The golden period for recovering your lower abdomen after childbirth

The golden period for postpartum recovery of the lower abdomen is within 6 months after delivery. The best window for active intervention is from 42 days after vaginal delivery, from 42 days after normal delivery, from 75 days after caesarean section, after the wound is completely healed, to 6 months after delivery. If this stage is missed, the free fat accumulated in the abdomen will gradually turn into solidified stubborn fat, and the repair activity of the stretched rectus abdominis and skin elastic fibers will also be significantly reduced. The time and economic costs of subsequent abdominal reduction will be at least 2-3 times higher.

A while ago, I accompanied my cousin who had just given birth to her second child to a tertiary hospital for a postpartum review. The rehabilitation therapist who treated her had been doing postpartum rehabilitation for 8 years and had almost 2,000 cases in her hand. The first sentence she opened her mouth to say to my cousin was that you came early, just at the beginning of the golden period. If you take good care of it, it will save you a lot of trouble than if you wait for a year and a half.

There is quite a fierce quarrel on the Internet about this golden period. The two groups of people each have their own reasons, but they all make sense. A group of bloggers who are engaged in evidence-based medicine say that the golden period is established because relaxin, which is elevated during pregnancy, will be completely metabolized about 6 months after delivery. At this stage, the muscles and skin of the abdomen still retain a certain degree of rebound activity, and the newly accumulated fat is also in a free state and has not yet been firmly attached to the waist and abdomen. As long as the method is right, you can lose weight quickly. The other group are teachers who do traditional postpartum conditioning. They say don’t just focus on the flatness of the belly. In the first half of the postpartum period, the loss of Qi and blood is severe. If you do aerobics and diet in order to slim down your belly, you will actually destroy your foundation and suffer from urinary leakage, backache, and a lot of hair loss problems. The gain outweighs the loss. To be honest, I agree with both of these points of view. Originally, postpartum recovery is not just about how much waistline has been lost. Only when the body is well-established can the real gains be made.

I have met two very different mothers before, so you will have an idea. One was twins who were born naturally. The rectus abdominis separation was reexamined 3 fingers after 42 days. She was not in a hurry to hire a personal trainer and go to the gym. She took advantage of the baby's morning break to catch up on her sleep, and did abdominal breathing for 15 minutes while lying in bed watching TV shows. She also changed her usual milk tea from full sugar to three. After sharing the sugar, I never felt hungry after one bite. The rectus abdominis was re-examined at 3 months and returned to 1 and a half fingers. After that, I slowly added some low-cost light core movements such as glute bridge and dead bug pose. When I was just 6 months old, I went to take a parent-child photo shoot. I wore navel-baring clothes and it was completely impossible to tell that I had just given birth to twins. Another mother has a big heart. She thinks that since aesthetic medicine is so advanced now, weight loss will be the same at any time. She ate and drank all the time in the first year after giving birth and never did any restorative exercises. When her baby was 1 year old and wanted to wear the previous skirt, she realized that her belly was bulging like a small rubber ball. After running for three months, her belly didn't go away at all. She went for a check-up and found out that her rectus abdominis muscle was still there. I separated 2 fingers, and finally had rectus abdominis repair for 2 months, and then 8 months of diet and strength training to flatten my belly. Even so, the skin on my belly was still a little loose, and I finally had several radiofrequency treatments to tighten it back up. The money and time spent on it was more than three times that of the previous mother.

Oh, by the way, there is another pitfall that I have to mention. Many people tighten their waists so tightly right after giving birth that they can’t even breathe. They say that they can tighten their belly back, but don’t do it blindly. Regardless of natural birth or caesarean section, the use of a corset in the first 6 weeks can only be used to support the falling internal organs and fix the wound of caesarean section. It can be worn for up to 2-3 hours a day. If it is not left for 24 hours, the full abdominal pressure will be placed on the already relaxed pelvic floor muscles, which may range from urine leakage to uterine prolapse. I had a fan who did this before. The pelvic floor muscle condition was supposed to be in good condition during the 42-day review. However, because of the waistband for a month, the pelvic floor muscle score dropped by 20 points during the re-examination. Instead, it took 2 months to repair the pelvic floor, which in vain delayed the recovery time of the tummy.

Of course, if you have passed the 6-month golden period, there is no need to worry. It is really not like "there is no such store after this village". Several mothers around me only started to seriously reduce their belly after their babies were in kindergarten. They can still wear the jeans they wore before pregnancy. It just takes a little more time. The muscles and skin have less rebound ability. They need to do more strength training on the waist and abdomen to tighten. It is impossible to lose dimensions as easily as in the golden period, but it is definitely not hopeless. Those who say they can never lose weight after the golden period are either deliberately creating anxiety by the sellers, or they simply have not found the right method - repair the rectus abdominis and pelvic floor muscles first and then lose fat. This logic applies no matter whether you are 1 year or 3 years postpartum.

In fact, to put it bluntly, what the golden period gives you is just a bonus buff. It does not mean that you can lose weight casually by messing around in this stage, nor does it mean that you will be useless after this stage. The most reliable thing is to wait for a 42-day reexamination and listen to the doctor's judgment to see if your rectus abdominis and pelvic floor muscles are ready to start exercising, and then slowly adjust the rhythm. Don't ruin your body just to quickly get back to your pre-pregnancy clothes. After all, as mothers, we should take care of ourselves first, which is better than anything else, right?