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你刚刚过李的重要里程碑fe—childbirth! It’s true that finally having your bundle of joy in your arms is an incomparable feeling. Right now, you may be enthusiastic about your new duties as a mother, but are also troubled by certain body changes, which you do not know what to make of. If you’ve been grappling for answers, we share with you a few of those body changes that you may experience either immediately or afterward of your childbirth. Here it goes:
1. Involution Of The Uterus
The uterus is made of crisscrossed fibers, which will begin to tighten soon after you’ve given birth and the contractions cause the uterus to shrink, though not completely. Due to the contractions, the placenta detaches from the uterine wall. Once the placenta is taken out, the open blood vessels are closed. Initially, following childbirth, you can feel the top of the uterus near your belly button area. This shrinks to half it’s weight, almost a pound, in a week and further comes down to only 11 ounces in two weeks. After nearly four weeks, your uterus will shrink to its pre-pregnancy weight of 3.5 ounces or less than that. This is called involution of the uterus.
2. Immediate Weight Loss
后带着宝宝的体重约9 months, you’ll immediately get a sense of weight loss soon after delivery. This is because you’ll lose anywhere around 12 pounds (5.4 kgs) – 7-8 pounds of your baby (3.6 to 3 kgs), about one pound of the placenta (1/2 kg), and a few more pounds of amniotic fluids and blood. However, you may take some more time to get back to your pre-pregnancy weight.
3. Hair Loss
If you were proud of your luscious locks during your pregnancy, you’ll be shocked to find yourself losing handfuls of hair following childbirth. The truth is, during pregnancy, your estrogen level is high which prevents hair loss as it prolongs the hair’s growth phase. Following childbirth, the estrogen level drastically goes down resulting in hair loss. But relax! your current hair loss will not make you bald. It is just a phase and your hair will soon be back to its normal growth routine, most probably in year’s time.
4. Skin Changes
If you thought acne outbreaks were a thing of the past once you crossed your teens, then let us inform you that pregnancy too takes you down the same path, though temporarily. Stress, hormonal changes, and fatigue is bound to affect your skin. However, most of the skin outbreaks and acne will clear with time and your skin condition will improve. Stretch marks are also an inevitable effect of pregnancy. However, they too fade with time, but may not disappear completely.
5. Excess Vaginal Discharge
Following childbirth, you will experience excess vaginal discharge. However, unlike regular discharge, this one contains blood, leftover tissues in your ovary, and bacteria. This discharge is called as lochia. Initially, the lochia will be pretty heavy with dark, bright blood. But gradually the amount of blood flow decreases. This generally takes around 10 days to reduce completely. However, some women do experience spotting or lochia remnants in between for up to 20 days.
6. Uncontrolled Bladder
During the last trimester, your bladder takes a toll due to the weight of the baby. The stress only adds up to labor contractions, childbirth strain, effects of epidural anesthesia (if you opted for one) all of which may lead to some amount of swelling or temporary loss of sensitivity. This is why you may be unable to sense your need to pee normally. It’s advisable that you time your pee breaks on an hourly basis even if you don’t feel it coming to avoid urinary problems like bladder distention.
We hope the above list of body changes answers some of your nagging concerns to a certain extent. However, if you face any issue for a prolonged period of time, do not hesitate to visit your doctor.
