6 Ways Your Body Changes After Pregnancy
Once the child has become an adult, responsibilities don’t end, but they change. Mental and emotional wellbeing become more important. Having given the child the tools to be an adult, your responsibilities change into observation and counselling.
Having a baby is a huge decision, not the least because of the changes it will make to your body.
Pregnancy lasts for nine months. The changes that happen in your body during your pregnancy can last much, much longer. Some of the changes are permanent; others may take weeks or months before fading away.
Others have to actively be changed – weight gain, for example, doesn’t just “go away” diet and exercise have to be modified to return to your pre-pregnancy figure – and, even then, the physical changes that your body has been through will still be there.
1. Weight loss isn’t instant, but takes time
Although you will lose a significant amount of weight after delivery, your body will still be shedding pounds for a while. Between shedding the extra water that your body retained during your pregnancy and your uterus shrinking back to its normal size, you can expect to lose 6 to 10 pounds of weight.
Urination is the primary way your body sheds that water weight it packed on during pregnancy. Your body will rid itself of about 3 quarts of water per day. The vast majority will be through peeing, but you might also find yourself sweating heavily during this time as your body rids itself of the excess water.
2. Breast size and weight will fluctuate for a while
After giving birth, your breasts will become engorged with milk, sore and flushed for a couple of days. If you are not breastfeeding, these changes will go away within a week.
After the swelling goes down, however, your breasts may begin to sag due to the stretching of the skin that took place while they were swollen. Milk leakage will also be an issue for a couple of weeks, whether you breastfeed or not.
3. Changes in skin color
You will lose that facial skin tone that you get during pregnancy and if you suffered from acne, it should begin to clear up. Unfortunately, that might be replaced with dry skin or rashes around the mouth and chin. These conditions are not permanent and will be gone within a couple of weeks.
4. Back pain
As your body rebuilds the abdominal muscles that got stretched and strained during your pregnancy, more weight will be put on your back. This shifting of the load can lead to back pain until your abdominal muscles have returned to their original size and strengthened.
Back pain should be gone by the sixth week after giving birth. If it hasn’t, you should check with your chiropractor.
5. Varicose veins and swelling in the legs
Although the swelling in your legs should diminish and go away very quickly varicose and spider veins will be yours forever.
As your body expels the extra weight – usually through water loss – your legs will reduce in size, varicose and spider veins will also become less noticeable, but they will never go away entirely.
6. Hair loss
During pregnancy, estrogen levels increase leading to a fuller head of hair. High levels of estrogen also keep your hair from falling out. After having given birth your body will return to normal.
One aspect of that normalization is your hair will shed. It will be making up for the 9 months when you had elevated estrogen levels. You will have a period of heavy hair loss between one and five months after your baby is born. Your hair should return to normal within six months to a year.
Although most of these changes will go away over time, there are some changes that don’t. The elasticity of your skin changes, muscle tone is lost and your breasts change shape and size. It is difficult to get your body back to the shape it was prior to the pregnancy.
Plastic surgeons Sydney and elsewhere are offering procedures to alleviate and reverse many of these changes.
Breast lifts and augmentations will return your breasts to their original shape and size, liposuction will get rid of that stubborn weight that just won’t go away and a tummy tuck can reduce or eliminate the stretch marks and sagging skin that pregnancy leaves behind.
Most of these procedures are quick and the recuperation time is less than a week.
Category: Health
