How to Recover After a Vaginal Birth
I remember while pregnant, I was reading up and googling every pregnancy milestone. What's even worst my MIL bought me the mayo clinic 1000-page book on pregnancy. So, most days, I was glued to it. Every advice I got was mostly baby related, nothing talking about my transition into motherhood and how to heal and recover after birth.
There’s no book that clearly states how to heal and recover after a vaginal birth. Instead, moms are left to figure it out on their own. Well, you’re not on your own anymore. In the next couple of paragraphs, I’ll spill the tea on how to recover and speed up your healing.
If you give birth vaginally in a hospital part of your first 48 hours - one week will be spent there. You’ll have the nurses attending to you constantly – once home, you’re on your own. Grab some stool softeners from the hospital before you head home. If you forget, eat prunes or drink prune juice to soften your first bowel movement.
Most moms underestimate how much help they will need at home. Help and rest goes hand in hand. Once home you’ll need all the help you can get – help for chores and help so that you can rest. Help comes in many forms - a postpartum doula, friends, family. A postpartum doula is good the first few weeks – she’s trained to know the ins and outs of what you need. Put the cost of a postpartum doula on your registry.
Have a running list of family members and friends who can help. Now with COVID, can they quarantine with you before and after baby comes? Don’t be afraid to ask them for what you need and make sure they bring food and/or are willing to help while visiting. Partner or not you will need help!
Make sure you have plenty of nourishing foods on hand. Freeze meals ahead of time and label them. You don’t have to get fancy with food. Lots of soups and stews with collagen and bone broth works.
If you’re breastfeeding your body will demand more sustenance. I always felt like I was starving after breastfeeding. Breastfeed or bottle-feed - you still need to ensure that you’re eating from all your food groups. ALL OF THEM!!
Speaking of breastfeeding. Your breast will become sore, dry and cracked, make sure you have a nipple balm by your night stand or wherever you will be breastfeeding. Air or sun dry your breasts to give them a breather.
Watch out for any emotional drain you'll be in the midst of sleepless nights and your nights and days are all mixed into one. This is also the time that you’ll start to tear up and cry a lot because of the emotional toll new mom life is exerting. To fight the nighttime loneliness steep a few spoons of mothers milk tea. Drinking mother’s milk tea is a two-fer, it warms up your body, boost your milk supply and calms your nerves.
You will bleed after giving birth. The first week your bleeding will be bright red then light red, pinkish then brown. You will feel contractions (also known as 'after pains') when you breastfeed – totally normal. It’s your uterus shrinking back to its pre-pregnancy size.
Your vagina and perineum (area between your vagina and butt) will be sore and painful. It will be even more painful if you tore. You can tear from – level 4 "I can't sit up" – to level 3, level 2 or 1 "I can handle this.
From soreness, bruising, swelling, stitches, hemorrhoids and tears, you don’t need to sit around in pain and wait it out. Grab a postpartum recovery kit instead to soothe your ‘lady bits’ and speed up your healing and recovery.
Wash it:
1. Using a peri bottle – your nurse may already start you off with one in the hospital ask for one for home. Add 1/2 cup of water then add 2 - 3 tablespoon of sitz herbal bath, shake the mixture together. Sit over your toilet bowl and squirt it on your perineum. Why not just use water? That's what every mom I talk to ask and is told to do. Adding sitz bath made with healing herbs soothes, slows bleeding and contracts your vaginal tissues. The extra bonus of adding herbs is that you'll heal faster.
Soothe it:
1. Pee-ing will burn!! It's one of things your nurse will do for you. Here's a hack - using warm water and your peri-bottle. Every time you need to pee squirt warm water onto your perineum to keep your urine from stinging lessening the burn.
Heat it:
1. Soak in warm water in an over the toilet sitz basin. Add 3 - 4 tablespoon of sitz herbal bath in a muslin bag place bag in basin then pour 2 - 3 cups of warm water. Then sit in the sitz bath. You can also use your bath tub. Fill your bath tub with warm water hip height. Add 1/2 cup of sitz bath then sit for 20 minutes, three times a day, or warm compresses. A sitz bath is like making tea in your bathtub. Only you’re the tea bag. This is bae for tears and stitches.
Cool it:
1. You don't need 5 bottles of ingredients and a video. CODDLE’s perineal balm cools and soothes no DIY padsicles necessary. Cool your perineum & hemorrhoids with our perineal balm. Witch Hazel is bae for postpartum.
Massage it:
1. Massage you back, neck, feet and legs. Daily massage after every shower goes a long way. Start with the small areas first – your feet and leg. Massaging is one of those things your partner can do for your while nursing. Postpartum massage is incredibly helpful in speeding up recovery and improving overall health. Massage after birth reduce swelling and fluid retention, helps ease fatigue, reduce anxiety and makes you feel more relaxed.
You’ll feel tired, irritable, weepy and it will seem like you’re crying over everything. What you’re feeling is normal and commonly referred to as the baby blues and typically last about 2 weeks. If you still feel this way after 2 weeks, you can’t eat, sleep, aren’t bonding with your baby or have thought of harming yourself or your baby. This is more than just the baby blues. You’ll need to talk to a trusted friend or your doctor ASAP!! It may be something more serious.
If your birth was without complication you may be able to move around within days. Incorporate a little bit of movement into your day, walk around your block or to the park. Give yourself breaks – you’ll need it.
Share your tips in comment section below.