An expecting mother runs the risk of suffering from a range of complications during and after pregnancy. You were very wrong to think childbirth is about antenatal care and once the baby is born, the mother is safe from danger. Both C- Sections and vaginal deliveries take into account the hovering threat of impediments. Sudden problems like perineal lacerations, amniotic cavity issues, umbilical cord issues, abnormal fetal heart rate, and stalled labor might be experienced during giving birth to a child. Childbirth is again followed by another set of medical conditions. Postpartum Hemorrhage is one such condition that, if left unattended, can turn out to be fatal.
Postpartum Hemorrhage: An overview
Patients suffering from Postpartum Hemorrhage are subjected to loss of more than 500 mL of blood after delivery. In certain rare cases, women have been reported with a loss of more than 1000 mL of blood. Morbidity statistics say postpartum hemorrhage is the most common trigger to maternal morbidity in developed countries. Even after ensuring the efficacy of preventive measures to prevalent risk factors, lapses do exist. A loss of more than 1000 mL of blood can severely endanger your health. It may lead to hemodynamic instability. Treatment of Postpartum Hemorrhage should systematically concentrate on two important things; firstly, diagnosis and management of root causes resulting in a hemorrhage and secondly, dealing with hypovolemic shock along with resuscitation of obstetric hemorrhage.
Preventive Measures
An exigency situation with regard to postpartum hemorrhage can be avoided or controlled in the following ways;
1. Detecting signs of acute anemia and thus rectifying the condition before delivery.
2. Routine episiotomy should be done away with.
3. The doctor should inquire of the mother’s opinion on blood transfusions.
4. There should be frequent examinations of the person's vaginal flow and vital signs to check for slow and steady bleeding.
5. The risk of retained placenta in the third stage of labor can increase chances of postpartum hemorrhage. Active management on part of the hospital can take care of this. Regulated cord traction, early cord clamping and cutting and most basically use of a uterotonic drug soon after the delivery of the anterior shoulder can prevent a prolonged third stage thus hindering a hemorrhage from occurring.
6. Oxytocin is an advisable drug to prevent the chances of a hemorrhage. Pregnant women may or may not give their consent to its use. It has very few side- effects. Prophylactic administration of this drug is known to reduce rates of postpartum hemorrhage by forty percent.
Management: excessive blood loss after childbirth can be tackled through hysterectomy. Women who wish to remain fertile can go in for B- lynch uterine compression sutures, artery litigations, uterine packing or tamponade procedures.
While pregnancy is a wonderful time as you are anticipating the arrival of your child, it can bring many skin problems along with it. While these are nothing major, you do need to take care of these problems as they may either leave marks on your skin post-pregnancy and even cause discomfort during it. Some of these problems are discussed here.
What can be done?
After pregnancy, the stretch marks usually disappear but only a laser surgery can eliminate them. In order to prevent them from appearing at all, the doctors suggest a healthy & balanced diet full of anti-oxidants, vitamin A, vitamin E, lots of vegetables & water from the early pregnancy stages. Doctors also suggest exercises like yoga, which will retain the elasticity of the skin.
As your pregnancy develops, you might experience severe (at times recurrent) itching around your growing belly. In order to get rid of the itching, the doctors will recommend the usage of cold moisturizers. You should avoid bathing in hot water and try keeping your skin as moist as possible to get rid of the itching. If the itching tends to be extreme, you should seek the help of a doctor.
Skin Changes
There might be other significant skin changes due to pregnancy. Doctors suspect that an elevated level of pregnancy hormones causes the melanocytes (melanin producing skin cells) to produce an excessive amount of pigments. To avoid the skin changes, the doctors might recommend a prescribed application of sunscreen lotion. Most of the skin changes tend to disappear after delivery. The skin changes that might affect you during pregnancy are:
Planning on getting pregnant can involve taking steps that will help you in having a safe and fulfilling pregnancy and subsequent childbirth. It is important to indulge in preconception planning so as to ensure that you are in the pink of health and ready to go through the process of bearing and birthing a child in the best possible manner. Indulging in this stage is also a way of looking out for your unborn child and ensuring that he or she gets the best conditions during and right after pregnancy. So how can you tell if your body is ready for pregnancy? Here’s a quick list for you!
Type of Birth Control: In the preconception stage, it is important to ask what kind of birth control you have been using. This will make it easier for you to estimate your cycles and know when you will be due for your period once you stop the pill so that you know roughly when you will be ovulating. Usually, for most birth control pills, the time lag is about two weeks which gives you plenty of time for the menstruation cycle to get back to its normal course.
Vaccinations: You will need to check whether or not all your vaccinations are current and up to date. Before you start trying for conception, it will be best to get these vaccinations done as many of them cannot be taken once you have conceived, due to side effects like fever and more, which cannot be treated with regular allopathic medication once you are pregnant. Remember to especially check about vaccinations for German Measles and Chickenpox, which can prove to be fatal if they strike during pregnancy or the post-natal period, when the immunity of the body dips.
Chronic Medical Conditions: If you have chronic medical conditions like hypertension or diabetes or any other such ailment, then you will need to get your weight, blood pressure, blood sugar level and other such vitals to a normal level before you conceive so that you do not have to deal with the side effects of such medication that can be caused during pregnancy.
Supplements: You may have to change or switch the doses and medicines that you have been taking on a long term basis so as to make way for prenatal vitamins which will also help in preventing neural tube anomalies that can strike the baby if the development of the same does not happen properly in the very first month after conception.
While you are at it, you should also consider talking to your doctor about any family history of birth defects and anomalies to know your risk and chances.
Pregnancy is definitely a new and beautiful phase in a woman’s life. During this time, the woman’s body goes through multiple changes during the nine months and post-delivery, extra care is needed for the body to get back to its pre-pregnancy state. The following are some tips to care for your post-partum body immediately after delivery and through the first six weeks after childbirth.
It is important to realize that while pregnancy is an important phase, it is a natural process. The body will adapt to these short-lived changes and allow you to bond with your baby by staying close to your child, responding to its needs, spending time together, and taking care of your newborn.
In today's world, the number of working moms all over the world is more than ever. Such women have a huge two-fold task of balancing between work and home, which includes looking after their children and managing their work at office. Balancing the two ends can make life hard for a working mother.
Here are some effective ways to find balance in motherhood for working mothers:
Life is quite difficult for working mothers who have to balance work and family together. In order to maintain a balance, follow the above-mentioned measures and lead a happy and fulfilling life.
Postpartum is the period after one's labour and delivery. Pregnancy and postpartum are a time when a woman's body changes to a great extent in order to first accommodate the baby and then go through labour and delivery. A vaginal delivery can have many implications when it comes to the postpartum. The same goes for a Caesarean Section or C Section as well. Let us find out what your postpartum care routine should include.
Taking care of your body in postpartum is a matter of bringing it back to normal gradually even as you deal with the side effects of delivery. Ensure that you are in touch with your doctor.
Childbirth is a very strenuous procedure, one has to undergo. Just like pregnancy, vaginal childbirth can take a toll on your health. But, there are certain simple tips and tricks you can have up your sleeves which can ensure you stay in optimal health post child birth.
Listed below are a few steps one can undertake to take care of your body after childbirth:
A healthy meal: Since childbirth, both vaginal and C-section, are strenuous procedures, you should choose to eat healthy and balanced meal which provides your body with the necessary nutrients and energy. Since, you are also breast-feeding, you need the required nutrients to pass off to your child.
Good rest is a must: You need to sleep on time and rest to relax your body. If you do not rest enough, you will be able to see the negative effects on your skin, manifesting in the form of puffy eyes and reduced energy levels. This puts extra strain on your body. Hire a nanny if you must; but, make sure you sleep on time to give your body the desired rest.
Work-out: You definitely cannot work-out in full flow after you have just had a child as your body is still healing. However, what you can do is engage in mild forms of Yoga stretches and breathing exercises to relax your body. Working out will help you relax your muscles and lose the fat, your body has gained during pregnancy. It also releases ‘endorphins’, the ‘happy hormones’ which make you feel better, both physically and psychologically.
Drink a lot of fluids: It is advisable for you to consume fluids after childbirth. The fluids relieve your body from toxin build-up and help in detoxifying and relaxing your body. Opt for vitamin based drinks and smoothies which impart sufficient nutrition to your body.
Heal your perineum: The best way to take care of your perineum is by cleaning it with lukewarm water and a few drops of aromatherapy oils or bath salts. Invest in a hazel pad if required as the gentle squirts of water help in cleaning the bacteria and blood off your perineum.
In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!
There are certain changes that are noticed in the body post-pregnancy. One such change that might affect you is an overactive bladder. Usually, depending on the amount of liquid that goes into the body, an individual urinates eight to ten times a day. But post-pregnancy this statistic might increase to around ten to twelve times a day. While urinating helps the body to get rid of excessive body wastes, extreme urinating would also get rid of the necessary minerals and liquid that the body requires for its proper functioning. However, overactive bladders are quite common in women who have delivered and can be treated smoothly. Here are some of the top ways in which you can treat your overactive bladder post your pregnancy:
Losing Weight: A woman gains a lot of weight post pregnancy. This weight needs to be reduced through simple exercises and a proper balanced diet. Reduction of the post pregnancy weight helps in controlling the overactive bladder to a certain extent.
Avoiding Alcohol, Spicy and Acidic Food: Alcohol, spicy and acidic food actually creates havoc in the excretory system. Their compounds are such that these enable the body to get rid of water and necessary elements from the body. In fact, the power of urine itself is reduced, making discharging urine with high water content. This would make you more thirsty resulting in over-urinating at times. Similar conditions arise in the body when you consume coffee which contains caffeine and chocolate. Although, having a little bit of chocolate now and then does not really affect the system to quite an extent.
Exercises: Each exercise is carefully tuned to help a particular part of the body. For reducing the over activeness of your bladder, pelvic exercises are the best that you can carry out even for thirty minutes a day. Exercises would help you to remain active, shed the excess weight as well as manage your urination.
Avoid Smoking: Out of the many health hazards that arise out of smoking, one of them is the extreme urge to urinate often after pregnancy. Thus, to avoid over urination it is advised to refrain from smoking for some time.
Thus, these are some of the easiest ways to control the situation. In case you are embarrassed to go out in the public like this, you can always use incontinence pads. However, if the problem persists even after trying out all the said methods, then it would be in your best interest to take expert advice from the doctors.
Dark circles are also known as peri orbital dark circles. Dark circles are dark blemishes which appear around the eye. Dark circles can appear at any age although older people are more likely to develop it. They may appear due to anemia, fatigue, medications, allergies, ageing or due to genetic problems. Dark circles may be treated either naturally with various home remedies or through artificial treatment.
The nine remedies stated below are some of the ways to cope up with the problem of dark circles.
Stress, lack of sleep and disturbed lifestyle are also responsible for dark circles. So, along with the above mentioned remedies following a healthy lifestyle will help you to combat the problem of dark circles. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a dermatologist.