My Postnatal Figure

Almost every pregnant woman or those who are planning a pregnancy are concerned with this fact. Most women develop loose skin and belly muscles after the baby’s delivery as their belly has to go through a lot of stretching during pregnancy. This is known to be a disturbing factor for most new moms, who expect their pre pregnancy bodies to be back soon after giving birth.

What to expect after your baby’s delivery:

• The postpartum period is the 6 weeks time after delivery. Lots of care and rest is required by the new mom during this time, as the body has to go back to the normal state and the muscles that went through strain during delivery need to recover, and stitches have to heal.

• Immediately after delivery, the uterus does not contract back to its original size (it takes around 6 weeks), so the belly will still be bigger than expected. The weight of the uterus will also gradually decrease with the shrinking size, and so will your belly.

• Though immediately after delivery, around 4 kg is lost, the rest of the built up weight will go gradually (the uterus involution itself results in a loss of 3 kg), if you stick to an exercise routine. Moms can start with few simple exercises, after consulting with their doctor (important), which can help strengthen loose muscles in the belly. It is advised to go easy on the exercises and only to be started after a week or so for normal delivery. Those with a C sec have to wait for more time – start after 6 weeks. Only those workouts should be done which do not put any kind of strain on the muscles. Taking enough rest is important.

• It can take four to six months or even a year to get back your body, but you will eventually get your body back if you really work towards it.

• Try to be at peace and enjoy the onset of motherhood. There may be baby blues and postpartum depression,  and your family and friends’ support is a must. Make sure you have some friend / relative available (during your delivery and as long as the postpartum period lasts), with whom you are extremely comfortable sharing all emotions and feelings (which helps in relieving stress and depression).

• Being a mom means asks a lot out of a woman, and you may find difficult to handle too much work, so many emotions, stress, changing body, tiredness and so on…but being prepared and ready for all this makes handling all of this a lot easier.

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