What happens after birth??

[Hannabee123]

Hi everyone

1st pregnancy and no one seems to be answering my many questions What happens after the baby comes out!? Do you bleed for a while how long does it take to get settled (assuming the birth is natural with no complications)
Everyone's happy talking about pregnancy and birth but I want to know what happens afterwards as I'm sure everything isn't just perfect down there
Quite nervous

Place-marking. 😊 What a useful thread - thanks OP!

When you wash your sore bits, it's best to use salt water if possible. It genuinely reduces the stinging to almost nothing. I kept the salt and a plastic jug by the sink in the bathroom and made it with the hot tap. Sounds daft but it really helped! My mum says she poured it over herself as she weed too, but I just meant forwards with my legs apart.

And you get tea and toast! God it tastes good after labour...

Women really are the best to go through all of this
I'm glad so many of you have responded. I have so much brilliant advice about what to bring, what to do and what to expect. Of course every birth and woman will be different :)
What's worse in terms of recovery c section or vaginal? Again I know each is going to be different for each person

Also... no one warns you what an incredible feeling it is to hold your newborn 😊 it's making the thought of facing all this again in a week or two so much easier!

Generally recovery is going to be quicker and easier with a vaginal birth, but of course there will always be exceptions.

It wasn't as bad as I expected, I need a cushion for 10 days while the stitches healed but that was it really, fanjo returned to normal pretty quick it did not turn into a lost baggage area

I wish someone had truthfully warned me about the baby blues. That name is disingenuous. It was a lot worse than feeling a bit down. I spent days 2-14 crying a lot, especially at 4am when I was alone trying to express milk. I managed to hold it together when we had visitors, so nobody really realised how bad I felt.

My sadness was mainly connected to breastfeeding (or not which was the problem), coupled with sheer exhaustion and hormones. It passed and didn't turn into anything more serious, but it really was the worst I've ever felt. I'm not usually prone to depression so it shocked me. It got better when I accepted breastfeeding probably wasn't going to happen, but I still get a lump in my throat when I think of that.

Pregnant again and it's the part I'm dreading most. Even my husband, who was great and very attentive, didn't realise how awful I found it. This time, I will not bottle it up to myself.

Moral of the story OP, tell people how you really feel if they ask!

edgar that sounds more than standard baby blues, I'm glad it passed

Generally recovery from a c section will be more drawn out than recovery from a vaginal birth, but recovery from a straightforward section will be easier than recovery from a difficult vaginal birth. It's more a sliding scale with a big grey area.

I totally agree @FruitBadger. My first section was after a very long induction and labour. The recovery was awful and I felt like I'd been run over by a truck. My second section was an emergency, but I wasn't in labour at that point. The recovery was so much quicker and easier, because I hadn't had 30 hours of labour/no sleep/no eating/no rest before hand. The quickest physical recovery would no doubt be from an uncomplicated fairly quick vaginal birth with no tearing or episiotomy.

It can take around a year for your body to feel back to "normal". Everyone is different and some women recover or feel normal again much sooner.

Great question.
Don't expect to waft fragrantly out of the maternity ward like Kate Middleton in a pale yellow summery dress. (How did she do that?)
You will be tender and bleeding and best off in big knickers and a secure pair of joggers!
Prepare to rest at home for a good few days- not in bed in daytime or you start to think you're an invalid- but take up camp on your sofa with everything you need within easy reach- phone, charger, TV remote, large bottle of water. Don't attempt too much. I remember going to buy a sofa on Day 5 and I felt ghastly afterwards- so drained and the bleeding intensified.

I'm due in 13 days and this is so helpful! It's making me feel much more informed to hear people's real life accounts of the immediate after and recovery

Ooh another thing I've remembered that was unexpected, for the first few weeks if you BF or express while you're doing it, it's normal to feel like you are so tired that you're going to fall asleep there and then, like can hardly keep your eyes open tired. It's hormonal apparently. Used to happen to me as soon as let down kicked in, even if I felt fairly fresh five minutes before. Days 2-5 also it's normal to be a complete emotional wreck! If it carries on for an extended period get checked out for warning signs of PND but for a few days after birth again it's a hormone thing.

I had an emergency section and recovery was pretty awful, but I had been pushing for 5 hours so had the combined pain and tiredness off everything. Lots of sections happen before this point though. I also bled for 7 weeks after, 5 weeks of which was really heavy, so it really does vary for everyone. On my ward you had to give a sample of your first wee to show you'd been! But I was catheterised for two days after due to complications.

The labour pains for me were like having the worst constipation imaginable!