Postpartum pain: what to do

• “Something inside you is falling apart into many sharp-edged parts that are moving and tearing from within. This pain is often overcome by pride, and you live with it. An hour, two, three... and for a long time you live with this pain inside yourself, as if it were you and at the same time not you. This is how the days pass. Hour after hour.” This is how women describe postpartum pain. What to do and how to relieve pain after childbirth explains our material.

• Postpartum pain: personal experience
  

  Anna Antonenko,

  a lifestyle blogger who became a mother in the fall of 2021, talks about how she lived with postpartum pain:

  I remember the feeling of postpartum pain after my first childbirth. During the pushing, pelvic neuralgia happened, which could be felt long after. In the first days I was in a state of shock and euphoria and did not even pay attention to this sensation. But soon the pain began to remind itself when walking, I could not sit in the car or even turn to the other side while sleeping. I could only stand or lie flat.

  I didn’t go to the doctor - had no time for that. I was afraid of painkillers as I was breastfeeding. I was helping myself only with massages and tapes, but I can’t say that it was of significant help. I had to endure it because I had to hold the baby, then added household duties, and at the same time I wanted to look good!

  I can’t imagine how completely single women can cope with this. After all, there are still painful sensations in the perineum, back, lower back, and some of them may be present and are felt constantly. And immediately after the birth of a child, there is no time at all to take care of yourself, much less take care of such dramatic health problems. Many people are ashamed of these pains.

• How to relieve pain after childbirth: comments from doctors
  

  Olena Liubchenko,

  psychologist, candidate of psychological sciences, expert on the TV shows “Give Me My Beauty Back” and “Blind Marriage,” explains how to relieve postpartum pain:

  After giving birth, the focus of a woman’s life changes: her baby becomes the center of the Universe. The perception of the young mother by others also plays an important role in this: first of all, you are a mother! Under the pressure of these stigmas, a woman unwittingly begins to neglect her needs and ignore some symptoms, even if she used to take good care of herself before giving birth.

  But for the sake of the baby's development and good mood, it is extremely important that the mother is healthy and happy! And if a woman suffers from pain, she is frustrated, because pain is a stress that suppresses important impulses. Besides, pain is also a cry from the body about salvation: you need to do something to make it go away. Don't neglect this!

• 

  Kyrylo Ventskovsky,

  obstetrician-gynecologist, Ph.D. (candidate of medical sciences), believes that there is no need to endure postpartum pain:

  A feeling of discomfort accompanies the early postpartum period in almost all women, but the intensity and localization of pain may vary. This can include painful sensations in the nipples and mammary glands associated with lactation, and spasms coming from the uterus, which contracts after childbirth, and discomfort during urination - all this occurs in the postpartum period. The main criteria here will be duration and intensity.

  Discomfort should decrease every day and disappear almost completely by the end of the second week after birth. A similar approach applies to pain in the perineum due to trauma to the birth canal and pain after cesarean section, when the need for painkillers (compatible with breastfeeding) should be reduced daily. If this does not happen, you should contact a specialist, namely an obstetrician-gynecologist.

  High-quality pain relief is an important component of renewal after childbirth. Failure to pay attention to pain and its causes can lead to long-term complications, such as chronic pelvic pain. Be that as it may, pain is not something to be ashamed of, much less hide. Pain is a signal from the body that something is wrong with it, and our task is to respond to this request for help in a timely and adequate manner.

• Materials come from the special project “The Woman’s Face of Pain” together with “Darnytsia”, Marie Claire magazine No. 136, spring 2022