I am all for making life easier, and helping Mom feel more comfortable in the postpartum period. Using an abdominal support band, postpartum girdle or doing some form of belly binding in the postpartum period can be helpful.

After birth, levels of the hormone relaxin are gradually declining. Relaxin acts on joints, ligaments and muscles to relax them for birth. The effects of relaxin linger after birth so joints, including in the pelvis are looser. Having some support can help make moving easier.

Some Moms experience blood pressure changes when they shift from sitting to standing in the days after birth. Before birth, organs are compressed and slightly shifted due to the space required for baby. In postpartum, organs are moving back into place, and there is lots of space right after birth for everything to begin shifting back to pre-pregnancy condition. This sudden change can cause blood pressure to drop when changing positions and may cause Mom to feel dizzy. Abdominal support can help reduce blood pressure changes.

Stomach muscles can separate during pregnancy. This is known as diastasis recti. Abdominal binding can help start bringing the muscles together, providing stability when you are moving around, and helping with reversing diastasis recti. 

There are many options for abdominal support. You can buy a support band or postpartum girdle online. You can work with someone who does Bekung belly binding. You can get a few yards of cotton fabric and wrap it around your hips and abdomen. You might want to have one or two abdominal support options ready to try out to decide which one works best for you.

Wearing an abdominal support band or doing belly binding are an easy, no risk way to help with recovery.

People tend to put a lot of pressure on themselves. Pressure to live up to the expectations of others.  Pressure to perform at a certain level. Pressure to maintain a certain standard. Pressure to keep things the way they have always been.  Pressure to be everything to everyone in their life. Society today seems to be a pressure cooker.

If you are a Mom, you are already under pressure. You have children, and the job of being a parent is demanding in and of itself. Not to mention the pressure to be the perfect parent, to have the perfect job, to have perfectly behaved kids, to have the perfectly clean house, to create Pinterest worthy snacks and meals.....the list goes on. Parents can get into a comparison game and decide they are coming up short so they should do more, or do things better.  

All this pressure, whether real, or perceived, is a recipe for disaster. Postpartum exhaustion leading to postpartum depression is a very real possibility while Moms are trying to be the perfect parent to older siblings, while they strive to make sure nothing changes in the older sibling's life due to the birth of the newest baby. Change is a constant, adding a new family member will change the lives of other family members, and honestly that's a good thing. It can help siblings learn to be more patient, or to be more helpful and it can lead to deep connections with a new baby.

Trying to be the perfect parent, trying to keep a spotless house, trying to maintain what life was before birth, trying to be "all that and a bag of chips" is going to wear you out!  All this applies to Dad too! Please stop it!

After birth, the focus should be on resting, recovering and feeding your baby. That's it! Please stop adding to that short list. Please stop trying to live up to expectations that don't reflect the fact that you just had a baby. Please focus on your baby and your recovery and ignore what doesn't contribute to those things.

My last blog post was about my health emergency, so please read it to have context for this post.

During my hospitalization and recovery, I learned a few things. I thought I would share them since they can be applied to pregnancy, birth and postpartum.

• You need to advocate for yourself.  
  • I had to advocate to be able to take my thyroid medicine in the middle of the night as I've been doing for years instead of 1 hour before breakfast.  I had to do this multiple times with multiple staff members.
• A sense of humor helps everyone.
  • I joked about mooning people in my hospital gown, and hospital food. Laughing together helped put everyone at ease.
• Recovery takes time.
  • While my emergency happened very quickly, recovery did not.
• Recovery takes longer than we think it should.
  • I was told to allow 6 weeks for recovery. I expected I would be back to normal in two weeks but my body made it very clear it needed 6 weeks and then some.
• Sleep is very healing.
  • I slept for 16 hours a day the first few weeks at home. While there were things I wanted to be doing, my body made it obvious that sleep needed to be a priority.
• Eating nutritious foods and hydrating well help with recovery.
  • Being dehydrated, and living on potato chips is not going to give your body the tools it needs to recover. Your body only has the tools you give it to work with, so give it nutritious food and good hydration.
•  It's okay to ask for help.
  • I don't usually ask for help, but there were so many things I just couldn't do myself. I had to ask for help to get out of bed early on, I needed someone to pick up things that fell to the floor, I needed to have my husband come on my walks because I was so unsteady, and the list goes on.  
• It's okay to have days where you just rest, sleep and eat.
  • I've had to create rest days even though I'm feeling so much better. I have overdone things and needed more rest to compensate for overdoing it. Sometimes it's just been nice to have an easy day and that's okay.

Every single thing listed here applies to pregnancy, birth and postpartum. Be kind to yourself. Give yourself space. Give yourself time. Ask for help, and let people help you. While it can feel like a long time, remember where you are at is temporary and things will get to a new normal.

Is consuming my placenta beneficial?
Research is not conclusive on this. I have worked with clients who did not use placenta capsules with their first baby and then decided to use placenta with subsequent births. They noticed a faster, easier recovery, better mood stability, more energy and for many, their milk came in sooner, and with greater supply. This anecdotal evidence tells me there are benefits to consuming your placenta.

I've tested positive for Group B strep, is it safe to consume my placenta?
The CDC does not recommend consuming placenta if Mom tested positive for Group B Strep. This recommendation is based on a single instance of a baby having GBS at birth, and having it reoccur at 15 days old. Baby's mother had tested negative at 37 weeks, and had been using placenta capsules. No testing was done on family members who were in close contact with the baby, and while the placenta capsules showed GBS, mother's breastmilk did not. There is no conclusive evidence to show what caused the second infection. There were some questionable practices in how the placenta was encapsulated which were not the recommended standards. We know that preparing the placenta with appropriate methods and at appropriate temperatures will kill GBS. With appropriate preparation, using encapsulated placenta is safe for mothers who have tested positive for GBS provided Mom and baby are not showing any signs of infection in the first hours after birth.
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Does the progesterone in the placenta compete with prolactin, or cause issues for lactation? 
Most of the research we have is done on animals which may not transfer to humans, and what research I could find on humans was not done during pregnancy or postpartum. The placenta is one of the organs that make prolactin, so while the placenta does have progesterone, it also has prolactin. My personal opinion (since research is limited on this topic) is that the prolactin is not affected by the progesterone in the placenta. This matches the anecdotal evidence I've received from clients that breastmilk comes in sooner and they have a better supply when using placenta capsules.
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The placenta is a "filter organ", wouldn't that mean consuming toxins if I consume my placenta?
Yes, the placenta does some filtering. It filters carbon dioxide and waste out of baby's blood and sends those to Mom's blood so they can be removed from her blood cells by the kidneys and liver. Mom's blood is filtered by her kidneys and liver before it reaches the placenta. History has shown that maternal medications, alcohol, nicotine, viruses, and antibodies cross the placenta. Studies completed in 2016 showed that the placenta does not contain any toxins.

Who should not consume their placenta?  
If mother or baby shows signs of infection during labor and birth, or in the first hours after birth, placenta encapsulation is not advisable. 

Taking placenta capsules can be beneficial in the postpartum period. If you want to use placenta capsules, 
be mindful of the following:

• The placenta should be prepared using techniques and temperatures high enough (moist heat of131 degrees F or higher for at least 30 minutes) to kill GBS and other bacteria. 
• Placenta capsules should be kept refrigerated while using.  
• Placenta capsules should be frozen for long term storage.
• If mother has signs of infection such as a high temperature, unpleasant odor to amniotic fluid or other signs, do not consume the placenta.
• If baby has signs of infection at birth, or in the first hours right after birth, do not consume the placenta.

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