There are many changes some women may expect to happen to your body after your baby’s birth including:
Swollen feet.Even if you’ve had a straightforward birth, you can feel like your body isn’t back to ‘normal’ after the birth of your baby. Pregnancy, birth and an assisted delivery can leave you with various aches, pains and changes in your body. Some of these are temporary, some may require treatment and some may be permanent, for example, some women will go up a shoe size after their baby is born.
Some women can feel very swollen after birth. Swelling of the lower legs and feet, called oedema is totally normal. Any fluids resorbed by your uterus, as well as any IV fluids received during labour, can gather in your feet and extremities, such as your hands. The swelling should go down within a fortnight. Sometimes your shoe size will go up either temporarily or permanently after birth since your ligaments spread a little and your feet may spread. Keeping well hydrated and elevating feet at rest will help with swollen ankles.
Incontinence after birth is normal and usually temporary. The muscles inside the vagina have been stretched during a vaginal birth and you may find that you leak urine, especially if you laugh or cough unexpectedly.
If you are experiencing a lot of leaking wear a thick sanitary towel (which you will be wearing to soak up the bleeding called lochia after birth), go to the toilet frequently even if you don’t feel you need a week and tell your doctor at your postnatal check.
If it’s just a case of muscle tone you can strengthen your pelvic floor muscles with pelvic floor exercises, which you can do whenever you remember or often are part of postnatal yoga and pilates classes which focus on building core strength after birth. Your midwife or physio will discuss these exercise with you.
Usually around 3 days after the birth, your breasts will swell and feel very full and heavy. This is a sign that your milk is coming to your breasts become hard and painful they could be engorged and you need to make sure that your baby is latching on properly and breastfeeding efficiently. Once your baby is removing milk effectively during a breastfeed and your production has settled, the engorgement should pass. If your baby is unable to breastfeed, (for example if they are in NICU and not able to suck effectively) you should start expressing your milk to ease engorgement and get milk production going so you can feed your baby your milk with a pipette, cup or bottle. If your baby is in NICU or SCBU, they may also be given your expressed milk through a tube that goes in through their nose – an NG tube.
can go on for several weeks and will lighten gradually. It is better to use a thick sanitary pad rather than a tampon, which carries a risk of infection during this time. If your discharge becomes heavy or contains clots it is important to contact your midwife or doctor.
Whilst blood loss is normal after birth, there are some symptoms that need medical attention from either your midwife or GP or in life-threatening situations you need to call an ambulance and get emergency treatment.
If your bleeding is very heavy and bright red this might be a postpartum haemorrhage. A haemorrhage like this may happen within 24 hours of birth (although secondary haemorrhages can occur up to 3 months after birth). The causes can include retained placenta or when the uterus doesn’t contract back to its pregnancy size (afterpains are a sign that this happening).
Emergency symptoms accompanied by the blood loss include:
Call your midwife or doctor straight away if your blood loss lochia has an unpleasant smell, you feel feverish, bleeding stays bright red after 7 days and your abdomen feels tender.
During your pregnancy, your hair may have been your crowning glory as you have reduced hair loss. However, after your baby is born your oestrogen levels fall which means all this retained hair will start to fall out. This can be noticeable when your baby is about 12 weeks old but your hair should return to the pre-pregnancy condition in time.
The uterus, bladder and rectum can all fall a bit as a result of labour. Usually, this is a temporary thing that resolves as you resume normal activity.
Exercises can help strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, and drink lots of water so you avoid straining with constipation, which can be painful after birth.
The majority of women will tear a little bit during birth and about two-thirds of tears will need a few stitches (severe third-degree tears are rare and can reach to the muscles around the anus, they require stitching, often from a surgeon after the birth). Tears and stitches from tears and episiotomies can feel sore after birth and you can feel like your whole vaginal area is bruised.
To ease the pain of stitches and tears and aid recovery so make sure you have a bath each day followed by about 5-10 minutes with a bare bottom to give the wound air. If it’s very painful a cold gel pack can ease the swelling and the pain. An alternative is popping a sanitary towel in the freezer for a few minutes until it is cold, but not frozen, and using this instead.
Piles are swollen blood vessels in the rectum. They are common in pregnancy and women may also develop them after birth from the pressure of pushing. They can be very itchy, sore and uncomfortable. Again, cold gel packs can relieve the discomfort but speak to your doctor if they haven’t gone. If you haven’t had these during pregnancy, you might still get them during the birth, owing to the huge pressure caused by pushing. You should keep the area clean and patted dry and you can gently push the piles back inside while you are in the shower. If you use a cream, make sure that it is suitable for pregnant or breastfeeding women.
It can be a shock to try and sit up after you’ve had a c-section as the muscles you use to sit up have been cut to deliver your baby. However, it’s important to get up and about as soon as you can after the birth but you may feel a little shaky the first time you wee, poo or have a shower.
At first, you will need to gently support your scar when you do go to the loo or feel a sneeze coming on as it will hurt your scar.
Once the dressing has been removed (usually in the shower), you will need to keep the scar clean and dry (after showers) and look out for redness, puss or signs of infection.
Depending on the kind of stitches or staples your surgeon used, your midwife may visit to remove them when you are back at home. Some hospitals now use a special surgical glue so there are no external stitches that need removing.
A caesarean section is major abdominal surgery so be gentle with yourself after the birth. No heavy lifting e.g. hoovering and you may need a check-up before your car insurance allows you to drive again (usually around 6 weeks).
Postnatal pilates and yoga focus on rebuilding your core muscle strength which is particularly helpful after a c-section.
Please click here to access the NHS Link – Your body after the birth.
