One of the biggest surprises to me as a new father was how giving birth to a baby effected my wife. I don’t know why it was a surprise to me. I knew that giving birth for a woman was one of the most painful and physically challenging trails of a woman’s life. What surprised me most though was how giving birth effected my wife post birth with recovery and all. I just thought once a woman gives birth she is good to go a day or two later – I learned this is definitely not the case. Here are some tips to help your wife with the recovery process.
I recently asked my wife what is most helpful to her to recover and she said two things:
- Be Patient and Understanding.
- Help with baby so mom can rest.
Natural Birth Recovery
From my perspective, as a new father, patience and understanding are the most useful with postpartum (following child birth) recovery. With postpartum there is the physical recovery aspect. Vaginal deliveries (natural birth), whether naturally of medicated (epidural), will keep your wife from wanting to be mobile. So she should be spending a lot of time sitting and relaxing. This is where patience and understanding come in. To facilitate in the recovery processes, allow your wife the well earned opportunity to sit, relax, and nap while you watch and care for the baby. In addition make sure she is taking her pain medication. Generally, in about 10 days your wife will start to feel better. Until then you should do all you can to help.
C-Section Recovery
C-sections (cesarean sections) are a bit different than vaginal deliveries as far as recovery goes. From what I’ve read the pain from having a C-section is more painful postpartum recovery. Patience and understanding comes a lot easier when a new father knows this. Due to a woman’s incision from a C-section, she will be discouraged from walking up and down stairs and from driving for two weeks. She won’t want to move much anyways because of her incision. Show patience and understanding by allowing your wife the time to move, stand up, and walk up and down stairs. Like always, you as a new father will be most helpful by assisting your wife with the baby while she recovers.
Related Posts:
Info and Tips on Changing Poopy Diapers for First Time Fathers
