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Labour & Post-Partum
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Treatment
Many new mothers try to do too much, too fast after their baby is born. For the first week postpartum, try to care only for yourself and your baby's immediate needs. Let someone else cook, clean, shop and attend to those other parts of your life. Call up all those people who offered to help and ask each to provide your family's evening meal one day for the first week.
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Do not answer the phone or front door have your partner do this, and tell all those well-meaning friends and family that you and the baby are sleeping.
The postnatal period refers to the six weeks directly following childbirth. Initially, women experience:
- Bloody vaginal discharge that will diminish and turn a lighter pinkish color as the week progresses. Initially this discharge of leftover blood, mucus and tissue is as heavy as a period and lasts for three to four days. It will then turn watery pink before progressing through brown, yellow and white over the next few weeks.
- Abdominal cramps or afterpains as the uterus contracts. The uterus, about the size of a large grapefruit in the hours after birth, will decrease to the size of a lime within the next 6 weeks. These afterpains tend to occur when oxytocin is released as the baby latches on to breastfeed.
- Women who have given birth vaginally and have a tear will generally experience some perineal discomfort. This pain or discomfort is expected to diminish as the perineum heals, usually within 7-10 days. After the first 24-hours, heat in the form of sitz baths and hot compresses will draw blood to the area and promote more rapid healing. Rest assured that the tissue of the vulva and vagina usually heal extremely well, with the right care and attention.
- For women who have had a caesarean section there will be incision pain. It is important to remember that although recovery will be similar to that of someone who has undergone abdominal surgery, there will be the additional factor of recovering from childbirth. If you are able to move around, do so early but sparingly. If you are unable to move because of pain, ask for more pain relief. Generally, those women who are up and moving earlier and more often are the ones who recover sooner.
- There may be difficulty passing urine or having a bowel movement in the first 24 hours postpartum. It is considered essential that the bladder is emptied within two to three hours of birth so that the uterus can descend without a distended bladder obstructing it. The fluid that your body stored up in the last months of pregnancy will find its way back into your bloodstream. There the kidneys will remove the amount not needed. For most women, that means they will urinate huge amounts in the days after delivery. A new mother may not have a bowel movement for several days. Most do, but it is not unusual not to have one until the third or fourth day postpartum.
- There will usually be some breast discomfort, with the breasts becoming engorged with milk on day three or four as the milk flow comes in and changes from rich colostrum to breast milk. The arrival of the breast milk around the third day can occur within a time period of a few hours, resulting in breasts that are hard, painful and very swollen, making breast-feeding difficult. This engorgement is usually brief and settles as the body’s milk production adjusts to the baby’s demands.
The idea, based on Traditional Chinese Medicine, that it will take women at least a month to fully recover from childbirth is not a widespread one in Western society. While 30 days of recovery time may sound extreme to some women, it is in reality a reasonable length of time considering this is to compensate not only for the birth but also for being pregnant for nine months. This is not a time of complete bed rest but rather a time when physical rest should be taken at every opportunity. Exercise is appropriate and attention should be placed on a diet that is suited to the woman’s constitution and rebuilding her energy.
At the Family Fertility Clinic, we offer support during the postpartum period for general recovery and in the incidence of any of these circumstances:
Persistent uterine bleeding
Afterpains
Night-sweats
Constipation and hemorrhoids
Urinary difficulty
Insufficient lactation
Mastitis
Postpartum Depression
Labour & Post-Partum
As a woman nears the end of her pregnancy, she will begin to notice a series of changes as her body prepares for the birth of her baby.
It is expected that a baby will settle into a head down position within the pelvis around week 34-36 of the pregnancy. Women with a baby known to be in a posterior or breech position in this period may undergo western medical intervention to try and reposition the baby for childbirth. Since close to 50% of babies will have turned spontaneously by 36 weeks, many midwives and doctors will wait until 36 weeks have passed before discussing the possibility of intervention.
The practitioners at the Family Fertility Clinic can offer assistance with turning a malpositioned baby. Studies looking at the optimum time for turning a breech baby with Chinese Medical techniques have found that intervention is most efficient at week 34, before the baby has grown too large. If you have been told that your baby is not in an optimal position by your midwife or obstetrician, see your practitioner as soon as possible to discuss safe and effective treatment.
In preparation for birth, a woman’s doctor or midwife will usually recommend weekly visits when the gestational age of 36-37 weeks has been reached. These visits are designed to monitor the baby’s position and heartbeat and to monitor the mother for gestational diabetes and pregnancy induced hypertension (also known as pre-eclampsia).
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From about 37 weeks onward, a woman’s preparation for labor usually consists of attending educational prenatal classes, talking through her birth plans and her fears with her midwife or doctor and trying to rest as much as possible.
Minor discomforts that women may be experiencing around this time, which are considered normal, include heartburn, constipation, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, leg cramps, bleeding gums, nasal congestion, nosebleeds, backache, swelling of the hands and feet, difficulty sleeping and increased anxiety and fatigue. It is also normal to experience more frequent urination as the baby descends and places further pressure on the bladder. As the baby descends into the pelvis, breathing should become easier.
This is the right time to start Cervical Ripening treatments with your practitioner at the Family Fertility Clinic. Cervical Ripening is a safe and effective treatment to promote natural labor. Specific prebirth treatments help prepare a woman’s body for birth, with and emphasis on preparing the cervix and pelvis for labor. Research has demonstrated that the average duration of labor in a group of women giving birth for the first time was reduced from 8 hours and 2 minutes to 6 hours and 36 minutes in the group that received prebirth acupuncture. The group with prebirth acupuncture also reported a reduced rate of medical intervention. Acupuncture is an ideal method to help women prepare themselves to have the most efficient labor possible.
If labor fails to proceed spontaneously within the two weeks before or after the due date, or if membranes rupture without the onset of labor, acupuncture can also be used to naturally induce labor.
Once labor has begun, acupuncture or acupressure can be used for pain management and to help support an efficient labor. Partners or birth support people can be taught the techniques and points to use during labor.
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