Getting ready to be a mother

by Carolyn Conant Van Blarcom

Make every effort, therefore, to secure the care that you need during this transitional period of five or six weeks called the puerperium.

You will doubtless feel a little tired and nervous at first, for you have been through something of an ordeal, but when one considers the great things that your body has accomplished, your recovery and return to a normal condition will be surprisingly rapid. During the first few days you are likely to have little or no appetite but be very thirsty; be constipated; perspire freely and have an increased amount of urine, which you may have difficulty in passing; but these conditions are only temporary.

In the beginning you will probably be nursed just about as anyone would be after a slight operation, with the addition of special attention to your breasts and perineum to prevent infection, and the toning up of abdominal muscles. In order to prevent bleeding and hasten your recovery you will be kept very quiet for a day or two, perhaps flat on your back; you may not be allowed to have any visitors and your diet, at first consisting of liquids, will finally be made up of light, easily digestible but nourishing food.

About the sixth or eighth day you will probably begin to sit up in bed and about the ninth or tenth day you may be allowed to sit up in a chair for a little while. Some young mothers are able to sit up for an hour the first time, without fatigue, while others can sit up for only a few moments, morning and afternoon, on the first day, gradually lengthening the period each time that they get up. You will probably be able to sit up an hour or so longer on each successive day and walk a few steps on the third or fourth day after getting up.

These first few days of being up and trying to walk are often tiring, and a little discouraging in consequence, but of course you will gain steadily, even though it be slowly, do a little more each day and gradually feel more and more like your old self.

The mother who has stitches, because of the perineum having been torn at the time of the baby’s birth, does not usually sit up in bed until the ninth or tenth day, when the stitches are removed, sitting up in a chair for an hour, two or three days later. In connection with tears it may be well for you to know that in spite of the most skillful and careful efforts to prevent them, tears of some degree usually occur when the first baby is born and in about half of the confinements that follow.

But as most tears are very slight and are immediately repaired they have little or no effect upon one’s comfort or general health.

It is ordinarily considered a safe precaution to avoid going up and down stairs until the baby is about four weeks old and not wholly to resume normal activities within six or eight weeks after his birth. A pinkish or red discharge or backache, after the mother gets up are regarded as indications that she is not quite ready to do much standing or walking and that she still needs a good deal of rest.

The whole question of the time for sitting up, of getting up and of walking about varies so with different individuals, as you see, that it is not possible to describe a definite routine, for some women recover slowly and would be injured by getting up and about at a period which would be entirely safe and normal for the majority. The doctor has to decide what is best in each case.

While you are being actually nursed as a bed patient, especial attention is given to the bathing of the perineum, as has been stated; the care of the breasts and restoring tone to your abdominal muscles, so we may well have a word of explanation about each of these details.