Best time to recover after childbirth

There is no one-size-fits-all "best time" for postpartum recovery. Currently, the golden window for intervention is generally recognized by the industry as within 6 months after delivery. But a more accurate answer is - as long as you make a good assessment and choose an appropriate recovery method, it can be started from the first day after delivery. Even if you start after one or two years, you can still get good results. To put it bluntly, your body has just experienced a 10-month "weight-bearing rally". Recovery is just like maintaining a car after a race. There is no rigid rule on which day it must be maintained. Finding the right rhythm is much more important than rushing.

Last month, I accompanied my best friend who had just given birth to a 42-day review. She was clutching a post from a certain platform blogger with an anxious look on her face, and asked the doctor if it was already too late after confinement. The doctor laughed on the spot and said that just last week, he received a mother who came for pelvic floor muscle repair three years after giving birth. After half a year, the previous problem of leaking urine when laughing and doing exercises was completely gone. Where does the saying "if you miss it, it's useless" come from.

Many people tend to antagonize the recovery concepts of different schools. In fact, if you look carefully, you will find that there is no contradiction at all: Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes "avoiding wind and cold and less labor" during the puerperium period (that is, 42 days after delivery), focusing on replenishing qi and blood and nourishing the internal organs. This logic is completely fine, especially for mothers who have postpartum qi and blood deficiency, severe tears, or cesarean section wounds. Forced aerobics and abdominal crunches will wear down the body.； The low-intensity interventions advocated by modern sports rehabilitation, such as abdominal breathing and Kegel exercises, are all light activations that can be done while lying down. They are not considered "work" at all. The core of both is actually "not to be pushy and adapt to the current physical state."

A nurse in the postpartum rehabilitation department of a tertiary hospital I am familiar with said that in the delivery room, mothers who have had natural births without side incisions and tears will be taught Kegel exercises on the day after delivery. Each contraction is 3 seconds and then relaxed for 3 seconds, in a group of 10 times. They can do it while lying down and scrolling on their mobile phones. Don’t underestimate this inconspicuous movement. Many mothers only discover that they are leaking urine after confinement. This is a problem caused by the lack of basic activation in the early stage and the pelvic floor muscles have been in a relaxed state. If you have a tear, a cesarean section, or a separation of the pubic symphysis of more than 2cm, you should practice abdominal breathing honestly in the first two weeks. Put your hands on your belly. When you inhale, your belly will slowly expand, and when you exhale, it will shrink at a constant speed. Not only will you not feel tired, but it can also help eliminate lochia and relieve uterine contraction pain.

There was a lot of quarrel on the Internet about "Can I exercise 42 days after giving birth?" The essence of it is that the two groups of people are talking about completely different things: when they say they can't move, they refer to high-intensity exercises such as running, jumping, crunching, and weight-bearing; when they say they can move, they refer to light activities such as slow walking and bed activities. If the premise is not clear, the result will naturally be inconclusive. I have seen mothers who walked down the street to buy milk tea on the third day after giving birth. I have also seen mothers whose pubic bones hurt even if they stand for half a month after giving birth. Individual differences are so great that it is impossible to use unified standards. Your own physical feelings always come first.

As for the "6-month golden period" that has been hyped by various businesses, it is indeed because the body's hormone levels have not completely dropped during this period, and the elasticity of soft tissues and core repairability are in a relatively good state, making intervention more efficient. However, it does not mean that it is useless after this time. I used to know a mother who had her second child. She didn’t do any recovery when she gave birth to her second child. It was only two years after the birth of her second child that she discovered that she would leak urine when skipping rope or holding the baby for a long time. She still has two and a half fingers left after the separation of the rectus abdominis. She practiced with a rehabilitation practitioner for 8 months, and now she has no problem running a half-marathon on weekends. Those sayings that “you will never recover after the golden period” are, to put it bluntly, an artificial anxiety created by people who sell repair products.

If you really want to recover in a down-to-earth manner, don’t just buy thousands of dollars of repair classes and girdle. First, complete the 42-day review of the pelvic floor muscles, rectus abdominis, and pubic symphysis. Clearly lay out the problems and then choose a targeted method. It is much more reliable than blindly following Internet celebrities. Oh, by the way, don’t push yourself too hard. I’ve seen too many mothers rush to lose weight right after confinement. As a result, they end up with more hair loss and less breast milk. It’s really unnecessary. Your body has just tried its best to give birth to a baby, so give it more time.