state of normal!’