Having a baby is hard enough in this age of medical interference, without the additional widely accepted expectation that you will be back at work before you are in any way near ready.
Today’s western mothers are leaving the house to “get on with life”, baby in tow, before the baby is even two weeks old! Many are back at work after 6 weeks leaving baby in the care of childcare centres or, if lucky, in home nannies or trusted, capable relatives.
This combination of over activity and societal expectations is a recipe for malnourished, under slept, stressed out mamas and unsettled, potentially insecurely attached babies. If you had trouble during the birth, your bonding mechanism could have been impaired, your baby may not have had the right hormonal cues and may not have been exposed to the proper bacteria to get it’s gut flora properly started. There are so many challenges women face today that anything you can do to help make the first weeks and months of your baby’s life more settled and healthier is worth learning about.
How to make things better? (for yourself or for your partner/friend/lover/daughter if you are not the mother reading this)
Well, first of all, you need at least 6 weeks post-partum of very low-key activity during which someone else looks after you (and your other children if you have them), while you get used to your new baby and learn to feed, burp, change and bathe him/her. (This is how long it takes the uterus to shrink back to it’s normal size).
Also we must mention bonding and falling in love with your baby, which often takes longer than the TV and women’s magazines lead us to believe. Most mothers love their babies at first sight but the emotion may fluctuate to desperation, despair and dread with the amount of crying the child does, the ease of breastfeeding and the amount of sleep you and your baby are getting.
You are not to do housework, or laundry, or even cook for yourself beyond simple easy to prepare (nutritious!) foods. Best not to even get in the car unless you must. Also, best to avoid baths or swimming and stick to showers as your vagina or C section scar will be sore and raw and prone to easily infect.
In China the expected post partum recovery time is four months (16 weeks) and in some other “traditional” societies, women regularly expect 40 days of recovery before they are asked to resume normal, daily activities. Even in some Western countries, paid maternity leave reflects growing awareness of how long women need to recover (14 weeks in New Zealand, two weeks shy of the mark but at least it’s progress!)
Chinese families have for centuries (first written documentation is 741 AD) taken the new born’s placenta and made it into soup for the mother to drink. Nowadays, we make pills as they are more palatable and have a longer shelf life. Placenta has vital minerals and helpful hormones that enhance immunity, improve stress tolerance, increase breast milk production and calm tumultuous emotions. (see http://www.plancentapills.co.nz for more info)
In general, women feel more “normal” (like they did before becoming pregnant) within half an hour of taking a dose. (Dose is one pill, three times a day or, as needed). An average placenta will yield 200-400 pills in my experience, and that will last the mother 2-4 months. If you feel you no longer need your pills, you can refrigerate for months to keep for a rough patch further on in the first year. There is no aftertaste or ill side effects from taking placenta, except possibly it could make you a bit warm, in which case you can lower your dose or take some additional Yin tonics (Chinese herbs) to counter this tendency.
Reasons posed for post partum depression are varied, but are commonly cited as; poor birth experience, not enough support at home, lack of sleep, emotional worry and inability to relax (becoming hyper vigilant).
There is growing evidence that blood loss, poor nutrition and mineral deficiencies can exacerbate the condition and make it hard to bond with your baby. The maternal bonding instinct is reliant on both Zinc and Manganese which may be deficient in your diet and tend to get drained out of you during pregnancy.
Fortunately, placenta has both of these minerals and more, in the right amounts. (see Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering by Dr. Sarah Buckley) There is no substitute for adequate rest and getting the support you need from friends and family, but you can do yourself a very important favour and make pills out of your baby’s placenta.
If anything else comes up during the first few months, taking Chinese herbs in addition to the placenta and having a few acupuncture sessions can also really help and should be sought out as the first port of call to enhance recovery and reduce postpartum pain, mastitis, varicosities, etc. without drugs that may harm the mother or the breastfed baby.