Postnatal bleeding

[ailbhe]

I'm sure there's an appropriate community for this, but I'm not in it. Someone in my due date community asked about postnatal bleeding and the first postpartum period.

When I had my first baby, I bled afterwards. This was ok; the books said I would. No-one seemed worried.

When I had my second baby, by cesarean section, I also bled afterwards. Everyone was asking, pretty much constantly: "Is your bleeding heavy?" "Are you bleeding ok or is it too heavy?"

Well, I asked, what's heavy?

"How many pads do you get through?"

Incontinence pads or sanitary towels? Because with my first baby, I measured it in inco pads, several a day. This baby, I don't need an inco pad.

"Are the pads soaked?"

I'm not sure. They're more comfortable when I change for a fresh one, but last time, I left them in place until they were unable to absorb more fluid. Which is your definition of "soaked"?

...

And that's why I started asking people to look at the damn pad themselves. "Is your bleeding heavy?" I don't know. Here, look at this, is that heavy?

Turns out that this time I'm normal. Hah.

Comments

[riarambles.livejournal.com]

At the hospital where I work, we define "heavy" as soaking (so that it won't hold more) a maxi pad in an hour or less, fwiw.

[flybabydizzy.livejournal.com]

Glad I didn't ask!

[ailbhe]

Yes, one is *supposed* to bleed less, but heavy bleeding after a section indicates something wrong, and there's a wide range of highly likely things to go wrong, too (I don't think 1 in 300 is good odds, me).

Last time I had all sorts of fun and frolics, and the things that went wrong were about a 1 in 30,000 chance once we added it all up.

I have a feeling I'm going to bleed for about the same amount of time though; 7 weeks last time. We shall see.

[ailbhe]

A maternity pad, or a regular own-brand maxi pad, or a name-brand super-absorbent maxi pad? Or does it not matter when it's soaked through in an hour or less?

(I also had problems when they asked me to measure my pain levels on a scale of 1-10 without telling me what the grades were...)

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. If I had understood properly what was meant by "heavy", I would probably have had my endometriosis diagnosed a decade or so earlier than I actually did.

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Yup, sounds normal to me!

[riarambles.livejournal.com]

I think the general idea is if you're bleeding that much, call, and they'll ask you more questions.

The other general guideline they give people is that the bleeding should not diminish and then get much heavier again. It should be less and less over time, and a noticeable increase in bleeding is a reason to call the doctor.

If you take those two things together, it works logically. For me, at least. :)