Almost every woman goes through dreaming of a smooth and blissful conception, pregnancy, down to childbirth. Giving birth is an experience that is both exciting and scary. The excitement fills the air within the circle of friends and family. Preparation for the birth of a child is fun and always is a milestone in the family’s memories.
Childbirth is not always a breeze. There are times when the dreadful reality of the dangers of childbirth is upon an expecting mother. This is when either the child or the mother’s health and well-being are at stake. There are times when both the mother and the child’s health after childbirth are considered. These situations usually bring about scheduled or emergency deliveries and sometimes, even termination of pregnancy. During these situations, the mother is often left with the dilemma of ensuring the baby’s health is her first priority. However, little do mothers realize, they too had a traumatic experience. The mother who went through a difficult delivery also needs to be considered. So let us talk about how mothers recover from a difficult delivery?
Going through a difficult delivery takes its toll on the baby and the mother. The baby is almost always taken to the NICU where neonatal specialists are in action. Not just the equipment or facilities in the NICU are specially utilized for premature or sickly newborns, but even the nurses are equipped with the knowledge and skills in caring for extra sensitive, extra sickly or extra small and young babies who go through difficult deliveries. While all the procedures, the care, the special treatment is given to the newborn, the mothers are left with normal care, expected to be up and about and ready to attend to the newborn’s every need both physically and emotionally. This is the reality even though the mothers are the other half of the difficult delivery experience.
As mothers, they are indeed expected to be okay after a few days at the hospital and definitely once we head home after giving birth. Even if mothers have gone through the difficult delivery themselves, they need to be okay. It is often left to the mothers who gave birth to figure out on their own how to come out of the difficult delivery and be back in the tip-top condition they were in before conception. If they do not, comes postpartum depression.
So for the mothers, what do they normally do to cope? How do they recover from difficult deliveries?
Get Back in Shape
After going through a difficult delivery, the mother is exhausted. Not just physically but also emotionally and mentally. The emotions of a woman who goes through a difficult delivery are in frenzy and oftentimes coupled with the mental drain of thinking about the baby. In order for a mother who has gone through a difficult delivery to recover, she needs to heal, recuperate and rejuvenate. For a woman who has gone through a difficult delivery to get back in shape, she needs ample rest, assurance and information. Helping a new or new again mother to get back in shape can be done by providing assistance, assurance, and security.
Conversations
Going through a difficult delivery is a huge experience. It is something that needs to be discussed. Fears, anxiety, and concerns need to be discussed. Even if the incident has passed, the mother needs to have somebody to talk to and have conversations of the experience. It is a way for the mother to receive counseling, however, talking to a friend or a family member about it is definitely much better than scheduling a session with a counselor or a psychiatrist – this could even trigger depression and cause worry. Having healthy conversations about difficult delivery is helpful in the mother’s recovery.
Support
A mother needs to recover from the experience of a difficult delivery. Family and friends need to be available to provide any type of support to help her cope and get over what happened. Support can be in the form of being the helping in caring for the baby, dropping by for a chat or a short visit, small tokens of appreciation for coming out okay after having a difficult delivery or even an email or text message finding out how is the mother doing. Support is very much needed in recovering from a difficult delivery. Most mothers will not ask for help. They will always do everything on their own.
Recovering from a difficult delivery is a serious matter. Most of the time it is overlooked and the mothers had to do everything on their own. Awareness of the needs of somebody who went through a difficult delivery is necessary in order to help the mother recover and recuperate and avoid worse problems such as postpartum depression or psychosis. It eliminates self-blame, doubt, and uncertainty when it comes to one’s capacity of being a mother. This way, mothers can care for their kids in a positive environment.
If you want to start your recovery after a difficult childbirth delivery, send Tribeca Physical Therapy a message and book a consultation.
