Postnatal Care For First-Time Mothers

Giving birth could be a lot of things to different women, exhilarating, exhausting, and painful, wonderful experience. The fact is if you have just given birth, your body just went through nine months of pregnancy that altered your body in many ways including diversion of nutrients, a temporary suppression of the immune system, weight loss or weight gain, including a myriad of other health issues that while normally encountered during pregnancy, will have to normalize after delivery. Topping the list of postnatal care that you could do are the following.
Nutrition
•    It is very important to maintain a healthy diet. For this you will need energy foods. Staple will include Cereals, bread, rice, pasta and potatoes.
•    Milk and dairy products should be included in the daily menu. If you are underweight, drink any milk that you could have, otherwise choose the low fat variety whenever possible.
•     Eat a minimum of five portions of vegetables. Vegetables are high in natural vitamins and nutri ents that your body requires aside from its high fiber content. You need fiber to detoxify your system especially when you are nursing your baby. Fruit juices no matter how many you take will only count as one portion. Drink lots of it but as always, mind the sugar. The sugar may not harm you. You will need all the energy that you could have. It is the development of the taste for it that you may have to struggle against even when you already do not need as much.
•    For protein, it is always choose eggs, beans and lentils instead. One of the best source of protein are fresh water fishes especially the fatty variety like salmon, mackerel, trout and tuna. The fat in the belly of these fishes are very high in useful fatty acids that you can use in your recovery.

Getting back in shape
Do not attempt to lose weight right after pregnancy. That could come later. Caring for the infant including breast feeding will require much energy from you. You could your normal routine inside the house but not very strenuous activity that could potentially create more problems. After two to three months, you could do exercises to get you in shape but until then  you could use rest to conserve energy for the care of your infant.

At about ten weeks though, you could start doing more strenuous exercises. If you do, find exercises that include the pelvic area. Pelvic exercises not only restore the health and the shape in the pelvic region, it is also good in increasing your control on your bladder.  

Be Realistic
It is an altogether different experience when you were not yet caring for an infant. Then you could do almost anything that you set your mind into. With a newborn baby though, routines will change and compromises will be taken. You could not expect to do the same things as before and still care for the infant so set goals that are achievable. Being unrealistic will drive you to frustration. A baby is the only creation there is that will not take no for an answer. The infant will demand it and often at the most inconvenient time.

Your Hormones and You
Hormone levels will also change. Hormonal changes may bother some mother, while it may not bother some. Hormonal changes are felt five days or onward that may leave you feeling depressed, irritable, but mostly tired. The effects of hormone change usually pass within a short period of time. Bed and aspirin takes care most of it. If you are bothered though, your doctor is in the best position for postnatal care of this type.

Labor and Birth