In my last post about post-partum afterpains, I forgot to mention two tips my midwife informed me about that will help prevent or decrease postpartum afterpains. 1.) Keep your bladder empty. After giving birth, the bladder no longer receives the never ending bathroom trip signals that it received when pregnant. You may not “feel” like you need to urinate but it is a good idea to go at least once every hour. An empty bladder will help keep the uterus in the right place as well as hard and firm. 2.) Keep the uterus hard and firm. Nursing is excellent to keep clamp the uterus down properly. Do not allow long spaces of time to lapse between feedings. Massaging the stomach to keep the uterus firm is also a good way to keep it clamped down properly.
Interesting. I always thought they kept messing with my stomach [uterus] because they wanted to hurt me. ;o)
Well…yes…that painful massage does have a purpose! They just don’t tell you.
Two things I did this time round which really helped with immediate after-pain. 1) The blessed peri-bottle and herbal sitz baths. I wrote an article about it: http://www.mamawell.com/mamawell/2007/01/taking_an_herba.html#more
2) Arnica. A friend recommended it who underwent a c-section. I have since done a fair bit of research and it seems Arnica is a wonderful general homeopathic herb to aid all kinds of bruising and swelling. I took it during labor and immediately after. Admittedly I had less stitches this time, but my recovery thanks to sitz bath and arnica was pretty rapid. Here’s the article on Arnica: http://www.mamawell.com/mamawell/2007/02/wonderful_arnic.html#more
Hope this helps…..