Ek Khwab

March 22 2009

This Ante-Natal Class was taken by Dr. Prabha Krishna, The Class was on the “Post Partum myths and realities” and was very interactive. We could not interact much coz we were not aware of any such Myths, infact we were not aware of anything about Post Partum – but still got some doubts cleared.

Please Note :  All information on this blog is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice, diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor.

You do not Bath take bath for a week or so

False – Not taking bath may actually increase the chance of getting infections, You can actually take bath if you can stand upright – probably next day or two

You wear three layers of clothing + sweaters + Cotton in your ears, mufflers & Scarf ( even in summers )

False – Not at all required, it infact increases sweat and that may cause rashes, you should wear what you are comfortable with and not multilayered

You should not resort to your normal diet for a month

False – Your digestion or digestive system is not affected by Pregnancy, you can eat your normal diet ( the one you had pre pregnancy ) after pregnancy also

You should not eat Banana, Papaya, Pineapple etc

False – all these are no proved to cause any harm just reduce gas causing foods like Chana, Potato or Cabbage ( gas may cause some distress ), rest everything is fine, any food in normal quantity causes no problem

After Pregnancy you take complete bed rest for about a month

False – You should start walking around in a day or two (or when you can stand upright & walk ), start walking around in your room and then start your normal life, Lying down makes it worse

You should not exercise for atleast 6 months after delivery

False – you can start exercise in case of normal delivery 4 weeks and in case of C-section after 4 months & Pelvic exercise as soon as possible

Tying belt around waist helps to reduce your tummy

False – Please don’t tie, it does not help and in case of C-section avoid at all cost. It has taken 9 months for your tummy to reach that stage with a slow day to day expansion, you cannot expect the tummy come back to normal in a week. In normal circumstances it takes about 6 months for your tummy come back to the normal size and do regular exercise.

Tying belt is tightly around your waist does not hurt your body even in C-section

False – It does hurt and may also affect the healing process, during C Section, the Skin takes 7 days to heal, Abdominal Tissues take 6 months to heal and the Bladded 2 Years to heal

There is no Milk Production and I have already given birth

Nothing to worry – The milk production starts only after 48 hrs after delivery and the baby can take care of itself for two days – nothing to worry

What can I eat to increase Milk Production

There is nothing that increase the milk production, your body produces milk based on stimulus. If you keep you baby next to you and have maximum skin to skin contact the body will get the msg and milk will be produced

One should not drink water a lot

False – In fact you should have minimum of 2.5 Lts of water. your baby will consumer at least 500 ml of milk, it is important to have proper water intake, not having proper water intake can actually cause urinary infection and also reduce breast milk.

There were few more topics that were discussed but I could recollect only these, overall many myth and realities were cleared and lot of knowledge gained.

So next time if someone tells you to do something or tells you to avoid, ask them the reason behind it and don’t follow something blindly.