Returning to physical ‘normal’ requires at least 6 to 12 months
Quarantine, that period of recovery after childbirth after which, supposedly, everything returns to normal. Right now, those who have had babies will be letting out a bitter laugh. Why? Because changes after pregnancy and childbirth take much longer to go away (if they go away at all). In fact, it takes six months to a year to reach the ‘new normal’ – in pandemic lexicon – which means improvement, yes, but not a full return to pre-pregnancy.
For this reason, there are more and more professionals from different fields and also recent mothers who have joined the crusade to demystify the traditional concept of quarantine. Neither the body is well in forty days nor, of course, sometimes the state of mind of women (laughs are heard again, like those canned ones from TV comedies).
Dr. Soraya Hijazi, a rehabilitation doctor from the Spanish Society of Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine (SERMEF), believes so and emphasizes that it is necessary to differentiate between the immediate postpartum period, which, yes, lasts from eight weeks to two months and corresponds to the quarantine as we know it, and the real postpartum, “which is not just the injury to the perineum.” “After having a child there are few parts of the body that are not touched,” she says. The pelvic floor, of course. But, as she points out, we cannot stop there, in a reductionist plan. The body (almost the entire body) has changed and we must ‘repair’ it to “avoid dysfunctions that will later affect the quality of life.”
“We have to control constipation, avoid classic sit-ups, correct bad postures acquired during pregnancy and with the arrival of the baby…”
Soraya Hijazi, rehabilitation doctor
As he warns, one of the areas most affected by pregnancy is the back. As the abdomen grows, the curvature of the back is modified, because it has pulled the spine forward, which “predisposes us to lumbar suffering,” says the expert. Then, hyperloidosis occurs in the area, which is better to treat so that it does not stay with us.
The ‘core’, the priority
More problems to review in the postpartum ITV? Yes. Tissue laxity, especially those of the abdominal girdle or ‘core’. Our body has ‘softened’ to facilitate the expulsion of the baby. That’s how it should be, of course, but the problem is that everything has to go back to its place afterwards. Hijazi explains very graphically what abdominal diastasis is: «It is the famous ‘tablet’, which when having a child ‘opens’, so the spaces between the ‘little squares’ increase’. Therefore, we must begin to strengthen this strategic area, which supports the spine, holds the organs in place and shapes our postures.
According to the expert, in about eight weeks it should return, more or less, to its usual shape naturally, something that does not always happen… «It depends on the quality of the connective tissue (between ‘squares’) of the woman, which is something genetic. For this reason, some recover well and others never fully recover, “he points out. Something that with rehabilitation is usually fixed. But, of course, a baby is born, sleepless nights begin, tiredness… and women leave recovery for later. Error. “We have to start as soon as possible. For example, we have to control constipation, avoid classic sit-ups, correct poor posture acquired during pregnancy and with the arrival of the baby… », she explains. For this reason, the rehabilitator urges us to put ourselves in the hands of a professional who values our physical state (each woman and each childbirth is a world) and prescribes an individualized rehabilitation.
“There are women with a lot of support and a great postpartum, but many don’t experience it like that and spend six or eight months sunk and feeling alone”
Marta Aguiar, CEO of ‘We are the mammas’
«We prepare everything for the arrival of a child, the room, the suitcase for the hospital, the birth plan, courses… and then? Nothing! We mothers put ourselves in ‘survive’ mode and put ourselves in the background”, reproaches Marta Aguiar, CEO of ‘We are the mammas’, a website dedicated to postpartum mothers with information, professionals, products and groups of other women in the same situation. «We want to create ‘tribe’. There are women with a lot of support and a great postpartum, but many don’t experience it like that and spend six or eight months sunk and feeling alone,” says Aguiar, a mother of two children. Alone, with a baby attached to you twenty-four hours a day? “Yes, yes, it is a very strong feeling of loneliness. According to science, it is a moment of life in which many notice a feeling beyond sadness”, indicates Aguiar.
And to that overwhelm and decay we must add the pressure to recover the line, our active life… and sexual relations. “Forty days are very few to be able to recover the desire and desire to have sex,” says Paula Álvarez, sexologist at EroticFeel. A woman’s body after childbirth is a battlefield that needs time to recover and heal. Pregnancy does until the internal organs change places. In addition, according to the specialist, hormonal changes after childbirth do not favor libido: “In fact, a curious fact is that breastfeeding causes a rush of oxytocin, which is the same hormone that we release during sex. So women Breastfeeding women have enough oxytocin that they don’t crave more. They are already satiated with the hormone of love », she explains.
BEST WITHOUT CALENDAR
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Several months, depending on the ‘grade’
There are changes in the body – the uterus, for example, takes half a year to be well – that usually last a few months (spots on the face, swollen feet, darkening of the linea alba, musculoskeletal pain, loss of sphincter control, hair loss, brittle nails, worsening dental health…), but it is better to treat as soon as possible so that they do not become chronic. -
Do you want sex in 3 years?
Many women feel pressured to become sexually active as soon as possible. “In many cases, the couple does not make it explicit that their return to desire has been faster than ours, but we ourselves feel the desire to please. For this reason, it makes me want to say that it would normally take three or four years to feel desire again, so that women are not pressured by what is or is not normal”, advises sexologist Paula Álvarez.
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