Bowels and bladder It’s best to get out of bed to use the toilet as soon as you possibly can after your baby’s been born. But if you’ve emptied your bowels before delivery, you may not want to move them for 24 hours or more, and this is fine. When you do move your bowels, you may feel you want to bear down, and any pressure in the perineal region will stretch your tissues and be painful if you have a episiotomy wound. To prevent stretching, hold a clean pad firmly against your stitches and press upward while you bear down. Do everything you can to avoid constipation and the need to strain. Eat lots of roughage, vegetables, and fruit, especially prunes and figs, and drink lots of water.

Drinking plenty of water, as well as getting up and walking around, will help to get both your bowels and your bladder working normally. You may feel some hesitancy before your urine starts to flow for the first time after the birth. This is probably because your perineum and the tissues that surround your bladder and urethral opening are swollen, and it’s nothing to worry about. A good way to start to pass urine is to sit in some water and try out the pelvic floor exercises, passing urine into the water. This isn’t unhygienic because urine is sterile-just wash yourself down afterward. You may find that turning on the bath faucet and letting it run while you sit on the toilet helps to trigger your flow of urine.

Cervix and vagina These will have been stretched considerably during labor, and they’ll be soft and slack for a while. It takes about a week for your cervix to narrow and firm up again, which it will do by itself, but you can help your vagina to recover by contracting and relaxing its muscles (pelvic floor exercises). It’s a good idea to start these exercises within about 24 hours of giving birth. Begin with five contractions three times a day and gradually work up to five contractions 10 times a day if you can.

Exercise will also help to tone up your abdominal muscles again, but don’t start doing these until your flow of lochia has stopped.

Cesarean wound If you’ve had a cesarean section, don’t do any abdominal exercises until your wound has completely healed. Also, it’s best to avoid lifting heavy weights; try not to climb stairs more than once a day; be careful how you move when you’re getting up from a lying or sitting position; and generally try not to put too much strain or pressure on your abdominal muscles.

Hemorrhoids Hemorrhoids or piles are quite common after childbirth. They appear as lumpy swellings just inside your anus, and they’re caused by the great strain put on the veins in the pelvic floor during labor and delivery. Hemorrhoids will eventually shrink away with proper care-ask your healthcare provider what you should do to relieve any discomfort.

Menstruation And Ovulation

The dramatic fall in the levels of pregnancy hormones after the birth of your baby brings about the return of your periods and ovulation, as well as sometimes causing cold and hot flashes-you can even get both at once, which can be disconcerting.

Your periods will probably start again some time between the eighth and the sixteenth week after the delivery, but both menstruation and ovulation may be delayed much longer if you’re breastfeeding your baby. If you want to begin making love again before your periods have started, remember that you’ll ovulate before you get a period so it’s important to use some form of contraception.