Amaya Many people attribute slow postpartum recovery to "not sitting in the right position during confinement" and "not enough supplementation". In fact, this is a big misunderstanding. The speed of recovery is never determined by a single factor. It is determined by the physical foundation before pregnancy, the degree of damage during childbirth, postpartum behavioral choices and even emotional state.
Not long ago, I received a 1996-year-old mother. She came for an evaluation 3 months after her natural delivery. When she stood, her belly still felt like she was 5 months pregnant. She leaked urine when she coughed. Her waist was so sore that she couldn't straighten up even after taking two steps while carrying the 10-pound baby. She herself felt aggrieved, saying that she had not even touched cold water during the entire confinement, drank supplements every now and then, and never got out of bed except to go to the toilet. How come her recovery was so much worse than that of the mother in the same ward who wandered around after giving birth?
I examined her and found out that she had been sitting for a long time at work before she was pregnant, and her core strength was very weak. Before she was pregnant, her rectus abdominis muscle had been separated by more than one finger. She didn't take it seriously at all. This time, she had to use forceps for a difficult delivery, and the pelvic floor muscle tear was much more severe than that of ordinary mothers. In addition, she had not moved for 42 days after delivery, and her muscles immediately showed disuse atrophy. The rectus abdominis muscle was separated to three fingers, and her pelvic floor muscle strength was only level 1, so slow recovery was inevitable.
Nowadays, opinions on postpartum recovery on the Internet are very different. One group says that you must rest absolutely after childbirth, and you will suffer from "confinement syndrome" if you move. The other group says that you must practice quickly after giving birth, and you will not be able to recover if it is too late. Both of these opinions are actually quite extreme. I have seen many mothers who listened to the former method until their entire lower limbs were swollen and their core strength was completely lost. I have also seen many mothers who practiced crunches blindly just a week after giving birth, which directly caused the rectus abdominis separation to become more serious, and even caused the problem of uterine prolapse.
Another factor that many people haven't noticed is their mood and routine. The mother I just mentioned barely slept a full night after giving birth, and her mother-in-law kept whispering in her ear every day, "Why did you recover so slowly? Is it because I didn't take good care of you?" She herself was so anxious that she had insomnia all night long. During the review, her hemoglobin was still low, her energy and blood could not keep up, and her muscle repair speed was naturally slow.
In fact, to use an inappropriate analogy, postpartum recovery is like repairing a car that has been scratched and bumped. The parts of the car you have driven for several years have been worn out, and this time the car was hit harder than others. During repairs, you will either park it in the garage every day and dare not drive it, refuse to do regular rehabilitation and break-in, or you will slam on the accelerator right after the repair. Then the recovery will definitely be much slower than others.
I have been in this industry for five or six years, and the mothers I have seen who recover quickly don’t have any special remedies. They just have the habit of exercising before pregnancy, and I don’t blindly follow various folk remedies after giving birth. When it’s time to get out of bed, I walk slowly, and when it’s time to rehabilitate the pelvic floor muscles and rectus abdominis, I do it on time. The family also puts less pressure on me. I eat enough nutrition and don’t need to take a lot of supplements. Before I know it, I’m almost recovered.
