Monday, March 25, 2013

Vaginal Gas After Childbirth Due to Poor Postpartum Care


During childbirth, the vaginal muscles undergo tremendous stress, getting stretched and pulled to allow your baby to slip out smoothly, on account of which the vagina tears. However, the doctor stitches it up and the wound takes a little over a week or so to heal.

During the initial weeks after childbirth, the vaginal muscles are loose and weakened. Air slips in easily and gets trapped in there. Whenever you happen to move about, especially forwards, wherein your lower abdomen gets pressed, the trapped air pushes itself out with a low noise that can be clearly heard by people sitting near you, causing great embarrassment, as you are unable to control it.

Trapped vaginal air feels more like air bubbles inside you and can come out when you least expect it. It is extremely frustrating to feel that there is nothing you can do to control it. They usually tend to sort itself out on its own, after your vaginal muscle heal and gets back its old elasticity, within a few weeks or so after childbirth. However, vaginal air can be prevented if adequate care is taken by a new mother during the postpartum period.

In India, a new mother in ancient times had to undergo the traditional postpartum confinement period that lasted for 40 days, wherein she was put through a special diet to enhance lactation, had hot oil massages, baths and a long period of rest and sleep. During this time, a new mother was confined to her room with her baby, spending the duration of postpartum nursing her baby and strengthening the mother-baby bond. A new mother was kept happy and well looked after by a horde of loving relatives, which is so important for alleviating postnatal depression and anxiety.

Expert advice from elderly women of the household about dealing with several postpartum issues like contractions, blood clots, sore vagina, bowel movements, painful breastfeeding, hair loss, stretch marks and vaginal air, were adhered to and proper methods were used to tackle them. The methods were tried and tested and withstood the test of time, as the women then, rarely suffered from postpartum issues and continued to lead a long healthy life despite having borne several children.

Fast forward to the present era where a new mother quickly gets back to her old routine after childbirth, as if eager to prove her ability to meet the demands and challenges of motherhood, resulting in postnatal issues, especially vaginal gas, after childbirth. Her body is denied proper rest and sleep that it deserves and has to pay for neglect and lackadaisical attitude. It cannot be stressed enough that a new mother must take preventive measures to prevent vaginal gas and harmoniously balance her five body elements such as earth, water, fire, air and ether.

You can know more about the preventive measures that are needed to prevent vaginal gas through my blog http://yourkidandyou.blogspot.in/ and a host of other postnatal problems faced by a new mother, and their simple remedies.

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