Why Postpartum Recovery Can Be So Difficult & How To Get Through It

Why Postpartum Recovery Can Be So Difficult | Outfit Details

Dress: SheIn // Necklace: Made By Mary // Necklace: Kendra Scott // Earrings: Kendra Scott // Bracelets: Alex & Ani // Bracelets: Alex & Ani // Bracelets: Alex & Ani // Bracelets: Alex & Ani // Shoes: Keds // Jackie's Dress: Hanna Andersson // Jackie's Shoes: Freshly Picked

Why Postpartum Recovery Can Be So Difficult | Let's Talk About This

Ok, I am going to give you a heads up now. If you don't want graphic details, DON'T READ THIS POST. I am getting real here because I feel like this is something that needs to be talked about so much more. I keep having conversations with women who have gone through similar experiences to mine and they were not prepared and had no idea how to deal with it. So I hope this helps you know that you are not alone.

Also, if you feel like there is something wrong, go see your doctor. You may even need to see a pelvic floor specialist to help, which is totally ok! Everything I have read says it can take about a year to feel like you are back to yourself after having a baby. That was 100% my experience.

Why Postpartum Recovery Can Be So Difficult | My Delivery Experience

I wrote about Jackie's birth story shorting after she was born. While the labor was uncomplicated, the delivery was a bit more exciting. Jackie came fairly quickly after the doctor broke my water. You can read the full story here. I ended up having a stage 3 perineal tear, which includes tissue, muscle and extends front to back, if you get my drift. At the time, I had no idea the extent of the tear or what it would entail recovery wise.

After the delivery, I ended up passing large amounts of blood and massive blood clots. My doctor gave me a shot to stop the bleeding, which worked until the shot wore off 6 hours later.  The Husband was getting ready to go home to get some sleep and was helping me get to the bathroom to pee. I sat up and realized my gown was wet from the waist down. I honestly thought I had peed and didn't realize it. When I moved the gown aside, it was clearly not pee and there was A LOT of blood.

After several hours of the amazing nurses trying to stem the bleeding, lots of gown & bed changes, calls to both on call doctors who both happened to be in C-Sections, a doctor came to check me. In order to do this, she stuck her ENTIRE forearm inside of me to ensure that there weren't any blood clots remaining. I'd like to point out that this occurred after all pain medications had worn off and I had a massive tear and lots of stitches. It was incredibly painful. My poor body was traumatized after that.

Why Postpartum Recovery Can Be So Difficult | Going Home

Some women can leave the hospital the day or the day after the delivery. Do to the large amount of blood loss, I was kept in the hospital for 3 days. I wasn't allowed to shower during this time because I had an IV port in and was being pumped with fluids. This probably wouldn't have mattered except I had throw up in my hair from the delivery...

The amazing nurses at the hospital sent me home with pads, mesh underwear, perineal spray and disposable underwear. I had read in lots of places that you bleed for several weeks post delivery so I had prepped and gotten a few things ahead of time. Sadly, I was nowhere near prepared for what I was about to experience.

Why Postpartum Recovery Can Be So Difficult | Short Term Recovery

The first few weeks were slow. I didn't have a lot of energy and I was very tender/sore. And the blood. There was so much blood. I wasn't breastfeeding so that did allow for my body a bit faster I think because I was able to sleep through the night. But it still took a very long time.

With a stage 3 perineal tear, there are a lot of stitches and it can take a long time, up to 2 months for it to heal. I would say it took 2 months and then some. For one thing, there was the itch. If you have ever had a cut that starts to itch when it is healing, you know what I am talking about. Now imagine it where you had just given birth. It was TERRIBLE. Luckily someone had recommended this spray to me and I think I went through about 5 bottles of it. It helped A LOT and I recommend it to anyone who is going to have a baby.

In additional to the tear, I was still bleeding a lot after I went home. And I continued to bleed for weeks. And it wasn't a small amount of blood either. I had originally bought these mesh underwear and thought that wearing pads in them would be just fine. NOPE! I ended up needing these incontinence underwear with a very thick pad inserted as well. That went on for a little over a month and I thought I was out of the woods and was able to wear a lighter pad with my regular underwear.

Why Postpartum Recovery Can Be So Difficult | Long Term Recovery

You would think that after about 2 months, everything would calm down and go back to semi normal. NOPE. Joke was on me because when my first period hit, I woke up in a puddle of blood. I am not exaggerating. We had to get new sheets. So I got the diapers and thick pads back out. And these puppy pee pads came in handing for sleeping on so I didn't ruin my sheets again. These periods went on for about 6 months before I finally went back to a "normal" period.

With a tear like mine, the healing processes takes awhile. But the location of the tear is not ideal of healing, honestly. And hormones mess with you body every few weeks so while I was "good to go" after my 6 week check up, everything really wasn't ok. Right before my period every month, the scar tissue would get inflamed and itch, again. I was uncomfortable and irritated. Just peeing was painful. This also went on for about 6 months. When I asked my doctor about it, she said that the female body is still a mystery and hormones are tricky. She said to let her know if was still a problem after a year. Thankfully it was not!

Just about when I was starting to feel like myself again, I had to have surgery on my hip. That ended up being a 3 month recovery process so I don't think I was really back to "myself" until about 14 months after I delivered Jackie.

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