Giving birth is one of the most magical experiences any hopeful mothers want to experience. However, the childbirth journey is a horrifying and painful experience for these new mothers, especially during the first few weeks. They’ll need to work on physical, mental, and social adjustments. With all these three together, recovery might be a little challenging.
However, with the help of the people around them, they’ll feel more loved and comfortable. As they start this new phase, here are a few things you can provide them so they can have a healthy recovery.
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Get Plenty of Rest
This goes without saying, but all mothers will need sufficient rest after delivery. Depending on the delivery and their situation, it can be extremely excruciating for some. Plus, other mothers probably have difficulty sleeping at the hospital, but the first weeks are crucial for them. So, encourage them to get as much sleep as possible to cope with the fatigue and tiredness from childbirth.
Also, the baby might wake up every other hour for feeding, change, and comfort, affecting the mother’s sleeping schedule. So, to ensure they’re also getting enough rest, the mother must match their sleeping schedule. You can also consider letting the baby sleep in the same room as the mother so they can easily just walk across the room to save steps and time.
You can also work on the other chores for the first few weeks and let the mother rest until they can adjust to this new lifestyle with the baby. It will help if their only concern during those times is the baby and taking a rest.
In relation to this, it would be considerate if you don’t invite friends or other family members into the house for a short while, just not to strain the mother’s body to entertain them. However, if they wish to see the mother, you can enjoy a good time and let the mother be excused for a nap and rest.
Source: femina.in
Prepare a Balanced Nutrition
Childbirth is surgery; if a patient has undergone surgery, they’ll need to get all the nutrition they need to recuperate. Although rest is good, they’ll need more than that to recover. So, the mother will need to eat a balanced healthy meal to help them.
On top of healing, you’ll also need to consider providing healthy breast milk for the baby’s meals. Ensure that the mother gets a balanced diet since an extreme one can potentially harm them and the baby. Lactation experts recommend mothers eat when hungry and prepare meals with grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, and protein
These are in the recommended groups of foods in the MyPlate guideline published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to help people eat a healthy diet, which you can simply follow as a guide for a more balanced and healthier meal.
Moreover, if the mother was prescribed medications and vitamins, you must purchase them before they are discharged. This ensures you’ll not miss a day of your meds and vitamin intake. If you’re having financial problems because of this, another cost on top of the hospital fees, then you should know that you can buy them at an affordable price with prescription coupons like those from Buzzrx. They’re entirely free, and you can get one for the mother.
Ask For Help
Mothers can get anxious all by themselves, so assure and remind them that they should always seek help, especially postpartum. Since they’re still in the recovery stage, they should at least only focus on recovering, and if something’s hard for them, they should ask for practical help.
Tell them they will not need to worry about the house and that their meals will be prepared for them during recovery. Since they’re still technically patients, they’ll need as much attention as newborn babies.
Source: The Balance Careers
Get Ready for the Vaginal Soreness
Vaginal soreness is the type of pain you’ll never understand unless you experience it firsthand. One of the most painful parts of recovery from childbirth is vaginal soreness. Most delivering women, if not all, will have their vagina tear during the delivery or have their doctors make an incision. The wound will hurt for a few weeks unless they experience extensive tears, which will take much longer to heal.
The recovery from this is very uncomfortable and painful. So, as a help to this new mother, you’ll need to ensure that they don’t feel any discomfort while recovering. Fortunately, there are several ways that you can do this. The first one is cooling the sore area with an ice pack as they sit comfortably on a pillow or padded ring.
Since the sore can be in a very delicate area of their body, you can provide them the ice pack as you stand by and wait for them. You can also purchase an over-the-counter pain reliever to help them relieve the pain if it gets too uncomfortable.
Be an Emotional Support
Many new mothers experience baby blues. This is a mild and brief type of depression that some mothers experience after childbirth. However, about 10-20% of new mothers go through a more severe type of depression called perinatal depression, which lasts longer, up to a year after giving birth. During these times, they will need someone who’ll be there beside them that can provide emotional support.
Some mothers may have it hard to reach out, so you should be the one to extend to them first and talk about how they’re feeling. Tell them that whatever they’re thinking and feeling, it’s important that they’re able to relay all these to someone. Carrying all these heavy emotions would be hard for them and the baby.
Moreover, you must keep in mind all these few symptoms that you need to observe: sudden bursts of emotions where they suddenly have episodes of unexplained crying, insomnia, sadness, relentlessness, insomnia, irritability, and mood changes.
The symptoms will usually last only a maximum of two weeks, and if you’ve observed that the mother has been showing all these signs for more than that duration of time, then you should consider visiting the doctor with them.
Source: Creadimm.com
Final Thoughts
Pregnancy and childbirth are tough and can be mentally draining for mothers. So, if you have the chance to help a pregnant woman, it would be nice to take it and provide them with the utmost care. All the listed things above are only a few common ways you can help them, but they’re very significant and pleasant for all new mothers.
