Help! First period after birth (TMI, sorry)

[MadAboutQuavers]

I gave birth to DS 11 weeks ago, it was a complicated birth with ventouse, forceps a bad tear and episiotomy.

I started to bleed last night, and to put it bluntly, I'm bleeding for England. I'm having to use really thick sanitary pads - at one point it was running down my legs, there is so much of it

Is this normal? Is your first period after birth usually really heavy? When I saw how much blood there was I thought something might be wrong - although I don't feel unwell and have no pain.

Hoping someone can reassure me here!

Anybody?

The first period can often be quite, erm, interesting.

How heavy is the bleeding - as in how often do you need to change your pad? Every hour? every two hours? less?

Yes first periods are freakishly heavy. You can ask your GP to prescribe nefamic or transxemic acid if it goes on more than a day or two without getting any lighter.

If you are getting through more than one pad an hour you should probably seek medical advice. You could always ring NHS direct and see what they advise?

If you are soaking a pad every hour for more than a few hours in a row you should speak to OOH GP, they will be quite likely to prescribe you something to reduce the bleeding a bit.

Oh god I remember this!

Yes, first period was CRAZILY heavy - I was changing super-enormous tampons hourly for the first two days.

Phew - sounds fairly normal then

Changing pads about every 2 hours at the moment. It was hourly this morning
I'll see how it is through the night and ring NHS Direct if no better

Thanks so much ladies! Feel a bit relieved