Sweating is one way your body gets rid of the extra water you retained during pregnancy. Even after the water weight is gone, you may continue to sweat more than usual if you're nursing, probably due to the hormonal and metabolic changes associated with breastfeeding. If you give birth vaginally, your vagina will probably remain a little larger than it was before. Right after delivery, your vagina is stretched open and may be swollen and bruised.
Over the next few days, swelling starts to go down, and your vagina begins to regain muscle tone. In the next few weeks, it will gradually get smaller. Doing Kegel exercises regularly can restore muscle tone. Some women find pelvic rehab therapy is even more helpful. If you had a small tear in your perineum that did not require stitches, it should heal quickly and cause little discomfort.
If you had an episiotomy or a significant tear, your perineum needs time to heal, so wait to start having sex again until you get your provider's okay at your postpartum checkup. If you continue to have tenderness in that area, delay intercourse until you feel ready.
In the meantime, decide which method of contraception you want to use. The first breastfeeding sessions may cause some abdominal cramping because your baby's suckling stimulates the release of oxytocin — a hormone that triggers uterine contractions. And when your milk comes in , usually two to three days after you give birth, your breasts may get swollen, tender, and hard.
They also may throb and feel uncomfortably full. This is called engorgement , and it should get better in a day or two. Nursing your baby often is the best thing you can do for relief. Frequent nursing from the start is sometimes enough to prevent engorgement altogether.
If this doesn't help, talk to a lactation consultant. You'll still begin to produce milk if you're not breastfeeding , and your breasts will become engorged a few days after you give birth. This may cause considerable discomfort that can last for several days. The pain tends to peak three to five days after you give birth, and it can take several weeks for your milk to dry up completely. In the meantime, wear a supportive bra around the clock, and put cold packs on your breasts to ease swelling and inhibit milk production.
Cover the cold packs with cloth to protect your skin. You can also take acetaminophen or ibuprofen for pain relief. If you're extremely uncomfortable, express just enough milk to make the situation more tolerable. However, this may prolong the process because stimulating your nipples and draining your breasts signals your body to make more milk. And don't apply warmth to your breasts either because this can also encourage milk production. If your hair got thicker during your pregnancy, it may now start to shed in handfuls over the first few months after delivery.
Over time usually within a year or so , your hair will return to normal. On the bright side, if you developed excess facial and body hair during pregnancy, it's likely you'll lose most of that hair within six months after having your baby. Hormonal changes, stress, and the fatigue brought on by new parenthood may affect your skin along with the rest of your body.
Some women who had perfectly clear skin during pregnancy will have more breakouts in the months following delivery. On the other hand, if you had acne during pregnancy, you may begin to see some improvement now. Also, if you have chloasma darkened patches of skin on your lips, nose, cheeks, or forehead , or a dark line, called the linea nigra , running from your belly button to your public bone, the discoloration will begin to fade in the months after giving birth.
It will probably go away completely as long as you protect your skin from the sun. BabyCenter's editorial team is committed to providing the most helpful and trustworthy pregnancy and parenting information in the world. When creating and updating content, we rely on credible sources: respected health organizations, professional groups of doctors and other experts, and published studies in peer-reviewed journals.
We believe you should always know the source of the information you're seeing. Learn more about our editorial and medical review policies. Guidelines for Perinatal Care. Breastfeeding Handbook for Physicians. Postpartum depression. After you give birth, you may still have trouble controlling when you pee.
While most women end up having good control over their bladders around a year after giving birth, Whelihan says that those who had very large babies and delivered vaginally can have a lasting problem.
If this sounds like you, it's definitely worth bringing up with your doctor so you can work together to find some relief.
Also known as the "mask of pregnancy," this condition, which causes brown spots to appear on your face, occurs in a majority of pregnant women, Michael Cackovic, M. Your hair and nails tend to grow well during pregnancy, but the loss of hormones after childbirth can cause you to actually lose your hair, Whelihan says. As a result, it can feel limp and lifeless. However, this usually improves after about a year postpartum. While stretch marks often fade over a period of months to one or two years after you give birth, Cackovic says they don't ever fully disappear.
He points out that a large amount of weight gain seems to make women more prone to developing them, but pregnancy is such a major change that they can affect anyone no matter how much pregnancy weight they gain and it's worth pointing out that they're completely normal. Whelihan says this change is often the most overlooked. Experts point out that these changes don't happen to everyone—and it's unlikely that you'd experience all of them. As for your eventual after-pregnancy boob size—who knows?
Your breasts could stay bigger, get smaller or revert to their pre-pregnancy size. While recovery from a vaginal delivery versus a C-section will pose different challenges , there are also many similarities: Afterpains, which feel like menstrual cramps, begin shortly after you deliver and last for two or three days.
These contractions help your uterus start to shrink to its pre-baby state. Over about six weeks, your uterus contracts to its original size, eventually lowering itself behind the pubic bone. This helps flatten your tummy, as well. That blood and mucus, which becomes lighter in colour and flow over time, comes from an area about the size of your hand, where the placenta was attached to your uterine muscle, says Blennerhassett.
Similarly, a C-section means a puffy belly and painful incision. Both will gradually get better over several weeks. Rest and painkillers are your friends. You can also soothe your sore and stitched perineum the area between your vulva and anus with a sitz bath or by tucking a frozen maxi-pad sprayed with witch hazel into your undies. A sitz bath can help ease hemorrhoids, which can develop during the pushing part of labour.
New pain, blood or discharge means you need to talk to your healthcare provider pronto so you can be checked for infection. Your perineum or abdomen should be healed at the six-week mark whew. If this is the case, a pelvic health physiotherapist can teach you how to massage the incision site to promote circulation and healing.
Not that you miss it, but when will your period come back? Once you start nursing less, usually around the six-month mark, your period may start up again, but the timing varies from person to person.
And just a reminder: You ovulate the month before your period returns. Belly, bladder, bowels and pelvic floor Stuff you take for granted, like going to the bathroom, may not go as planned. Cold compresses or a warm sitz bath can help. On the other hand, you may be peeing or sweating a ton in the first week or two after delivery, as your body adjusts to changing hormones and works to get rid of excess fluid.
Pee can also sting your sore bottom, which is why your nurse or midwife likely gave you a super handy squirt bottle. Fill it with warm water to spray your perineum while you pee. Trust us. Postpartum constipation is pretty common in the first week or so, because of dehydration, the side effects of pain meds, having a C-section abdominal surgery puts the bowels on quiet mode and a fear of pushing anything else out of that tender area of your body.
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