You are pretty much living in a brand new world with your little wonder. THe baby has come a long way since birth in the past three months, as so your health. Don’t worry about your weight gain or the way you look. Prioritize your baby as the first thing you should look after and care for.
During this month, you could have probably adjusted to most of the things in the postpartum life.
Things you should look into: (for you)
- Are you free from all kinds of pain, discomforts and uneasiness?
- Are you able to do regular work / fall into routine (other than caring for baby) as earlier?
- Are you active?
- Are you getting enough sleep?
- Can you experience your preference towards foods changing a bit?
You should have probably said YES to all the questions asked above. Some mommies still find it somewhat hard to getting their old them! Go easy on you. Still there is a lot of time you have!
Insufficient Milk Supply
Your baby is grown now. Many mothers find they don’t secrete sufficient milk to satiate the baby. This is not true in most cases. If your baby is fed only breast milk, you produce enough milk. Since the little one is getting naughtier day by day, he or she won’t be concentrating more on feeding, rather start playing with you.
Latch your baby often and you will get enough milk to feed the little one.
Eat the following foods to increase the milk supply:
- Fenugreek seeds (aka methi)
- Garlic (the milk may carry the mild aroma of garlic, which your child may not like)
- Fennel seeds
- Oatmeal
- Spinach
PERIODS, Ovulation, contraceptive!
This is the major concern in many postpartum women.
Breastfeeding is a natural birth control method that delays menstruation. This is true in terms of hormonal control. When you breastfeed the baby, the hormones that help in secretion of milk tricks and prevents secretion of reproductive hormones. This is the major reason behind most women are not keen on rekindling the sexual relationship with the partner after delivery.
What are the odds?
However, it is not true in all cases. While some women may never get periods for even upto 1 year after delivering the baby due to breastfeeding, some women may get periods in 6 to 10 weeks postpartum.
Mommies who had vaginal delivery generally experience vaginal bleeding for a maximum of 45 days post child birth.
In case of c-section, since most of the debris is removed while operating, she won’t bleed for longer days. So, the odds are that mommies who had c-section can experience the returning of periods much earlier.
Similarly, even if the mother had regular periods before pregnancy, postpartum, during breastfeeding she may experience irregular cycle.
There are many instances that women who never had regular menstrual cycle fall into proper cycle after delivering the baby.
Some women get the regular / irregular menstrual cycle immediately after stopping breastfeeding! (blame your hormones!)
On an average basis, most mothers find the period return by 6th month. Do you find the connection here? Breast milk is just sufficient for the babies up to 6 months? These things are totally interrelated.
So, it all depends upon your health, environment, and of course, the diet you follow.
Don’t make a lot of fuss about periods. Getting menstrual cycle, be it regular or irregular is not going to affect your breast milk supply.
Breastfeeding is not a contraceptive method! – Don’t fall into the trap!
Even though you don’t get menstrual cycle, it is not sure that you are not ovulating.
Still, it is proven in a few cases that full time breastfeeding mothers do not ovulate at least for the period of 3 to 4 months after child birth. Since it takes about 6 weeks to 12 weeks (up to 3 months) for the body to shrink the uterus to normal (pre-delivery) size, the ovulation is likely to occur only after that.
Change in diet – No Hurries
You gain more conscious about how you look and it is normal. Don’t reduce the quantity of foods dramatically to reduce weight. It will affect breast milk supply. So, eat healthy foods and choose the healthy foods that don’t affect the baby too.
Already you are burning more calorie and even fat by breastfeeding the baby. Don’t attempt anything drastic without proper consultation. Anyway in two or three months you will start losing weight.
Hair and Skin
There is a folk lore that states that when the baby starts seeing the face of the mother and giggles, she will suffer from hair loss. There is a science behind the same.
Most babies fully recognize the mothers by the end of 3rd month or in 4th month. So, they will identify the voice and face of the mother easily. But in case of mommies, this phase represents the change in hormones where the uterus shrinks back to original size, and other significant changes happen at hormonal level, which impact the hair and skin. Sudden shifts in hormones leads to hair loss and skin may appear dull. This is just normal phase and you are likely to overcome the same in a couple of month’s time.
Exercise
If you had normal delivery, you can proceed with during exercises like stretches, walking, cycling (mild), and jogging etc after consulting with your doctor.
In case of c-section, you can wait till 6 months.
Here is a secret. Women who regularly practiced any kind of exercise or yoga get back to the pre-pregnancy shape very soon after pregnancy in 3 to 4 months. As soon as the hormones settle down, your body becomes normal.
- Wearing abdominal belts won’t help you reduce tummy. You can wear it to get proper support to the back.
- Take small walks for 15 to 20 minutes twice or thrice a day.
- Soak in the morning and evening sun for vitamin D.
- Get more iron in your diet through foods like dates, beets, figs, pomegranate, etc.
Listen to what your body says. You can take rest and do the simple chores and look after the baby!