5 Tips For Boosting Your Recovery From Birth

Recovery From Birth
  • Take 1-2 hours of horizontal rest per day – when your baby sleeps, you sleep.
  • Start your pelvic floor exercises ASAP
    • This can start as gentle flickers, and then when you feel more activation happening down there you can do longer holds. 
    • Aim for 3x day, with a combination of longer holds and shorter flickers. Aim for 10x 10 seconds + 10x faster flickers at a time, after a couple of weeks.
    • Brace your pelvic floor when coughing or sneezing, to stop any leaking of urine.
  • Look after your bladder + bowels!
    • Happy bladder + bowels = happy pelvic floor.
    • Drink Plenty of water – this should be 1.5-2L per day.. You are going to be losing more fluids than usual due to breastfeeding so keep your fluids up! 
    • Water is preferable to tea & coffee.  
    • Eat plenty of fibre: 2 serves of fruit + 5 serves of veg per day! Have healthy snacks nearby at the ready for when you get hungry.
    • Avoid straining on the loo at all costs. A stool under your feet can do wonders here!
  • Use your village! 
    • Family, friends, postpartum doulas etc.
    • Don’t try to do everything yourself and accept help when offered. 
    • Ask people to make you nutritious home-cooked meals that you can freeze. Cooking elaborate is going to be the last thing on your mind but you need adequate nutrition to heal.
  • Wear Compression garments to support your pelvic floor and abdominals. Check out these companies