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Healing from the effects of both pregnancy and birth takes time, but you can support healing with simple daily habits in the early weeks. Read Aby's article to discover a Pelvic Health Specialists top tips for postpartum recovery.
I think it’s fair to say having a newborn doesn’t make the ideal circumstances for postpartum recovery: sleep deprivation, grabbing one-handed snacks, whilst processing this huge life change. It is common for attention to be fully focused on your baby, but you are still very important and need looking after, too. Of course, healing from the effects of both pregnancy and birth takes time, but you can support healing with simple daily habits in the early weeks.
Here are my top tips:
When you’re pregnant, your bladder is squished by an expanding uterus, meaning you will need to wee a lot. We want to train our brain-to-bladder pathways to know what a full bladder feels like again.
Postnatal constipation and gas pains can be troublesome, especially if you had a C Section. The hormone cocktail mix and disruption to the gut means the pipes can be a bit slow. When it is time for a bowel movement, we want to avoid pushing out a poo as this can have a negative impact on our pelvic floor, and also cause haemorrhoids and fissures.
When any part of the body is significantly injured it requires more protein when acute healing is taking place. This is usually an 8 – 12 week period post birth. Even a very straightforward vaginal birth causes injuries, and a planned C section is still major abdominal surgery. If you are not getting enough protein, healing is slower, infections are more likely, and you’ll feel lethargic. Fuelling our body is a really easy way to help our recovery.
A postnatal Mum requires a minimum of 1.6 g of protein per kg of bodyweight. This increases to 2 – 3 g with a more significant injury. For most women this adds up to 100 g+ of protein a day. If a chicken breast is around 20 g of protein, you can see how massive that amount is. Try to boost protein in your meals, and supplement with high-protein snacks, such as yoghurts, snack bars, granola and porridge pots. Protein supplementation is not just for athletes; it is for anyone who will struggle to meet the protein demands in their natural diet, so you can also find a good protein powder and make shakes, or even add to porridge or smoothies. Just get that protein in to help you heal as efficiently as possible.
Have you been told to ‘sleep when the baby sleeps’ yet? It’s incredibly irritating, as for many this is just not realistic. However, the fact of the matter is that sleep hugely helps recovery. So how on earth am I meant to do that with a newborn, I hear you say?!
Well whilst a good solid sleep is optimum, improving the quality of sleep you do get, whilst maximising pockets of rest do make a huge difference. So here are my top tips:
Most of all remind yourself what a fabulous job you are doing. Postnatal recovery can be an unexpected challenge when everything was building to the birth. Be patient and kind to yourself, and speak up if you ever feel something isn’t right.
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