The First Weeks After Birth

FAMILY · GLOBAL

The First Weeks After Birth

What recovery involves, warning signs that need help, pelvic floor and support

The weeks after birth are treated as an afterthought in a great deal of baby preparation, and knowing what is normal and what is not matters more than any product.

Warning signs that need urgent help

Heavy bleeding soaking a pad in an hour or passing large clots. A temperature or feeling generally unwell. Severe headache with visual changes. Pain, swelling or redness in a calf. Chest pain or breathlessness.

Also any wound becoming hot, swollen or smelly, and severe or worsening pain. Contact a midwife, maternity unit or emergency services rather than waiting to be seen.

Normal recovery

Bleeding for several weeks, gradually reducing and changing colour. Afterpains during feeding. Soreness from stitches or from a caesarean wound. Sweating at night and considerable tiredness.

Recovery from a caesarean is recovery from abdominal surgery, and the six-week figure is a rough guide rather than a finish line.

Pelvic floor

Start gentle exercises when comfortable, since the evidence for them is strong. Leaking urine is common and is not something to accept permanently — it is treatable, and a pelvic health physiotherapist can help.

Referral is available through health services in many countries, and asking early works better than waiting.

Mental health

Low mood in the first fortnight is common. Feelings that persist beyond two weeks, intrusive thoughts, or anxiety that interferes with daily life warrant contacting a GP or health visitor — postnatal depression is common and treatable.

Anyone with thoughts of harming themselves or the baby needs urgent help, and services take this seriously rather than judgementally.

Feeding support

Feeding is frequently harder than expected however it is done. Infant feeding support is available free through health services and peer support groups, and asking early works considerably better than struggling on.

Pain while breastfeeding is a sign something needs adjusting rather than something to endure.

Rest and visitors

Visitors are tiring and frequently arrive expecting to be hosted. It is entirely reasonable to limit them, to ask people to bring food, and to go back to bed while somebody else holds the baby.

Anyone with a cold or a cough should stay away, particularly in the first weeks.

The six-week check

This is for you as well as the baby. Raise anything about pain, bleeding, continence, mood, contraception or sex yourself rather than waiting to be asked.

Partners and supporters

The person supporting also needs sleep and food, and they can do almost everything except feed if breastfeeding. Taking the baby for a stretch so the mother can sleep properly is the single most useful thing available.

Partners experience postnatal depression too, and it is worth mentioning to a GP rather than assuming it does not apply.

Practical support

Accept help with food, washing and older children. Rest when you can, and be honest with your midwife or health visitor about how you actually are.

WHERE TO BUY

Ready to shop The SABI? Use the link below to visit the official store.

→ Shop The SABI — official site

Visit this site