Taking Care of Your Body After Birth

Now that you’ve given birth to your miracle baby it’s time to consider life in the first few days after delivery.  Whether you have had a vaginal birth, an emergency or scheduled C-Section, you will need to get plenty of rest, fluids and take it easy for a few weeks. It takes quite a bit of time for a woman to recover from birth and get back to her original state both physically, mentally and emotionally. In many areas, the law dictates that you have to stay in the hospital a minimum of twelve to twenty-four hours after giving birth. This is typical to make sure that all is well with you, that your body is healing well and that all is well with your baby.  This can be a challenging time as you try to adjust to a new bundle of joy being present in your life and the changes in schedule that comes with that.

For example, now you’ll be getting up earlier with frequent feedings whether you choose to breast feed or if your formula feeding. Extra time is required to get your baby ready, fed to make it on time to places you need to go. Many new mothers experience a time in which they find themselves very emotional after birth and in some cases more so than when they were pregnant. Most of this is due to hormones fluctuating and is perfectly natural. Some mothers even experience depression also known as the baby blues. It’s important that if you find yourself starting to be void of the energy or desires to take care of you and baby, or have thoughts of harming yourself or your child you discuss them immediately with your care provider. While they can be extremely scary, post-partum depression is extremely normal and can be treated with proper medication.

You may experience some pains in your stomach that are due to the contraction of your uterus attempting to go back to normal.  Mothers who have had a C-Section  may also have pain in the site of the incision. It typically takes longer for mothers of C-Sections to recover than those of vaginal birth. While some women may tear or require stitches from vaginal births, in either case you want to be sure to keep the stitches cleaned and properly maintained via doctor’s instructions to avoid infection which can then get into the blood stream and cause a lot of issues.

Within a week or so of being released from the hospital and enjoying your time with the new family addition your doctor will typically schedule a check-up to check blood sugar levels, test for post-partum depression and other things to make sure mommy and baby are healing and getting back to normal. If you have any questions about proper care of your body post-natal it’s important you call your doctor and let them help you with anything you may be unsure of.