Postpartum recovery issues

There is no universal standard answer to postpartum recovery. There is no need to copy any Internet celebrity template or "golden recovery period" strategy. The core judgment criterion is always "look at the medical indicators first, and then combine it with your own foundation. The priority is always health and function first, and morphological adjustment later."

A while ago, I accompanied Xiao Min, who was just out of confinement, to a postpartum repair facility near her home for consultation. After a few touches, the consultant said that her rectus abdominis was separated by three fingers, her pelvis was tilted forward and outward, and her pelvic floor muscles were loose. If she did not undergo a full set of repairs, she would not only leak urine for the rest of her life but would also affect her couple's life. The 12-time package was discounted to 16,800, which scared Xiao Min to scan the code on the spot. I stopped her and went to the rehabilitation department of the public obstetrics and gynecology hospital for a 42-day reexamination. The results came out: rectus abdominis separation 2.4 fingers, pelvic floor muscle score 72 points, uterine involution is completely normal. The doctor said that there is no need to do paid items at all. She should do 15 minutes of abdominal breathing + Kegel exercises every day when she goes home, avoid standing for a long time and hold the baby for a long time, and then come back for a reexamination in 3 months. Later, she followed the doctor's instructions and went for a review more than two months later. She found that the rectus abdominis muscle had returned to within 1 finger, and the leakage of urine from coughing was completely gone.

There are so many opinions about postpartum recovery now, and the opinions in different fields are even completely opposite. In fact, each has its own applicable scenarios, and there is no need to praise one or the other. For example, most doctors of the evidence-based medicine school will emphasize that not to over-intervene if pathological indications are not met. For example, if the rectus abdominis is separated within 2 fingers, the pelvic floor muscle score is more than 70 points, and the separation pain of the pubic symphysis does not affect normal walking, they are all normal postpartum physiological recovery processes. As long as you pay attention to the way of exerting force every day, you will slowly recover on your own. Excessive use of electrical stimulation and manual compression may disrupt the body's own recovery rhythm. Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners who do traditional postpartum rehabilitation will pay more attention to the conditioning of qi, blood and muscles. For example, people with postpartum qi and blood deficiency are not recommended to exercise prematurely and should use moxibustion and medicated meals to replenish qi and blood. If the separation of the pubic symphysis is so painful that you can't walk, finding a qualified Chinese medicine practitioner to perform bone-setting reduction can indeed relieve the pain quickly and is much more comfortable than carrying it. There is also a postpartum recovery idea that has become popular in the fitness circle in recent years. It advocates gradually returning to strength training, core and buttock exercises, and quickly returning to your pre-pregnancy figure 2 months after delivery. This is not wrong, but it is only suitable for mothers who have regular fitness habits for more than a year before pregnancy and have no serious damage to their pelvic floor muscles. If you can't even run 800 meters before pregnancy, and you just follow the postpartum period and do crunches and Pamela jumps, it will only aggravate rectus abdominis separation and urinary leakage, which is not worth the gain.

Don’t believe it, I met a mother a while ago who hardly exercised before pregnancy. After giving birth, in order to catch up with the "golden repair period", she did 100 abdominal crunches every day after confinement. After practicing for half a month, her leakage changed from coughing to even walking. When she went to the hospital to check her pelvic floor muscle score, her score dropped to 50 points. Instead, she spent more money to go to the hospital for repairs.

By the way, many people ask whether products such as home pelvic floor muscle repair devices, pelvic belts, and waistbands are subject to IQ taxes? In fact, it depends on the situation. The home-use pelvic floor muscle repair device, which is a compliant Class II medical device, has similar principles to the low-frequency electrical stimulation used in hospitals. If it is inconvenient for you to go to the hospital for repair, the pelvic floor muscle score is between 60-80 points. If you follow the guidance of the app and use it correctly, you can indeed save a lot of money, and the effect will not be much different. But if you buy a Sanwu product worth hundreds of dollars, or if you practice blindly and don’t exert your strength correctly, it will definitely be useless. The same goes for the pelvic belt, which can be used 2-3 days after a normal delivery or after a cesarean section when the wound no longer hurts. It can relieve the pain of separation of the pubic symphysis, but don’t expect it to help you shrink your hips. Those who say that your hips will narrow by 3 cm after wearing it for a month are deceiving you. As for the waist corset, I really don’t recommend anyone to use it after childbirth. It will tighten the waist and abdomen and make you breathless. It will also compress the internal organs, which will increase the abdominal pressure and make the problems of urine leakage and visceral sagging more serious. If you really want to get in shape, it is better to wait for the body to recover and slowly train the core.

I have contacted almost hundreds of postpartum mothers and found that their biggest problem is not that they don’t know how to recover, but that they are too anxious and always benchmark themselves against the progress of others. When I see others wearing midriff-baring clothes three months after giving birth, I feel anxious that my belly is still flabby; when I see others losing 90 pounds six months after giving birth, I blame myself for not being able to keep my mouth shut. In fact, the recovery rhythms of normal birth and cesarean section are different. The recovery rhythms of 90 pounds and 130 pounds before pregnancy are different. The recovery rhythms of raising a baby by yourself and having someone help you are even different. There is no comparison at all. I have a friend who had a cesarean section at an advanced age and is anemic. She is still 15 pounds fat 6 months after giving birth. She feels tired after holding the baby even two steps a day. She was anxious before, but later all the indicators were normal. The doctor said that she had a weak foundation and naturally lost weight through breastfeeding. Now that the baby is 1 and a half years old, she has already returned to her pre-pregnancy weight. Her waist is not sore, her legs are not hurting, and she has no urine leakage problems. She is much more comfortable than mothers who are in a hurry to lose weight and destroy their bodies.

To be honest, when it comes to postpartum recovery, there is really no need to rush forward or pursue the so-called "girly feeling". Your own comfort is the first priority. After all, in the first few months after giving birth, sleeping a full night is already a luxury. Instead of spending tens of thousands of dollars on a repair package, it would be better to sleep a few more hours and hold the baby less, which is worse than anything else.