Most young mothers complain of swelling after childbirth. It is worth noting that this is a fairly common phenomenon among women who have recently given birth. Such a defect causes concern, especially if it does not go away for a long time.
The swelling itself occurs as a result of the accumulation of excessive amounts of fluid. You can determine whether there is swelling using normal finger pressure. In this case, a pit forms on the skin. Swelling after childbirth can vary in severity.
Sometimes the whole body swells, other times only a certain part. If doctors had to give intravenous infusions during childbirth, the defect will appear only after 5-6 days.
In some cases, this condition is accompanied by breast tenderness and engorgement, dryness and increased sensitivity of the nipples, so there is severe discomfort when putting the baby to the breast.
Sometimes the pain is so severe that natural feeding is stopped for a while. Increasing the volume of the limbs or the whole body requires wearing larger clothes, which also creates an unpleasant feeling.
If the trouble does not go away a week after the birth of the baby, then there are probably more serious reasons for its occurrence.
Significant accumulation of fluid in the body. This disorder occurs due to poor kidney function. But in this case, the pathology of these organs will be noticeable even during pregnancy.
If they could not cope with the increased load, then after childbirth they will not be able to restore their normal functioning and the removal of excess fluid will be difficult for some time. Chronic kidney disease in a woman increases the risk of swelling for a long period after childbirth.
Unbalanced diet and inappropriate lifestyle. Very often the reasons are hidden in excessive fluid intake and unhealthy diet. You want to drink after a lot of fried, spicy and salty foods. But high physical activity can also be harmful. In this case, the reason is hidden in a long stay in a standing position. As a result, the legs swell in the evening, a feeling of heaviness arises in them, and the swelling subsides in the morning.
Vascular diseases. The main source is varicose veins, which, unfortunately, also very often occurs in pregnant women, especially in the last months of pregnancy. The enlarging uterus compresses large venous trunks in the pelvis and thereby prevents the outflow of blood from the lower extremities.
Every fourth woman has this pathology, but all of them know about it, since in the early stages the disease is quite mild. If persistent swelling occurs that is not caused by other reasons, then it is necessary to consult a specialist - a phlebologist, because varicose veins are a rather dangerous disease with serious consequences if left untreated.
The method for eliminating a defect directly depends on the cause of its occurrence.
If kidney disease occurs, it may require drug treatment. In this case, only a doctor can prescribe the necessary medications, because a woman cannot take many medications during lactation. Perhaps he will allow the use of folk diuretics, for example, birch sap or an infusion of apple peels.
When the cause of trouble is a poor diet and improper daily routine, you need to correct them. For example, it is better to eat steamed or boiled dishes, eliminate smoked foods, and limit the consumption of liquid and salt.
As for drinking, preference should be given to still mineral water, compote without sugar and herbal teas. Activity and rest should constantly alternate; you cannot spend the whole day “on your feet.” This also applies to excessive passivity. Unpleasant phenomena go away only if the regime is followed.
For varicose veins, you must contact a specialist who will select a course of therapy depending on the degree of the disease. In any case, such a patient should rest more in a supine position, placing a bolster or pillow under her legs so that they are above the level of the heart.
It is necessary to take special relaxing foot baths and possibly wear compression garments to relieve swelling. A special diet may be prescribed to thin the blood. Then the diet includes such products as sea buckthorn, viburnum, lemons, tomatoes, grapes, cranberries.
The doctor will give recommendations on this matter, because during breastfeeding, some substances from the mother’s menu can pass through the milk to the baby and the latter will have an allergic reaction.
Blood thickening can also be caused by a lack of vitamins and minerals, for example, lecithin, zinc, selenium and vitamin C. A young mother should not overuse coffee, green and black tea, cocoa, and soda. It is recommended to drink cranberry juice, grape juice, herbal teas, but it is better to give preference to plain water.
Normally, these defects should go away on their own within a few days after birth. If they are observed for more than a week or occur repeatedly, it means that there is some kind of disorder in the body. In chronic kidney disease, it goes away within a few weeks.
It is worth noting that the time for swelling to subside also depends on the fluid accumulated during pregnancy, which is eliminated by urination. Probably every woman notices that after giving birth she begins to visit the toilet more often.
An important point is that it is not advisable to limit fluid intake, as milk production may decrease, so it is important to seek advice from a qualified specialist in this regard.
In some cases, restricting drinking is a necessary measure. Also, excess water from the body can be eliminated through sweating, so increased sweating in the postpartum period is normal.
Swelling of the legs after childbirth should also go away within a few days if the woman has healthy blood vessels. If this does not happen and the swelling increases, it means that the valves of the external and internal veins are not working well and varicose veins are present.
To get rid of swelling that is not caused by pathology, the following measures will help:
These recommendations can be used during pregnancy as measures to prevent edema.
If swelling does not go away and you have a headache after childbirth, then your blood pressure may be high. Another problem that is a reason to consult a doctor is swelling of only one limb, which is accompanied by severe pain. This condition indicates deep vein thrombosis, a life-threatening condition.
After childbirth, almost every fourth woman in labor complains of swelling. However, they can remain after pregnancy or arise only after childbirth. Swelling of the legs after childbirth is much more common than swelling of other extremities or swelling of the vagina.
What is the reason for swollen legs after childbirth? – There may be several answers:
Even if you do not suffer from chronic diseases, swelling may be present.
Rest as much as possible and take an upright position throughout the day, with your feet better placed on a pillow. You've probably noticed that swelling increases in the evening, this indicates that your body needs rest.
Establish proper nutrition
Review your diet, if you are breastfeeding, then most likely you are taking the right foods and eliminating the harmful ones. Fried, smoked and salted foods can retain excess fluid in the body.
Quench your thirst with clean water, while minimizing the consumption of black tea and coffee when breastfeeding after childbirth. You can take unsweetened fruit drinks, cranberry is especially good; rosehip decoction can also help, it contains a lot of vitamins, and also has diuretic properties.
Take cool herbal baths for your hands and feet every evening.
Wear special shapewear after childbirth, which will help relieve fatigue in your legs and establish proper blood circulation.
Treatment of edema after childbirth with medications is best left to a doctor. In some cases, you really can’t do without medication, but in most cases the above tips will help you.
As a rule, swelling after childbirth goes away within 2-3 weeks. For some, this period may be much shorter, while others will have to endure swelling for up to 1.5-2 months.
In any case, you shouldn’t worry about whether the swelling will go away after childbirth) - all these unpleasant swellings (even severe swelling after childbirth) will go away and you will forget about them quickly enough.
Very often, women after a cesarean section experience swelling in their legs, which may not go away for quite a long time. This causes aesthetic discomfort, because short skirts and tight dresses cannot be worn. And painful sensations, heaviness when walking and tired legs at the end of the day prevent a young mother from enjoying the joy of communicating with her baby. Therefore, it is quite understandable that every woman wants to get rid of this disease. But first you have to find out its reasons.
There are several factors that explain why legs swell after a cesarean section: they are most often due to the health status of the young mother during the prenatal period. If fluid accumulated in the limbs even before the baby was conceived or this condition of the veins was inherited, do not be surprised. The sooner you discover the cause of your edema, the faster and easier you will cope with it, and therefore with the disease too.
Keep in mind that among the most popular today, common factors that provoke severe swelling of the legs after a cesarean section, phlebologists name the following:
All these causes of edema of the lower extremities, which quite often occur in women after cesarean section, either gradually disappear on their own or are eliminated through various measures.
The best option is to seek help from a doctor who will help you understand what is happening and advise what to do from a professional point of view. This can be either medication prescribed by a doctor after a thorough laboratory examination, or quick-acting home remedies.
This is interesting! During pregnancy, the expectant mother's foot may increase by several (1-2) sizes due to swelling.
If after a caesarean section you find swelling in your legs, you should first wait a while (1-2 weeks). As a rule, this time is quite enough for this natural process to gradually fade away by itself, since the blood becomes the same in composition as before, even before birth.
But if, after this period, the condition of the lower extremities is still deplorable, it is better to seek help from a doctor, a phlebologist, who will help remove swelling after a cesarean section through medications. Among them:
Drug treatment of leg swelling after cesarean section is a very effective remedy against this scourge, which affects 85% of all women. If the reasons are identified correctly and a full-fledged consultation with a medical specialist is obtained, then just a week is enough to get rid of the problem.
In addition to medications, there are folk remedies that can be an excellent help for the main course of therapy.
Keep in mind . If during pregnancy you take walks in the evenings and engage in feasible sports, this will help avoid swelling of the limbs after a cesarean section.
Since drug treatment is not always acceptable during lactation, since active substances can pass into breast milk and affect the baby in one way or another, folk remedies (baths and infusions) help get rid of edema after cesarean section. They are prepared mainly from natural products and used at home. Specially designed exercises and underwear are no less useful.
A few tips on what measures you can take on your own will allow you to do without medications.
To thin the blood, a young mother’s diet should contain the following foods and drinks:
Excluded from the menu for swelling after cesarean section:
If you follow these recommendations after a cesarean section, you can quickly and easily remove swelling of the legs without resorting to medical help. But this is only if there are no problems with the circulatory system or any other serious diseases. Otherwise, complications cannot be avoided.
And, of course, doctors never tire of warning all young mothers: it is much easier to prevent a disease than to treat it later. So, even during pregnancy, you should take care of the shape of your beautiful legs.
Be careful! Very often, edema is the first harbinger of venous insufficiency, which may develop in the future if no measures are taken.
To prevent your legs from swelling after a cesarean section (if the operation is planned), it is recommended to monitor the health and condition of your limbs during pregnancy. In particular, adhere to the following tips, which in the future (after the baby is born) will allow you not to even remember this misfortune.
If after a cesarean section your legs swell significantly (even to the point of cramps and pain), you should immediately contact a phlebologist. He will help you correctly determine the cause of what is happening to the body, and advise what to do next.
Sometimes it is possible to relieve swelling only with the help of medications, but in most cases it is enough to use folk remedies for 1-3 weeks. The problem would not be so widespread if the majority of expectant mothers deliberately prepared for a cesarean section and were involved in the prevention of this disease.
There are a number of conclusions about the dangers of washing cosmetics. Unfortunately, not all new mothers listen to them. 97% of shampoos use the dangerous substance Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) or its analogues. Many articles have been written about the effects of this chemistry on the health of both children and adults. At the request of our readers, we tested the most popular brands.
The results were disappointing - the most advertised companies showed the presence of those very dangerous components in their composition. In order not to violate the legal rights of manufacturers, we cannot name specific brands. The Mulsan Cosmetics company, the only one that passed all the tests, successfully received 10 points out of 10 (check out). Each product is made from natural ingredients, completely safe and hypoallergenic.
If you doubt the naturalness of your cosmetics, check the expiration date; it should not exceed 10 months. Be careful when choosing cosmetics, this is important for you and your child.
According to statistics, swelling after childbirth is observed in a quarter of women. But this degree of prevalence does not mean that this phenomenon is normal. Usually, the swelling that accompanies pregnancy gradually goes away with the birth of the child. The presence of edema in a woman who has given birth is a sign of abnormalities in the functioning of the body, sometimes quite serious.
The causes of edema can be different, but essentially the reason for this phenomenon is the accumulation of fluid in the body at the cellular level.
Normally, excess fluid should be removed from the body along with harmful substances accumulating in it.
Physiological swelling in pregnant women is caused by intense production of progesterone, which changes the structure of capillaries and slows down the removal of sodium from the body. Swelling usually appears closer to night and goes away during sleep. But swelling after childbirth is considered pathological.
What can cause swelling:
In the first week after childbirth, there is no cause for alarm if slight swelling is observed, especially if the woman received intravenous infusions during the delivery process. As progesterone levels decrease, water balance also normalizes. If even after a week a woman notices that her body is swelling, she needs to see a doctor to find out the reason. To do this, you will need to undergo an examination and take tests as prescribed by your doctor.
Swelling has four degrees of severity, which differ in intensity and location:
By localization, you can also preliminarily diagnose the reason why swelling appears after childbirth.
Thus, renal pathologies are characterized primarily by puffiness of the face, then swelling extends to the arms and legs. If a woman has not had problems with her kidneys before, then the first alarm bell should be that the ring put on her finger in the morning is difficult to remove in the evening.
The reason for this deviation is that the kidneys cannot restore normal function after pregnancy, excess fluid remains in the body.
In case of cardiac pathologies, the upper half of the body never swells. But women with cardiovascular disorders, as a rule, are aware of their problems even before pregnancy.
Asymmetrical swelling of the legs after childbirth clearly indicates varicose veins, while on a healthy limb there may be no swelling at all. Varicose veins are very common during pregnancy, since as the fetus develops, the growing uterus gradually increases pressure on the vessels of the pelvic area, complicating blood circulation in the lower extremities. If you do not pay attention to these symptoms in time, varicose nodes may appear on the legs.
Poor nutrition also causes fluid to accumulate in tissues. This is especially facilitated by very salty and spicy foods, washed down with too much water.
Swelling of the legs after childbirth can be observed in those women who do not have the opportunity to lie down during the day and spend most of the day on their feet - no matter whether standing or sitting. Unlike heart edema, these edemas are not around the clock: by morning they decrease significantly.
If swelling is accompanied by a persistent headache, this may be a symptom of hypertension.
What to do if swelling after childbirth does not go away depends on the cause of the pathology. Let's not forget that this may be one of the symptoms of any disease.
But there are general rules that prescribe in such cases:
Problems often arise due to the fact that the use of drug therapy in women during lactation is significantly limited. Doctors try to prescribe gentle medications or traditional medicine to nursing mothers.
In particular, this applies to diuretics, which are necessary for renal failure. Also, these home remedies are prescribed for high blood pressure.
But all these remedies can be used only after consultation with your doctor. You also need to make non-hot foot baths with various herbal supplements.
You can add a little sea salt to them. After this procedure, it is advisable to do a light massage using creams or ointments that improve venous circulation.
You need to approach baths and massages with caution if you have severe varicose veins. With this disease, wearing compression stockings and knee socks or bandaging the legs with elastic bandages helps.
The following should be excluded from the diet:
It is better to steam meat, stew or bake vegetables. You should consult your doctor about limiting fluid intake, as this may affect lactation.
Often, swelling is caused by additional manipulations that were performed during swelling in the legs after childbirth. For example, with intravenous infusion of birth-stimulating drugs, swelling may appear on a woman’s body and face. However, they do not require special measures and go away on their own during the first week after birth. In the last months of pregnancy, the load on the kidneys increases greatly, which is why they cannot cope with the function of processing the required amount of fluid. After childbirth, kidney function is restored and swelling goes away within a week. However, if a woman had kidney disease before pregnancy, then swelling can persist for quite a long time.
Among the other causes of swelling, the following can be distinguished: Initial swelling in the legs after childbirth of beginning varicose veins are spider veins on the skin, heaviness in the legs, swelling. If swelling appears on both legs symmetrically, then, most likely, swelling in the legs after childbirth, we are talking about varicose veins. And if a change in skin color and swelling is observed only on one leg, then this is a symptom of venous thrombosis.
This disease is extremely dangerous and therefore requires urgent medical examination. Basic methods of dealing with edema Usually, edema after childbirth disappears after about a week, as the load on the body decreases and the functioning of all its systems is normalized. If after this period the swelling does not go away, then the woman needs to take a number of measures to eliminate it. This is swelling, and after childbirth it occurs for the following reasons: All these problems can be solved quite quickly and easily if the cause is determined correctly. Most often, swelling of the legs is observed after childbirth, since all the excess body fluid accumulates in them, and the outflow is impaired due to the above factors.
To get rid of them, you first need to eliminate the root cause of this phenomenon. First aid As soon as you notice that your legs are swollen after childbirth for no apparent reason. Reduce fluid intake to 1.5 liters per day.
To prevent this from affecting lactation in any way, drink hot tea with milk. Reduce stress on your limbs: When sitting, try to elevate your legs higher. To relieve swelling of the perineum, apply a heating pad with ice. Eliminate fried, salty, spicy, and overly sweet foods from your diet.
But it’s worth paying attention to sea buckthorn, swelling in the legs after childbirth, lemons, grapes, tomatoes and cranberries. Daily warm and cold baths will help get rid of swelling after childbirth, to which it is useful to add sea salt, chamomile, juniper, birch leaves, and mint. Put your baby to your breast more often. Ask someone from your family to massage the swollen areas in the evenings. If you know for sure that you have severe swelling of your legs due to problems with the veins, take a contrast shower several times a day.
It activates blood circulation and strengthens blood vessels. One of the severe pathologies of expectant mothers.
Often, when it occurs during pregnancy, doctors decide to perform an urgent cesarean section to save the fetus. Against this background, severe swelling of the legs is more difficult to relieve. Swelling after surgery During any operation, there is always increased swelling in the legs after childbirth, the occurrence of diseases and unpredictable dangerous conditions. Swelling of the legs can be caused by a surgeon's mistake during surgery, damage to the vessels responsible for the outflow of blood from the lower half of the body. Compression of blood vessels by postoperative edema complicates blood flow, which leads to stagnation of blood in the legs. What to do with postpartum swelling of the legs Let's consider ways to eliminate swelling of the lower extremities that occurred after childbirth.
First aid for swelling of the extremities The recovery period after the birth of a baby, when changes in the body return to normal, goes differently for each woman. In a healthy mother, swelling of the legs should go away during the swelling in the legs after childbirth after childbirth. The recommendations below will help women remove swelling and reduce swelling of the lower extremities: Performing simple physical exercises for the lower extremities: circular movements of the feet, raising the toes, squeezing the toes.
Adequate rest and good sleep. Treatment with medications Do not self-medicate with pills. Only a qualified specialist will prescribe the correct medication treatment, since when a woman is breastfeeding, the use of medications is limited. How long will it take for treatment?
The answer to this question depends on the chosen method to resolve the problem. The choice of drugs will be determined by the attending physician after a comprehensive examination. The treatment course for diseases of the circulatory or genitourinary systems lasts up to 30 days. To treat varicose veins, you will need to undergo long-term therapy, up to 6 months, depending on the stage of development of the disease. The prescribed vitamin complex can relieve swelling of the legs.
Why after childbirth, namely after cesarean section, swelling of the legs may occur. What exercises help the body remove excess water faster?
Swelling during pregnancy is extremely common and is not always a consequence of some illness. The cause may be sitting or standing for a long time. But the swelling that appears after childbirth, in particular after a cesarean section, is a clear indication of a disruption in the functioning of the body.
To understand whether swelling has appeared on the legs, you need to lightly press on the limb with your finger (this is more clearly visible on the lower part of the leg) and if a dent appears, it means that swelling is present.
Delivery by cesarean section is a full-fledged operation, with all possible postoperative complications. The most dangerous thing is the formation of blood clots in the legs and their subsequent migration to the lungs. Pulmonary embolism is an extremely dangerous condition that can complicate any operation and artificial delivery. Therefore, it is not for nothing that a young mother is frightened by the swelling that appeared on her legs after surgery. This may be a sign of thrombosis.
While still pregnant, a woman’s body begins the process of blood thickening in order to reduce its loss during childbirth. If there are problems with blood clotting, atherosclerotic damage to the inner surface of blood vessels, an increase in blood density, then there will be even more factors that contribute to fluid retention in the legs.
The reasons why the legs swell after a cesarean section include:
After a caesarean section, the blood begins to return to normal and the swelling in the legs gradually begins to decrease. Thrombosis can be one of the reasons why limbs swell after childbirth. In this case, the process of blocking the venous vessels with a thrombus occurs and, as a result, the outflow of blood is disrupted and the legs swell.
The cause of thrombosis can be the already mentioned process of preparing the body for labor, as well as vaginal examination, an autoimmune disorder and the common cold.
Actively developing thrombosis can be observed directly during labor. It happens that as a result of a caesarean section, the legs become swollen, and they are in no hurry to return to their usual shape. Sometimes the accumulation of fluid in the legs begins to increase.
For the most part, treatment of emerging edema occurs without the intervention of medications. In addition, this is not recommended for a new mother. To begin treatment, you need to follow some rules that will help remove excess water from the body.
All of the above steps help solve the problem. They do not contribute to abdominal muscle tension. It is recommended to do each of them at least 3 times a day. After a caesarean section, mothers are prescribed painkillers, which allows them to feel comfortable for a while (while the medicine is working), then they can follow the instructions.
It happens that after a cesarean section, leg swelling does not go away for a long time, even when all the instructions are followed. This option requires medication treatment. Under no circumstances should you carry out treatment yourself. You need to follow the doctor’s recommendations, and he will prescribe medications so as not to harm either the woman or the child. It is not possible to identify the cause on your own, and it is easy to make the situation worse.
Hello friends! Let's look at a topic today that is familiar to most young mothers. This is swelling after childbirth, which is observed in almost 80% of women who have recently given birth. What causes swelling after childbirth? Can they be avoided? And how to deal with them? Let's take a closer look.
Edema occurs because too much fluid accumulates in the body. Due to its point nature, edema differs from swelling. If you press your finger on the swelling, then after half a minute a hole will appear in this place. Swelling after childbirth is a very common occurrence among young mothers. For some, only their arms or legs swell, bags appear under their eyes, and for some, their entire figure suffers. If intravenous infusions were given during childbirth, the swelling will go away later. Often, swelling contributes to breast engorgement and changes in the shape of the nipple. The skin in these places becomes wrinkled and dry. Swelling prevents the baby from attaching to the breast, which is why some women simply cannot breastfeed their children. In addition, due to swelling after childbirth, women often have to wear shoes and clothes several sizes larger. Of course, they don’t feel much pleasure from this, and dream of returning to their former form as soon as possible.
Edema after childbirth occurs not only due to excessive fluid intake, but also due to the accumulation of sodium salts in the tissues. In addition, edema can be associated with problems of the cardiovascular and urinary systems. Since the uterus actively grows during pregnancy and puts pressure on the organs, the outflow of blood from the lower and upper extremities slows down. As a result, swelling occurs. Postpartum hypothyroidism also leads to swelling due to decreased iron levels in the blood. If a woman stands and walks a lot, rarely rests without giving her legs rest, and also has venous insufficiency, then she has every chance of getting edema.
Doctors advise drinking as little water as possible and not eating spicy, salty, fatty, sour, smoked or fried foods. All this only increases thirst. Dill, honey water with lemon, green tea, diuretic herbs are useful for edema, but soda and sweet drinks will not help. Instead, you need to drink still water, fruit drinks, and compotes without sugar. It is necessary and possible to consume anything that is a diuretic. In general, you are allowed to drink no more than one and a half liters of liquid per day (not counting broths, soups, fruits, vegetables). Women suffering from edema are advised to wear tight tights and often take baths for their hands and feet with the addition of medications that have a diuretic effect. If swelling predominates in the legs, then you must give them rest, and as often as possible: lie horizontally, placing a pillow under your legs so that they are slightly elevated in relation to the body. By following these simple rules, you can get rid of swelling in a couple of weeks. Parents should remember that in the absence of chronic diseases, doctors do not recommend drug treatment for edema after childbirth. This is especially important if the newborn baby is breastfed. During this period, the mother’s health needs attention and support more than ever, so you should not self-medicate or take diuretics, and in case of any complications, immediately consult a doctor. Be healthy!
With love and warmth to you, Natalya Klishina,
mother of two children, teacher, choreographer, musician,
Child care consultant under 10 years old,
Consultant on school preparation issues,
author of the project “Daughter Grows, Son Grows”