Wishing you a speedy recovery.
Ideas to make your hospital stay more comfortable
- Ice packs for your lady bits (you might have to ask for them).
- Panadol is good for after birth pains.
- Consider asking for a stool softener like Metamucil
- Don’t feel like you need to accept visitors – especially for the evening visiting hours – (if you don’t want to).
Mum and baby are resting/sleeping should be enough reason for people not to visit. - Heat packs are good for muscle aches and pains postpartum
- Be prepared to turn away anyone who visits who is not in 100% health.
- If it stings when you wee, a pump bottle with warm water poured between your legs when you wee helps too.
- If you have a little freezer (or fridge) in your room put some water on two huggies nappies to make boobie ice packs.
During your hospital stay
If you’re well enough to, it helps to go outside and see the sun and get some fresh air during the day. Being in hospital with a newborn can be a weird time vortex where days blur into nights.
A bit of fresh air and sunshine helps with keeping a good sleeping pattern.
I barely left the room for 5 days when we had our first baby and it felt so good to breathe the air and see the sun when we left.
Seems silly now but I felt like I couldn’t leave the hospital (we also had a constant revolving door of visitors) although in hindsight there was no reason I couldn’t have left our daughter with my husband for 10mins to have a quiet coffee and a few minutes alone to gather my thoughts.
Remember
Motherhood is a marathon, not a sprint, you’ve got a lifetime to get to know your baby as do all of your enthusiastic visitors
If you’re not up for visitors it won’t hurt anyone to wait until you’re ready (immediate Grandparents would be the exception – wild horses will not keep them away!
Consider asking all family to have their Whooping Cough Vaccination if they will be visiting baby during the first 6 weeks.
When you get home
It’s a six week recovery time so be gentle on yourself.
A gentle postpartum massage by a qualified therapist is great for smoothing out postpartum aches and pains.
It takes a while to recover from the birth you’ll get your body back (almost) like before in a few months.
Mumma Knows 