Ellen Fisher
POSTPARTUM CARE: tips for an easier recovery (pain. breastmilk, bleeding)
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[Music] this is the phase of sensitive and gorged leaking breasts we go through a pile of laundry every day for my milk leaking all over my clothes and the blankets this is the phase of postpartum bleeding if you've had a vaginal birth using a pair you bottle to clean yourself after you use the restroom because of the sensitivity after getting birth for those who have had c-sections there are other experiences from having major abdominal surgery it's the phase of postpartum cramping as your uterus treats this is the phase of a soft round belly and ravenous hunger from producing breast milk for your baby but above all it's the phase of intense love and bonding with your hey guys so I've had so many mothers and mothers to be asking you to make a video and talk about postpartum and my experience so today I'm going to talk about tips and ways to help you have an easier clothes apartment experience so Koufax is about one month old nails are rearing towards the end of my postpartum period and it always feels really good to get to that point so before I get into this I first just want to say be sure to consult with your medical professional before following any of this advice what I'm going to share is basically Michaels part of experience and I'll try to cover some other topics that maybe I did experience more really common that I'm not going to be able to cover all everyone's gonna have a different postpartum experience and that's okay so my first tip is to rest as much as possible and I know that this is kind of an obvious tip but I cannot stress it enough it's really easy to want to just jump back into life but I really urge you to just some rest as much as possible resting will not only help you stop your bleeding quicker but overall will be a better experience for you and always appealing postpartum if you try to get up and move around too soon or carry things and lift things heavier than your baby sooner than you should you're more likely to believe longer and just have a longer recovery road it's super important to let others help you and get everything for you as much as possible stay in bed cuddle with your baby bond with your baby it's really helpful for your breastfeeding relationship as well as you learn to breastfeed especially if this is your first time to just be skin-to-skin as much as possible with your baby I'm really thankful that I have a partner a husband that is so helpful during the postpartum experience I mean he's always helpful he's such a giver and a server and he just loves to help but especially when I have just given birth he is so helpful at just doing everything for me taking care of the other kids so I can bond with the new baby and bringing my meals giving me water bringing me whatever I need so that really the only times I'm getting up is to go to the bathroom or take a shower of course doing my best to do that that just helps so much for me to recover quicker but if you don't have a great support system or you're a single parent I highly recommend and I highly encourage you to reach out for help especially before you give birth just see if you can get this set up ahead of time asking family or friends that you trust to take care of you during this time as much as possible and I know that it's not possible for every woman to rest as much as would be the most beneficial to them but just encouraging that message and be able to be as wrestle as possible is so helpful for you and for your baby as you bond during this time and heal so one way that has been really helpful for us postpartum to rest as much as possible and not be overwhelmed is to have a meal train set up for your friends and family to bring you food because those newborn days and really intense and especially if you have multiple babies it's so nice to have a friend bring you dinner so that my husband doesn't have to worry about spending time in the kitchen for dinner while he's taking care of all the other kids and taking care of me so that is such a blessing I've talked about this before in previous videos all of my midwives have recommended to me in those first few weeks after giving birth to only have people coming over to your home if they're doing something to help you like bringing you food or do your laundry or doing something for you like taking your other kids out so you can rest with your baby and your partner rest of baby as well or get an extra nap during the day because we all know about those sleepless nights with a new baby you're in such a hard sensitive time and in a body sensitive time where you're recovering that having extra people in the house just for their benefit to see the baby without bringing something to the table to help you it's really not productive or helpful in this time because it's really all about the family connecting and bonding with the baby and mother healing it's really not about other people so letting people help you is so so important every time I've had a friend set up a meal train for me which is like military.com I've talked about previous videos and send out to my friends to sign up and bring us a meal after Koufax's and that was so helpful so yeah the meal trade thing is such a blessing highly recommend doing that so my next tip is to hire a lactation consultant especially if this is your first birth or if you've had previous babies and had a hard time breastfeeding and need more health hire lactation consultant for your other babies as well if needed it's important to do that within the first few days after giving birth they'll come to your house teach you help you through whatever troubles that you're having make to make sure baby has a good latch because if your baby doesn't have a good latch it's gonna more likely cause pain and you're more likely to have nipple soreness and just a lot more troubles in that way so you really want to make sure your baby has a good latch and having a lactation consultant come to your house if you're new to breastfeeding is a godsend it really shouldn't be sore when you're breastfeeding and with my first one it was just really hard I have so much trouble when I had Elvis as a baby just being the first time we're both learning how to breastfeed and just figuring out latching and all that and I was healing from birth when I hired a lactation consultant it was so helpful it really helped shift it around and help me figure out how to breastfeed properly so that it can fighting nipples we're not sore while is breastfeeding I also have a tips for successful breastfeeding emic at my website which I put so much work into and a lactation consultant also contributed to the e-myth as well and it's just a really really awesome ebook that I'm really proud of I made it really affordable so that as much as possible people can get this ebook because I've shared all of my tips that have helped me to be successful in having ease in my breastfeeding experience to breastfeed as long as we desire my next postpartum tip is to eat enough food and drink enough wire that breastfeeding hunger is so real it's really important to eat enough food to satisfy your body and make enough breast milk for your baby and drink enough water to stay hydrated when you're just trying to figure out and take care of your new baby it's totally possible for your own nourishment to get put on the back burner when you're taking care of your new baby but it's really important to just make that a priority so that you are gonna be able to fill your best as much as possible and help you heal and recover and make enough breast milk for your baby that's another reason why it's so wonderful to have support as much as possible for people to make you food because in those first couple weeks it's really not very helpful to just walk around making yourself food you need to be able to rest and so on bring you food that's why you're not being afraid to ask for help if you don't have it like a supportive partner it's just gonna make a world of difference in your postpartum experience okay so that's all the preventive stuff that's gonna really help make your postpartum experience easier but I want to talk about the specifics that most often occurs during the postpartum period and what can help so the first one I want to talk about is postpartum crampy I didn't have any postpartum cramping after the first child and I started to get them after each consecutive child and it got worse and worse and worse after each child which I hear is really normal I didn't know anything about the postpartum cramping when I had my first kid and then after I gave birth to Sandy my second child I started to experience postpartum cramping and I was like what is this I've never had this before labor is over why my feeling cramps and my friend who has five cancels like yeah that's common that's normal and it'll get worse at each birth like wow I did not know that so I definitely experienced that with my fourth one with Koufax it was definitely the worst postpartum cramping that I've had it lasted for a few days and it just came on like every 15 minutes a lot of people say it happens for them just whenever they're breastfeeding that they'll start getting a cramp because what's happening is that your uterus is shrinking and the cramping is a part of us was standing in scow I would experience the most part of cramping just like when I was breastfeeding but with Kovacs it was just every 15 or 20 minutes two days is pretty rough not every woman experiences postpartum cramping and some women experience postpartum cramping after the first birth so it really just depends on your body and you do personally but if you experience postpartum cramping the tincture by which garden herbs called after ease it's really helpful to take it at the moment that you start feeling a cramp so I would recommend getting a couple bottles before you give birth to have on hand in case you experience postpartum cramping and drink lots of water get lots of rest like I've said before and go through the contractions like you did through labor you know focus on relaxing as much as possible relax your muscles and in no time it will have gone away okay next I want to talk about bleeding after a vaginal birth so I can't speak to the experience of a cesarean birth I know it's a completely different experience and more often a longer road to recovery but I'll talk about vaginal birth because that's what I've experienced all for my first and something that really helps ease your postpartum experience is if you don't tear this is one thing that you can help and eat as long as you have like medical professionals that are willing to help you throughout your labor when you're pushing to practice in a way throughout your pushing in a way that's going to help prevent tearing but I speak to a lot of people a lot of people don't haven't heard of this at all and haven't been told from their medical professionals how to help prevent tearing while you're pushing and I know that every birth is going to be a little different and there's going to be some emergency situations that are gonna make it impossible to be able to do these types of practices but I'll share a little bit about my experience I tour with my first and I had like two or three stitches it was very minor but my road to recovery was so much longer than my other three in regards to my feeling down there and the right down there what happened with the first one as I was pushing Elvis out my midwife was trying to tell me to slow down and don't they're so hard don't try to just punch that baby out so hard because that way will help prevent tearing but I just did not care the time I just wanted to get the baby out so bad I'd already been in labor for like 26 hours I was so over it and like just get this baby out so I was pushing as high as I could as a result I tore a little bit let me write stitching me up to knit three stitches and I was so uncomfortable down there for about six weeks it was really uncomfortable to just sit on my bottom just for two to three stitches the next time around this way that I was pregnant with my second I told my midwife that I really didn't want to tear this time and I had a different midwife this time all of my vows were amazing by the way by a different midwife this time because I was now in Hawaii and I told her I really didn't want to tear I said okay so when you're gonna get to push when it's time to push you really need to go slow and you need to breathe in a way that's gonna draw the baby up I know it sounds counterintuitive but to draw the baby up so the baby comes down really slow and comes out easily so that you don't tear and your body will stretch accordingly and I know part of it could just mean that this was also my second time so I'm like less likely to tear but I have friends who have never done dating these techniques and tour with all their kids because they were not told in a different way that they could push so this is just my experience this might not be the experience for everyone and I'm not saying that this is the only way to do it or that you don't do this you are gonna tear and that there's no other way to do it I don't know any of that I'm just telling my experience so maybe Mike told me okay so you need to breathe in this way it sounds a little funny but you breathe and it's like a natural way to draw your baby up instead of a pushing when it came time to be in a push again I was like so over it and I just want to push that baby out and she's like Ellen listen to me you don't want to tear it trust me this will make a big difference trust me so I finally was able to just focus and draw up with my breath and as a result it sounds like maybe you would take longer for the baby to come out with Elvis I pushed for 40 minutes and with Sandia pushed for 20 minutes that I really was drying the baby up and only maybe did one actual push towards the end and as a result I didn't air at all then I did the same technique with the third and fourth child and let me tell you the recovery was so different after two or three days I felt normal and comfortable on my bottom I couldn't wipe and felt comfortable in just two or three days like that is an amazing difference compared to getting stitches down there that's just my recommendation on that because it just made my recovery so much more pleasant because I could actually just sit down and feel totally fine after two or three days but aside from that let me just give you some tips on how to help your recovery whether you've had stitches or not if you're feeling uncomfortable down there so you can use a bulb douche or a pair you bottle up to draw water up and square it yourself after you use the restroom so that you don't have to use toilet paper to wipe yourself that feels much better and another recommendation is to create witch-hazel pads that you put in the freezer so you take pads and squirt witch-hazel all over them and pop them in the freezer and then when you're ready to change your pad out from postpartum bleeding it's a really cooling sensation and the witch-hazel really helps to create a cooling effect as well that feels really good on your bottom you can do that as often as you like so I would recommend preparing that in advance or just the day you give birth have a partner or a midwife if you gave birth at home or do left pay that for you and pop it in the freezer also something that's helpful when you're sore and healing from Bert especially if you had stitches Pistor breastfeed while laying on your side instead of sitting up so while you're laying down breastfeed your baby on the sides that you're just not putting pressure on your bottom and putting pressure on while you're still healing so laying on your side as much as possible is really helpful the next recommendation is to take some actor versus it's best and I really like the wish garden herbs after birth it's bad so you basically you create a tea and then you can put it in your back to sit in like a shallow bath or you can create the tea and then pour it on pads and put the pads in the freezer as well you can do mix it up and after her since bath a little bit of both whatever floats your boat and lastly I really really like having thinks underwear instead of like the big depends underwear is after you've given birth it's just so much more flattering in a time when you definitely don't feel like your most glamorous self so wearing big depends underwears after you give birth it's just the cherry on top to not feel like yourself but thanks underwears I really really appreciate it I like to use these sentiments for my period anyways but you're bleeding can be heavier in the first week everyone else gonna be a little bit different but I'll use a pad on the things underwear on top so that way it's like a double whammy protection so that you're not leaking and then after you're bleeding eases up a bit I just wear the things underwear and it's just way better definitely check out thinks underwear if you haven't heard of it so that's my tips for the postpartum bleeding and comfort down there after you given birth tips and I cannot stress enough the importance of helping prevent tearing being such a huge factor in my comfort and ease in recovery so talk to your medical professional if you're having a home birth there's a really good chance that your Midwife has techniques and maybe has different ideas on ways to help baby coming out really gently so that you are less likely to tear and you're having a hot little bird just talk to your doctor and see if that's something that you can get some advice on as well I'm not sure how it would work as I have never had a hospital birth but that's just my tips for that I also forgot to mention the benefits of drinking red raspberry leaf tea postpartum red raspberry tea not only helps stop postpartum bleeding by increasing the uterine tone it can also be beneficial for your milk supply okay the next thing I want to talk about is mastitis mastitis is a breast infection from inflammation and an over engorged breasts which can be very common to experience in those first few weeks after giving birth because when your milk comes in your milk comes in generally with an oversupply to learn how much your baby really so we can adjust and start creating the correct amount of milk based on how much you're pumping and your baby is breastfeeding if you're not breastfeeding enough or if you're holding up your breasts with a bra and tightening your breasts we start to leak it's more likely to encourage symptoms for bositis to come on now is the time to let it all hang out and not hold your breasts in with tight bras or even with your hands and when you're resting on one sided then you start to have letdown on the other side you can either let the milk come into a blanket or you can get a certain type of milk catcher to let the milk come in so that you can save that milk and let it to go to waste so there's one called naka I feel like I need to get one I have never gotten one of all I just let it drip into blankets or put a bottle there to let it go in but I would like to get one this time we're probably gonna get one this weekend by a chance that's gonna be your most helpful tool to prevent you from getting mastitis or having symptoms in the status so symptoms of mastitis are a fever body a tender and sore spots on the breast where you feel it and even you might even see red spots on the breast and the moment any symptoms occur with mastitis take action right away so it doesn't turn into a full-blown infection contact your medical professional of course first and what you can do to help ease the infection so that it doesn't turn into like a whole book thing because it can potentially be quite serious if you don't take action and if it gets worse take hot showers where you're massaging the store spots to the breast so that the infection can get drawn out breastfeed your baby as much as possible on demand no it will not hurt your baby the baby will help draw the infection out and it doesn't hurt your baby at all and put cabbage leaves on your breast for a soothing cooling effect it really makes a difference and then another thing that is really helpful is the happy duct tape share by wish guard and just arrest as much as possible sleep my baby sleep snap whatever you can and coats really hard to do but just nap and sleep as much as possible drink lots of water another thing that's really helpful is to wear loose clothing those are the best natural tips I can recommend that really helps nip it in the butt and make those symptoms go away another common experience is postpartum depression I haven't personally experienced a postpartum depression myself and I don't have knowledge to share on the topic but I felt it important to include in this video and my heart goes out to all the mothers who go through such a difficult hardship so I posted a question on my Instagram story is asking mothers who have experienced postpartum depression to share what resources they would like me to share with others here's what some mothers share do firstly seek out medical professional help and guidance therapy and counseling ask for help accept help find someone else who experienced it to not feel alone reach out to other mothers and friends most part of depression pages on Instagram for encouragement look up Julia Jones work new warn mothers someone said I didn't get postpartum depression but I did get postpartum anxiety pretty bad meditation using headspace app was the best also ensuring I got enough sleep and didn't have caffeine also letting my partner know whenever I felt it coming on so he could support me the book postnatal depletion care the book this isn't what I expected by Karen P Kleinman and Valerie Davis taking alone time connection with other mothers and when needed medication no shame my placenta pills definitely helped me through my postpartum depression the Midwife recommended me to go to a group therapy for PPD it saved me last night for the stage she remember to love your body for this process I know that you're not gonna be feeling like your most glorious glamorous self in those first months after you give birth but I think it's so important to just embrace that soft round belly look at the miracle of what your body just did and be thankful for the beautiful life that you just created and to focus on how beautiful you really are through this experience I just think that's super important to just love your body through this because your perception becomes your reality alright so that's basically it I hope you find this helpful and if you're gonna be having a baby soon or you just had a baby congratulations and I really hope that these tips help create an easier and more gentle comfortable postpartum experience for you that's all for now and I'll see you next time [Music]
#POSTPARTUM #CARE #tips #easier #recovery #pain #breastmilk #bleeding
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