MASIC Blog – Postnatal Recovery
This month we welcome Natalie from Honest Yoga https://www.honestyoga.co.uk/ to the blog. Natalie is a pre and postnatal fitness specialist, who has recovered from sustaining a third degree tear birth injury herself, and has a particular interest in prolapse recovery.
If you’re reading this and you are on the MASIC website I’m going to guess you’ve had a severe tear from the birth of your child. Therefore I will focus my advice on how to recover postnatally with this in mind. Most of us don’t go into birth expecting a severe tear, and thus your postnatal recovery will likely have a mental and physical aspect to it. I will address the physical, and move on to the mental later on in this article.
The first thing I would like you to think about in your postnatal recovery, is your bowel movements. Hopefully you’ve had some kind friend explain to you that your first poo post birth can be a difficult experience, but for those of us with a severe tear we need to think about our bowel habits going forward – as they can place a lot of strain on our pelvic floor, which we want to avoid. Constipation is your enemy! You may wish to talk to your medical provider about using a gentle laxative for the first few weeks to help make bowel movements easy and soft. This is also a good time to consider your diet (I am not a nutritionist) but adding in extra fiber, drinking lots of water and adding linseeds can help a lot, so can Magnesium supplements. You will also want to address your position on the toilet and use a foot stool so you knees are slightly higher than your hips, as this helps your poo to pass easier. Search the words “Moo to Poo” technique on YouTube and you will find some more helpful information on this.
The second tip I want you to consider is starting your pelvic floor exercises as soon as you can. The NHS recommends starting them when you’ve had your first wee post birth or your catheter has been removed. Pelvic floor exercises will help bring blood flow to the area to aid with healing of your tear and the exercises will start to restrengthen your pelvic floor. Please speak to your midwife or GP if you are having trouble connecting to your pelvic floor, they can refer you to see a women’s health physio. If you have the option to do this privately I would highly recommend it. In my opinion seeing a women’s health physio is the best thing you can do as a woman to help heal and protect your pelvic floor. See MASIC recommended private physios here: https://masic.org.uk/getting-help/private-support-pelvic-physio/
The third thing is not to rush your recovery. Unfortunately in the UK we have a real tendency to expect women to ‘bounce back’ and be out at baby and mum classes asap! Please remember in many other cultures women are encouraged to stay at home and rest whilst being looked after from 2 weeks to 2 months postnatally. A severe tear takes time to heal and it is much better to really focus on your recovery and take small steps than to try and rush back to exercise or daily life and be left with more damage to your pelvic floor. Consider working with a postnatal personal trainer, or following a postnatal safe program online to help you build back slowly to exercise.
A severe birth tear can have a big impact on your mental health and I would highly recommend that you contact your midwife or doctor and request a birth debrief and to see if any counselling is available to you. If you feel like you are struggling to cope, please don’t feel ashamed or embarrassed to reach out, it can be a life saver. Charities like MASIC can provide more resources or where to turn for help. The charity PANDAS also has a helpline that offers emotional support. See MASIC psychological support resources here: https://masic.org.uk/getting-help/psychological-support/
Find your community! I’d like to end this article by encouraging you to find your tribe of women who have also suffered a severe birth injury, as it can be a very lonely and isolating time. These women (or as I like to call them ‘vagina sisters’) can help you feel more at ease talking about any symptoms you are experiencing, such as incontinence or prolapse, and make daily life feel a little bit easier to cope with in this postnatal period. There is a lovely community on Instagram of physios, PT’s and charities who are doing their best to support women and there are many support groups on Facebook that you might like to join. The MASIC Private Facebook support group can be found via their charity page: https://www.facebook.com/MASICFOUNDATION/
I wish you all the best in your postnatal recovery and please feel free to reach out to me with any questions.
Natalie x
Instagram: @honestyogaldn
