Taking care of afterbirth pains

[winginit]

If you haven't heard of these before...afterbirth pains are uterine contractions you can have while nursing the baby...that sometimes hurt more then labor contractions. Usually with the first baby you don't tend to have them, but with each subsequent baby they get worse and more frequent. This being #3 for me I was quite concerned about them (they had really hurt me with #2..and surprised me as I wasn't informed about them), so I asked my midwife for a solution.

Well...she recommended Crampbark...and this time they were not very bad AT ALL!! I started it right after the birth and only took it for the first day. Good to have on hand before the birth!!

[cristina47454]

Good to know! I'm on #3 too and I've been a little worried about it. One of my friends went home with Perkaset, and obviously I;d like to try to avoid drugs, so Crampbark it is! What is the dosage?

[winginit]

She had me taking 20 drops every 30 minutes....seemed to work!

[Parthenia]

I took Black Haw tincture, which I still make and use for menstrual cramps. Cramp bark and Black haw are in the same genus.

[boobyfeeder]

I've got Afterease Tincture for that, it was recommended to me by my m/w. My afterpains were horrible with DD2, I am expecting them to be even worse this time around.

[Gremco]

Oooh! I wish I would have thought of that! I've just been whining my way through them. I have found that massaging my uterus when I am not cramping eases the contractions.

[peanbugsmom]

I also recommend Crampbark! I used it last time and it seemed to work! This time around my birth kit included some afterease tincture. I hope it works. I meant to check if it had crampbark in it but I think it might.

[joshs_girl]

Can you take it as a pill or is it only as a tincture?

[cristina47454]

Just bought the Crampbark to put in my hospital bag. So...I start with 20 drops every half hour as soon as baby is out? Wonder if that will send the nurses into a tizzy...

[stephck]

It was only my first but my trusty heating pad helped on my crampiest day.

[mom2a4Rashelle]

I just had #4 and yes they were the MOST intense with this one. The heating pad was wonderful and when they were bad at night I took some IB proufen to help ease the pain which helped me.

[spiderdust]

My midwife says they get more painful with each baby, so I have a tincture called "After Labor".

[hislittlelambs]

i am not in your birthclub (just here to lurk and read more wonderful, empowering, happy birthing stories!) but I am very glad to see this thread and posts of how it helped or not.

I HB-ed my son (#3) almost 2 years ago and those pains were worse than transition! they made my thighs shake. it took everything i had not to toss poor nursling onto dh and grab my abdomen and legs! i would yell at dh "massage legs NOW!" lol...i knew they would be bad, but i didn't prepare for them. i ended up using some liquid tylenol 3 left over from my dd's dental work...and i hated doing that!:

I am pregnant with #4 (again expecting a wonderful and beautiful HB!) but so scared of those after pains again! I had heard of crampbark but hadn't heard any 1st person tesitmonies on it, how it's used...etc. THANK YOU for this thread and also for the other recommendations!

So, i have a question...how does it address your body? does it tone the uterus, is it a natural pain killer? how does it work exactly?

[moderngal]

I'm taking After-Ease tincture. It definitely helps, but it doesn't completely take away the pains. I wonder if plain crampbark would work better?