Large blood loss after birth, when did you feel normal again?

[hotpotlover]

Hi everyone,

so my baby boy was born on August 12th. It was quite a dramatic birth, with forceps, a 2nd degree tear and episiotomy, ragged membranes and an estimated 2.2 litres blood loss straight after delivery while I was being stitched up.

The consultant couldn't tell my why I lost so much blood.

We had to stay in hospital for 5 days, and I received one unit of blood transfusion (about 500 ml?).

They wouldn't give me any more blood as they say they are risks with transfusions.

At the moment I'm taking 400 mg of iron every day and I'm also on antibiotics due to a urine infection I developed because of wearing a cathether for about 2 weeks ( reason is I was incontinent after birth, but catheter has been taken out now).

I feel quite traumatised by it all and feel like my body has turned against me.

On top of that my gp might not do my 6 week check up due to corona virus. They said they will do it for babies, but not for mums.

My vagina also still feels quite sore and bruised and I have a heavy feeling down there sometimes after peeing and the outer lips of my vagina also hurt when I'm peeing ( sorry, if tmi)

Has anyone else suffered such a large blood loss and how long did it take you to feel like yourself again? Physically and mentally?

Did it take you longer for your period to return because you were so anemic?

I feel quite let down and alone and I'm even considering paying a private gynecologist to give me a check up.

I suffered a four litre blood loss during an emergency c section with 6 transfusions afterwards.

I felt shit for about six months, just really tired. I was really anaemic after, took iron tablets and improved my diet and that really helped. Mentally it took two years to feel okay about what happened, and I'm pregnancy again now so I must have moved on from it to an extent! I had an afterbirth briefing which was really beneficially for my mental state, but there was a delay accessing it as there was a bit of a wait in my area.

My period came back within four months, I wasn't breastfeeding.

Meant to add - I felt super alone as well. I had sepsis after, and it was just such a traumatic experience but I was discharged after 10 days and I felt completely unsupported by GP etc

I lost 3 litres and it took about 3 months to feel alive again. I found spa tone gentler on my digestive system as the iron tablet made me poop bricks!

I ended up on hdu had 5 units of blood and plasma and a year of ferrous sulphate tablets.
I'd say after the first six weeks I started improving but slowly especially while I was still bleeding. I'd say it took me a year to come round because you never rest and so your body takes longer to heal. I also bf for over a year which takes its toll.
The hospital are right RE transfusions I ended up contracting rare antibodies I didn't know till I was pregnant again and they can cause problems.
In contrast I had dt when I was 5 years older, natural birth and was up and about much quicker and not as ill, managing the school runs within days on foot. The traumatic birth was definitely a longer recovery period.

Oh forgot to say, I had a right wobble when I caught pregnant for Dd2 and was referred to antenatal psychology. They think I had PTSD from DD1's birth and where great and really reassuring throughout

I had an episiotomy and lost some blood. I didn't need a transfusion but had to take iron tablet for 4 weeks. It was less traumatic than yours but I felt like I had been hit by a bus for at least a month.

Is your GP surgery doing phone consultations? I'd look for an appointment and discuss this with them. They will hopefully be able to reassure you or advise what to do.

With complications you should be reviewed covid or not. Could you ring the hospital and get reviewed there? I had my review at the hospital due to trauma.
I had 5 units of blood and some plasma. Ended up on itu. A year on ferrous sulphate. It gets easier but I'd say it took me a year (but you have to factor in being a sleep deprived mum too). Make sure you look after your mental health too I remember having an awful period coming up to first anniversary thinking I might not have been around for all dc firsts and the same when dc started school (although I was hormonal new mum at the time).
They were right RE transfusion I ended up being infected with a rare antibody (hence not screened for) which caused problems in my second pregnancy (only found out during pregnancy).
However on the positive side I went on to have a normal delivery of twins and was back to full health pretty quickly.

A good three months for me. With a two litre loss during my first deliver, so similar as you.
Agree with PP that Spatone is a damn sight better than iron tablets. You absorb more plus it doesn't bung you up.

I also looked like shit - only looking back at pics of myself I realised I looked like I had died. It was a shit time.

How you feel now is understandable. Please do ask the hospital for a debrief if you think it'll help you mentally come to terms with what happened. And just look after yourself.

I felt better after about 3 months but lost less blood than the OP. Otherwise could have written the post myself, except my GP was available and helpful and I didn’t get sepsis. I tried to breast feed which didn’t work, perhaps because of my anaemia. The iron tablets were a real problem too, being constipated and scared to poo because of tears is not pleasant. Sitting down hurt and I felt faint walking short distances for weeks. I tried to persevere with breastfeeding but DS was constantly hungry and so didn’t sleep, & he didn’t put much weight on. Once I gave up trying to breast feed completely when DS was 2 months everything started to improve gradually, helped by DS who fortunately slept well once I’d given up breast feeding, as I was constantly knackered. I managed next to nothing for the first 3 months, I felt like I’d been steamrollered.
I did have DC2, the birth was much easier (ventouse) and I recovered well, also managed to breastfeed successfully.