# activity causing postpartum bleeding?



## Danielsmom (Jul 19, 2004)

After birthing both my sons, I was advised "no stairs, no driving, and no heavy lifting for 3 weeks." My birth doula suggested that I stay in bed for 7 days after leaving the hospital. I was wondering how many of you actually followed your midwives or doctors' advice about limited activity after birth.

Even with my husband home for the last week, I find it tough to follow this advice. He is caring for our older son while I am with the baby and yet I still find myself needing to go downstairs to get laundry, to let the dogs out, to spend time with our older son in the playroom, etc.

I try to rest in the morning but I find that when I get up, I experience some bleeding. I was warned that if I soak a pad every hour then it's too much. It isn't that bad but it does seem like more when I am more active.

I also feel like I need to start getting around the house more to condition myself for when dh goes back to work next week.

Any thoughts?
Thanks.


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## Quagmire (Sep 27, 2005)

I recently posted a question on the same topic.

I totally overdid it. I was entertaining 2 days after DD's birth (cooking, running around). I climbed stairs, did laundry, lifted heavy things, and barely rested.

I bled for 11 weeks, almost 12.

This time I'm planning on staying in bed (up to the bathroom, back to bed) for 3 days at least.


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## LoveChild421 (Sep 10, 2004)

I think your bleeding is the best way to tell if you are overdoing it. If you notice an increase, it's like your body is telling you to take it easy. I went back to school to give a presentation 2 weeks after ds's birth and after climbing (running) up 3 flights of stairs and standing for 2 hours I started bleeding bright red and fairly heavy again whereas my bleeding had been down to spotting just the day before. I listened to my body and rested in bed the next 2 days and the bleeding decreased back to spotting.


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## amydidit (Jan 21, 2005)

With both DD's I was up and driving the very next day. Heck, with DD2 we took my mom out to eat for her birthday the next day. With DD1 I stopped bleeding PP at about 3 weeks... with DD2 it was about 5-6 weeks. I noticed with DD2 that after a few weeks and the bleeding was really light that it would increase slightly if I did too much in a day, so I'd take it easy and it'd go back to being really light again.


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## tinyshoes (Mar 6, 2002)

here's what is going on inside your womb:

The reason women bleed post-partum is because the womb is healing itself in such an amazingly thourough way, there will be no scar tissue. This means the entire interior must be re-generated (forgive me, it's been years since I read the OB/GYN textbooks that I learned this from--I don't have the fancy terms or words, but this is the idea.)

For example, when a woman has a c-section (or other uterine surgery) and her womb is actually cut, a scar will develop....and indeed, scar tissue in the womb can cause troubles with future pregnancies, causing problems with placenta location (and even implatation? maybe? I forget.) because the placenta likes to grow on a smooth, pristine spot with vascularization...and if there's scar tissue (which is not vascularized, or plush with blood vessels), the placenta can grow in less-desireable places, like over the cervix...aka placenta previa.

That is a huge risk, evolutionarily-speaking. Placenta pervia is potentially life-threatening. Without modern medicine, women and babies affected with placenta previa would die...the baby for sure, possibly also mom because of blood loss occuring as the cervix dilates and the placenta is sheared from its site--ALL before the baby is even born!!!!

Happily, however--we bleed post-partum, to eliminate the risk of scar tissue in the womb. Women shed everything from their wombs after a baby (imagine the big ol' scar a 3 lb placenta would leave inside!)

As the interior of the womb is regenerating, you can imagine the interior looking like a soft scab. It's everywhere on the inside of your womb.

And when a post-partum mama bends over to load the dryer, reaches up for a box of cereal on a high shelf, gets in and out of a car, lifts that dang Graco carseat into the car, or *heaven forbid* starts walking stairs or vacuuming, YIKES.

That soft scab is going to be disturbed, and BOOM.....blood.

And then the healing must start over again......and the process is dragged out.........and seriously, anemia is also a concern at this point, in addition to the annoyance of having to wear pads for weeks post-partum when it's wholly likely a mama would bleed for a week _AT MOST_ if she remained calm and rested.

And obviously, if mama remains calm and rested for that week, the womb interior will have healed. _THEN_ she can reach that box of cereal or load the dryer, and she will not bleed--because there is no soft scab to disturb anymore; there is a healed uterine interior.*

Anyway--for me, I like to know the reasons *why* something is happening....especially in our culuture, where your average OB will say, "oh, well, post-partum bleeding can last up to 6 weeks." That is unacceptable advice.

*Note, however, that post-partum mamas should still avoid doing lots of stairs or vacuuming or heavy lifting. The ligaments and tissues that support the uterus and pelvic floor are all stretched out and loose from pregnancy hormones, and thus, succeptible to damage during the post-partum time. You are a football linebacker on disability with a stretched ligament while you're post-partum....and after 4 or 6 weeks, then you can go nuts without worries of damaging a compromised and healing body.


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## Quagmire (Sep 27, 2005)

Wow, Tinyshoes, great explanation! Thanks for posting that!

Never really occurred to me that we grow a whole new organ to support the pregnancy, and that the organ being expelled might require some healing... pretty amazing stuff


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