THE 5 POSTPARTUM ESSENTIALS (THAT NO ONE EVER TELLS YOU ABOUT!)
Last year supermodel Chrissy Teigen and her husband singer/songwriter John Legend welcomed a beautiful baby girl named Luna into the world. Days after giving birth, Chrissy tweeted the following image with the caption, “Buying myself a push present:”
Not a new diamond necklace, not a fancy Chanel bag? Her push present was a perineal irrigation bottle! If you’ve had a vaginal birth, then you know what this is. You fill the bottle with water and spray on your bottom before, during and after you pee. Why? To prevent urine from stinging your sore and possibly torn vaginal area. Having one of these on hand for each trip to the bathroom greatly improves your postpartum quality of life.
Thank you, Chrissy, for the very real, very raw reminder that motherhood is beautiful, but also messy and sometimes painful!
Even after labor is over, there are moments of awe and bliss mixed with moments of continued pain. Very few talk about the gritty details of that pain, though, or know how to handle it.
We spend a lot of time focusing on having a healthy pregnancy and easy labor, but not a lot of time talking about what happens to our bodies after delivery.
Fortunately, if you are preparing to give birth, there are a few items you can have on hand (in addition to a handy dandy perineal irrigation bottle!) that will make your early postpartum days a little better:
- Depends – Depends! There are seriously not enough good things that can be said about Depends. Who cares that they are bulky and unflattering and not the sexiest underwear in the world? They are comfortable and soft and they absorb the lochia after delivery. At the hospital the nurses may give you mesh panties and large pads. Here’s a tip though – the mesh panties rip easily and the large pads move around too much! Buy some Depends for the days and even weeks after your delivery. You’ll be glad you did.
- Padsicles – They may have a funny name, but padsicles are highly helpful, postpartum. Padsicles are made by concocting a mixture of aloe vera (for cooling), witch hazel (for inflammation), and essential oils, and spreading this mixture on a heavy duty overnight pad then freezing this pad in the freezer. Take a new pad out every time you use the bathroom. You can find various padsicle recipes online like this one.
- Spray Solution – If you don’t have time to make padsicles or don’t feel like it, simply spray the padsicle solution you’ve concocted directly on your perineal area. Store your spray in the fridge for some extra cooling effects. Here’s another handy recipe for soothing spray.
- Hemorrhoid Pads – Sometimes the pushing stage of labor can cause hemorrhoids. Not everyone gets hemorrhoids, but if you’re one of the lucky ladies who does, you’ll want to have some of these on hand. Buy some ahead of time just in case.
- Sitz Bath – The warm water of a sitz bath will feel good and help heal your vaginal and perineal area!. Luckily, hospitals usually give you both a sitz bath and a perineal irrigation bottle when you’re in the hospital. Don’t forget to take them both home and spare yourself the trouble of having to buy them.
Motherhood. Not always glamorous, but oh-so-worth it. Be like Chrissy Teigen and arm yourself with a few items to make the pain of partum days a little more bearable!
Reply Fertility Urges Restorative Reproductive Medicine for All Patients Facing Infertility
“After over a year of trying and a miscarriage, it just felt like there was no hope and no way out of this situation. It seemed like there was no solution, that I would always be sick, and that we would never get to hold any of our children in this life.”
Two things struck me during reflections surrounding 2024 “National Infertility Awareness Week”:
Why don’t more couples know about restorative reproductive medicine? By Amanda Naramore, APRN Most women have never heard the words Restorative Reproductive Medicine but many of the 13% of women struggling with infertility(1) do often ask themselves very important questions: Why hasn’t my doctor offered natural way to achieve pregnancy that cooperates with my reproductive system? or Why aren't my doctors working to explain my "unexplained infertility?" These are appropriate questions, but unfortunately they are not answered because most medical providers have never heard of RRM or fertility awareness charting.(2) Restorative reproductive medicine is a growing practice that has helped countless women restore their reproductive health. The International Institute of Reproductive Medicine defines RRM as a “medical discipline that identifies and treats the root cause of reproductive problems, aiming to treat, optimize and restore the patient’s health"(4). Most medical schools offering OBGYN residency programs do not teach students about RRM or even introduce them to the possibility of its existence (2). As a graduate of a women’s health nurse practitioner program, I was never exposed to the notion of health restoration. The curriculum identified the female medical abnormalities and went directly to treatment with birth control or in the case of infertility, referral to artificial reproductive technology (ART). There were no natural alternatives to treatment discussed or suggested. In fact, infertility is often referred to as a disease state instead of a symptom of a bigger problem. The lack of exposure a medical student or OB/GYN resident receives to RRM and fertility awareness charting will directly affect their ability to offer a positive alternative to ART. Providers simply do not know there is an entire medical community devoted to a unique fertility restoration approach. This knowledge deficit leaves many women frustrated with their options to improve their fertility and even suspicious of the medical community. Medical providers can also become discouraged. It seems like such a glaring inadequacy in medicine, yet the answer has been available for over 20 years. Here at Reply, we utilize RRM not only to repair the couple’s overall health and optimize their fertility but also to teach them about the female’s reproductive system by utilizing fertility awareness charting. This practice is backed by years of medical research and evidence-based medicine. RRM has excellent success rates in achieving pregnancy, especially in cases where IVF has failed, and women were of advanced reproductive age.(3) Another reassuring fact is that the RRM success rates for pregnancy are comparable to ART, excluding the use of donor eggs.(4) Our Reply team is working to educate couples about a healthier and more natural alternative to ART. We feel this approach respects the couple, as it helps them optimize their health while trying to conceive a healthy pregnancy.
”Not until I found Reply, did I feel confident that I would ever have a child of my own.” Watch to learn how the Reply Fertility “Finding and Fixing” Program helped Pamela to address her PCOS, to conceive, and to have a happy and healthy pregnancy.
In the case of breast cancer, there are some risk factors that cannot be changed such as your first period occurring before age 11, menopause arriving late, or the presence of particular genetic mutations. However, there are a number of breast cancer risk factors that you can control, many of which can be discussed at your preventative annual well-woman visit!
How To Pick An Ob/gyn When You're Pregnant
1. Are there signs or symptoms of male infertility?
For women who experience chronic or acute migraine, changes associated with pregnancy and postpartum can present new challenges to a difficult diagnosis. Variations in sleep, infant behavior such as crying or feeding schedules, and maternal hormone fluctuations can feel like unavoidable migraine triggers. For migraineurs, facing the thought of migraine headache without a plan can be scary. Let’s parse through fact and fiction about migraines and childbearing to determine how to prepare well for conception, pregnancy, and postpartum in a healthy and confident way.
