My Postpartum Experience

Every time I have spoken to someone about my postpartum experience, I always say that I'll put it in a blog post. So here's to keeping my word. Before anything however, I'd like to say that the below are my own experiences and I'm in no way assuming that this is how things are for everyone. The experience of childbirth and its aftermath may have similarities (although similarities don't mean the same) for many but there are also a great deal of unique circumstances so here are mine.

So pregnancy was cute. It had its challenges but overall it was good. Throughout, I kept reminding myself of what a blessing it is to have the opportunity to carry such a blessing.

You know what has been an interesting journey though? Postpartum (pp)! Whew! I always knew it would be quite the journey based on some of the general conversations I've had with friends, family, colleagues and of course from things I've read on Google. People tell you the general stuff (possible depression, hair loss, bleeding etc.) but nothing prepared me for the nitty gritty that you might go through as an individual.

Bleeding: pp bleeding is almost a no brainer after a vaginal birth. I just didn't expect how long it would take. It took a little over 2 weeks for my bleeding to stop completely. Pro tip: invest in Depend underwear.

Night sweats: this is one of the first things I experienced pp. It was the weirdest thing I'd ever experienced. I was literally sweating what felt like buckets of water every night. I thought nothing of it until I was discharged. For days I would wake up in pools of sweat to the point where I ended up sleeping on a towel at night so that the sweat wouldn't wet my sheets. Mind you I wasn't sweating from heat; I was simply sweating no matter the temperature in the room. I asked my doctor about it and she said, "Lynnette the excess water in your body has to come out somehow. This is just one of the ways your body chose to do it".

Joint aches and carpal tunnel: this has also been really interesting. You think after you give birth, most if not all aches and pains would eventually vanish but it wasn't so for me. About 3 weeks pp I felt the worst kind of pain in my joints (fingers, knees, toes) and still have carpal tunnel in my left hand which has further flared up due to carrying my little one. So my doctor said the pain was probably mainly due to excess fluids still in my body from the pregnancy.

Constipation: So I'm gonna give y'all a little tmi (too much information) here. Lol. It's as if my body has just forgotten how to digest anything. Almost 9 weeks pp and I still struggle with constipation from time to time. It doesn't matter what I eat. I've tried to up my intake of fruits like pears and avocados as well as my fibre intake which would often cause bowel movements before pregnancy but not lately. My go-to has been stool softeners like Restorilax which has made going a little easier.

Hair loss: this has been by far the most devastating for me. After I put my little one down after a 2 am feed one night, I went to the washroom to wash my hands and noticed my edges looked different. No!, I thought to myself. I can't possibly be loosing hair so soon pp. I had heard it would happen but I didn't think it would be so soon. I'll be honest, I almost cried. I tried to talk myself out of it by telling myself that it's just hair, it'll grow back however, that didn't take away my utter devastation. I've never struggled with hair loss so it's been the hardest for me to come to terms with.

When it comes to pregnancy and pp, most symptoms are attributed to one hormone or another. This makes it hard to treat ones symptoms in any real way except to simply wait it out for your body to somehow gradually return to it "normal" state, whatever that may be. The most common phrase I heard from my doctor every time I complained about something was "its normal".

This post is not to scare or discourage anyone. It's simply to shine light on the fact that there is more one should expect pp than the possibility of depression which seems to be the one thing that is discussed the most out there. I am in no way downplaying pp depression though. It is a real thing that many women struggle with and it must be talked about. With this post, I would like to shed light on other pp issues that some women might not necessarily feel comfortable talking about openly. I have personally learned so much from mamas who have been vulnerable enough to share their experiences with me so I believe there is power in information. Therefore, for those reading this, feel free to take from it what you may and please ignore anything that may not apply to you.

Thanks for reading y'all.

Signed, 

Lynnette M.