recovery from blood loss

[Jes'sBeth]

Help me out folks!

I bled quite a bit after the birth of our daughter on Sunday and I'm totally exhausted. Our daughter is doing really well, gaining already, sleeping tons (and I'm sleeping with her) My wife is doing all the childcare of our 3 yr old and doing all the household chores so I've got lots of help.

Still, I feel like I've been hit by a truck! Any ideas on how to recover as fast as possible from the blood loss? I don't think our family can handle a month of me feeling this tired!

[XanaduMama]

Not a Birth Professional, but saw this on new posts... Taking an iron supplement really helped me--Floradix is great and easier on the tummy than the mainstream versions. This time I also took Motherwort tincture and felt a million times better than after ds's birth.

Hope you feel better soon!

[DoomaYula]

Lots of iron-rich foods (meat, if you eat it; dark green veggies), lots of fluids.

I had a hem after my last birth and I felt pretty yucky for about a week or two. I felt fully recovered within about a month.

[balancedmama]

I agree that floradix could be a great choice. For me iron-rich foods were not enough to do the trick.

[BrooklynDoula]

I had the same things and in addition to the sleeping and resting I also took Floradix and ate my weight in dark leefy greens. It took a few weeks but I came back around. Congrats on your baby!

[mountainmidwife]

It is very common to be anemic after a heavy bleed. In fact, I would assume that you are. I would get on a high iron diet asap. Anemia is nothing to fool around with. I would take a 1/2 of a cup of liquid chlorophyll twice a day for 2 weeks and then go to 1/4 of a cup twice a day for another 2 months.

I have also had success with a brand called "Blood Builder". I purchased them at whole foods. Follow the instructions on the bottle.

[Jane]

For anemia - rest, fluids, good food, iron rich foods, herbal suppliments, iron suppliments, meat (if you eat it)

One of my preceptors uses the difference in pulse between sitting and standing to tell mamas when to start moving around. So, a mama with a nasty bleed post partum would have a pulse of 80 sitting and 120 immediately upon standing (you take the pulse as they stand up) on day two - she needs to stay "down", resting, because her body hasn't adapted blood volumes to deal with the low oxygen carrying capasity of the blood. One day three, it's 80 sitting and standing and she can start doing more upright stuff, like fetching diapers to change the baby, etc. Her rational is that you'll heal better when you've adapted. You still need to get the iron levels (oxygen carrying capasity) up, but you're more even.

I would suggest that if you're still experiencing big changes in pulse from something as light as standing up - your tiredness will soon disappear as you adapt. If it's steady with light exercise like that, it's probably gonna stick around until you pull more iron out of storage (if you have any left after pregnancy) or get more iron from your diet.

[Jes'sBeth]

Thanks for all the suggestions. A week on I'm just starting to feel human again. At least human enough to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I've been taking floradix for several weeks to build iron before labour and delivery since I was borderline low iron when tested midway through the pregnancy. I've been taking chlorophyll, floradix and vit c and eating lots of leafy greens and red meat this week as well to try to build back as fast as possible. It's nice to actually feel hungry since I was sick for the whole pregnancy...

All I can say really though... chlorophyll tastes HORRIBLE! I am looking forward to not having to take it anymore!

[pamamidwife]

Chlorophyll sometimes comes in mint flavor - I just put a dropperful in a bottle of water and don't really taste it.

I'm glad you're feeling better!