Postpartum Recovery Guide

There is no unified timetable for postpartum recovery. The priority is always "functional restoration before morphological adjustment." All training and intervention must be carried out after the 42-day prenatal check-up confirms that there are no abnormalities and the doctor's advice is followed. Any operation that makes you feel painful, tired, or worsens urinary leakage should be stopped immediately.

Not long ago, I accompanied my best friend who had just given birth to my eldest son for a gynecological check-up. She was so anxious to lose weight that she followed fat-burning exercises on the Internet for a week just after her confinement. Not only did her urinary leakage become more serious, but it was found that the separation of the rectus abdominis had changed from one and a half fingers to three fingers. The doctor scolded her for almost ten minutes, saying that she was spending the rest of her life changing her waistline.

Having said this, someone must ask, should I wear a belly band? In fact, there have been different opinions on this issue in the industry: Western medicine usually recommends that an integrated abdominal belt can be worn appropriately for the first 3 days after cesarean section to help support the wound and reduce the pain of getting out of bed. However, it must be worn for more than 8 hours a day and must be removed when eating and sleeping. ； Traditional Chinese medicine does not recommend that mothers who have had natural births wear abdominal belts in the first two weeks after delivery, especially those that are so tight that they can’t breathe, which can easily affect the discharge of lochia from the uterine cavity and slow down the recovery process. ； There are also some elderly people who advocate wearing traditional gauze abdominal belts. In fact, as long as the strength is appropriate and the edges do not roll down, it is not impossible. However, there is really no need to stock up on Internet celebrity girdle that costs hundreds of yuan. Not to mention paying the IQ tax will also hurt the body.

What should be prioritized more than slimming the belly is actually repairing the pelvic floor muscles. Don’t think that only natural birth will hurt the pelvic floor. Several of my friends who had cesarean section had their fetuses pressed for several months in the late pregnancy, but they still leaked urine after giving birth and even had to tuck their legs when sneezing. There is no standard answer here: If the pelvic floor muscle strength is above level 3 during the 42-day prenatal check-up and there is no problem of organ prolapse, just follow the regular APP to do Kegel exercises at home. There is no need to spend tens of thousands to apply for a card at a maternity and health institution. ； But if your muscle strength is less than level 2, or you already have mild uterine prolapse, or severe urinary leakage, don’t force yourself to go to the hospital for electrical stimulation. Don’t save money. Oh, by the way, don’t believe in “reducing the vagina with bare hands”. It’s purely based on IQ. Pelvic floor rehabilitation in regular hospitals has clear medical indications. Indiscriminate massage can easily cause the vaginal flora to become imbalanced.

What worried my sister the most after giving birth was not her big belly. Every time she held her baby for half an hour and breastfed, her waist hurt so much that she couldn't straighten up. Later, the rehabilitation therapist taught her a little trick: when breastfeeding, her whole back should be firmly against the head of the bed, with a 2-inch pad behind her waist. A lumbar pillow of about 0cm, a small stool with a height of 10cm under the feet, and a nursing pillow when holding the baby in her arms. The center of gravity does not have to be placed on the waist. The day she tried it, she said her waist was no longer sore. It is more effective than any other warm patch. These small details are actually much more useful than spending a lot of money on body correction.

Let’s talk about the issue that everyone is most concerned about: whether the belly can lose weight. Many people panic when they feel a gap in the middle of their belly and insist on doing a rectus abdominis closure program. Now the general consensus among doctors is: if the rectus abdominis is separated within 2 fingers, the core strength will slowly recover after about 3 months postpartum, and then some gentle core activation training, such as dead bug pose and abdominal breathing, will slowly return to normal. ； If the separation is more than 2 fingers, do not do abdominal crunches or planks blindly. Otherwise, the separation will become more and more serious as the abdominal pressure increases. In this case, it is recommended to see a professional rehabilitation practitioner for manual release first, and then cooperate with low-intensity core training. In severe cases, surgical intervention may even be required. I would also like to mention a different point of view here: Some sports rehabilitation practitioners believe that as long as there is no abdominal wall hernia or backache, there is no need to deliberately intervene even if there are more than two fingers separated, and you can just wait for the body to recover naturally without excessive anxiety.

Oh, by the way, don’t believe in the “pelvic repair” scammed by industry and health care institutions, which says that after giving birth, your hips will be wider and your legs will not be straight, and you can return to girlish hips after a few clicks. I asked the doctor before in the rehabilitation department of the hospital. There is no "pelvic repair" project in the formal medical system. Most people feel that their hips are wide after childbirth, either due to fat accumulation during pregnancy or mild separation of the pubic symphysis. Generally, it will heal naturally 3-6 months after delivery. Only those with a separation of more than 2cm and pain that makes them unable to walk require medical intervention. Those obstetricians and nurses who press your bones and stretch your legs might loosen your pubic symphysis, and you will be the only one who feels the pain.

In fact, I have met so many friends who have given birth and found that their biggest problem is not that they don’t know how to recover, but that they are too anxious. I saw other people on the Internet wearing navel-baring clothes one month after giving birth, and I thought, why am I still weighing 120 pounds? Am I such a failure? It's really not necessary. Everyone's foundation is different. If you didn't like to exercise before pregnancy, you can't be expected to have vest lines immediately after giving birth, right? I have a friend who exclusively breastfeeds, eats normally, and occasionally takes her baby out for a walk, and returns to her pre-pregnancy weight in half a year. Another friend is prone to obesity, and even with diet and exercise, it took almost a year to get back to normal. This is normal.

If there is any universal rule, it’s actually not that complicated: first of all, you must listen to the doctor before the 42-day prenatal check-up, don’t mess around on your own； Furthermore, if any recovery program makes you feel uncomfortable, stop immediately. Your health will be much more reliable than that of Internet celebrity bloggers. ； Finally, accept that your body already has the traces of motherhood. You don’t have to be as thin as before pregnancy and don’t have a trace of wrinkles to recover. Being healthy, able to hold your baby, run and jump without pain or itching is the best recovery.