So What Happens To Your Body After Pregnancy?
Did you recently become a mother? Congratulations! Becoming a mother is one of the most special feelings in the world. Nothing can replace this feeling ever! While becoming a mother for the first time might be a life-changing experience, there are certain changes that come along with it. You have spent the last nine months of your life growing a baby inside you –it tends to be an incredible, awe-inspiring, and transformative process. Right from the point of conceiving your baby to its delivery, you can expect a myriad of changes to your body.
Your body undergoes major transformations during pregnancy –an equally significant one after you go through labor and delivery. While you might come across tons of week-by-week information about your overall health after childbirth, you still often tend to overlook your health post-delivery as you get engaged in major issues including caring for the baby and dealing with your sleep issues. Indeed, you will come across several people advising you on how to deal with your pregnancy and how it changes your overall body. However, only a few of them will be accurate about the details on what you are going to encounter after childbirth.
There are higher chances that you might have already experienced some major changes in the body during the postpartum period. However, there are several more changes to your body that you might not realize too soon. Here are some of them:
The Breasts
When you are pregnant, the breasts mostly tend to increase in the overall size and the areolas (the area around the nipples) might become larger & darker in color. When you are nursing the baby after giving birth, the breasts will continue growing in size as the mammary glands of the body start producing milk. You will observe that the breast size tends to change depending on the amount of milk production. However, post-delivery the overall size of the areolas might decrease as they will not be experiencing the changes brought about by the pregnancy hormones.
When you start nursing, the breasts might change the overall shape & appearance significantly. You might observe the appearance of stretch marks, some sagging and thinned skin. However, these might occur due to the major size changes that the breasts have to undergo during pregnancy & breastfeeding.
The Temperature
A mother reports, “The first time after I had my baby, I woke up completely drenched in the middle of the night for a few days after childbirth. I thought something was seriously wrong with me. There was no one to warn me about the postpartum sweats that occur. I had no idea that what I was experiencing was completely normal.”
Once you have a baby, there are some aspects of the body that might lead to a significant amount of night sweats for a few days. Here are some:
- The body actively tries to flush out all the additional fluid that it has stored during pregnancy & birth
- The hormones are all across the body and under the process of regulating themselves –all over again
- The temperature regulation process in the body is still adjusting to the matter that it is not required to heat up the baby inside your body. Therefore, it keeps generating body heat for a while after childbirth
Be assured of the fact that night sweats for a few days after childbirth will not last for long.
The Hair
It is a common thing to hear about women losing hair in huge numbers after childbirth. However, it could be misleading at the same time. In fact, you are not losing your hair. On the contrary, you are only losing the extra hair that you might have gained during pregnancy. At the time of pregnancy, you tend to develop additional hair follicles. Therefore, it offers the appearance that your hair is thicker, healthy, and more lustrous. Once you have given birth to your child, the extra hair follicles tend to disappear gradually. Therefore, any extra hair that you might have developed during pregnancy tend to fall out post-delivery.
The Bones
While it might sound awkward, the bones in the body tend to widen during pregnancy. This happens for the purpose of accommodating the increasing weight of the baby inside along with the altered size of the body. The most common places in the body wherein you might experience the change in the bones include the feet and the hips. Even when you tend to weigh the same after giving birth, you might not be able to wear the same size or shape of clothing & footwear. This is because the hips and feet might widen on a permanent basis after childbirth.
Additional Changes to the Body After Giving Birth
While these are some of the most common changes that you might witness after giving birth to your child, there are additional changes as well. Here are some of them:
- In case you had a vaginal delivery, the vagina might get swollen as well as bruised for a few days post-delivery. While it might appear unusual, it is quite common for women undergoing normal childbirth. You can decrease the overall inflammation by making use of cold packs. Moreover, it is also recommended to lie down most of the time instead of sitting as this will ensure quicker healing of the area.
- The uterus tends to contract after childbirth. When you are going into labor, the uterus becomes as much as 15 times heavier than the pre-pregnancy size. Soon after delivering your child, the uterus starts contracting. It is claimed that breastfeeding helps in kickstarting the process of your uterus contracting easily.
- Whether you had a C-section or a vaginal delivery, you are bound to experience bleeding. After giving birth, you can expect continuous bleeding (quite heavy as well) for around a week. The body sheds extra blood and lining of the uterus through this process.
Get plentiful rest as a new mother to get back to the track as soon as possible!
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