Motherhood: The Healing Period For Mothers After Giving Birth
Pregnancy can be an exciting time, but it's seldom easy. If you are currently pregnant, or planning on getting pregnant in the future, let us show you how our range can support mothers during pregnancy and for the healing period after giving birth.
From fatigue and morning sickness to soreness and lack of sleep, it's clear that growing a little human can be hard to navigate, but there are ways to make your journey a little easier.
Using our wheat bag during pregnancy, contractions and labour is a completely safe and a natural way to relieve pain and discomfort. The heat of the wheat bag is isolated to the specific area of use and does not increase overall body temperature, which means it can be used to target a specific part of your body to ease that discomfort or pain.
The wheat bag can help with common symptoms of pregnancy including:
- Joint swelling and swollen feet. Excess fluids, created for baby, pool in your bodily tissues and joints, which is necessary to allow your body to soften in order to expand throughout pregnancy as well as prepare for birth.
- Aches and pains caused by a hormone called relaxin. Relaxin softens the cartilage connection at the pubic bone. Relaxin isn't targeted at this joint in particular so it can make the rest of a woman's joints feel loose and unstable too.
- Breast tenderness. Breast pain is often one of the first symptoms of pregnancy as your body becomes flooded with hormones.
- Braxton Hicks contractions. Braxton Hicks contractions feel like muscles tightening across the stomach. If you put your hands on your belly when the contractions happen, you may be able to feel your uterus becoming hard. Braxton Hicks typically don't happen until around 36 weeks of pregnancy, but can be uncomfortable.
After Birth
The healing period after birth is an important time for you to rest and recharge and take the time to bond with your new baby. Your postpartum recovery won't be just a few days. Fully recovering from pregnancy and childbirth can take months. While many women feel mostly recovered by 6-8 weeks, it may take longer than this to feel like yourself again.
Here are some ways that the wheat bag can help you with your recovery:
- Use the wheat bag to ease any afterbirth pains. Afterbirth pains are belly cramps you feel as your uterus (womb) shrinks back to its regular size after pregnancy.
- Cool your wheat bag and apply it to your perineum. You may have stitches in this area after birth, which will heal after a week or two but can be uncomfortable.
- Warm the wheat bag and use it to reduce nipple pain or discomfort caused by breast engorgement as your milk comes in.
- Swelling caused by pregnancy can take time to go away after giving birth. The wheat bag can be used to relieve discomfort still caused by the swelling in a safe and natural way.
The wheat bag is a versatile tool to use during birth and pregnancy and it can also be used to warm the cot or pram before putting the baby down.
If your baby is due to be born in the middle of the colder months; the wheat bag is a lovely way to warm up the pram before a chilly Winter walk! Alternatively, keep your baby cooler by freezing your wheat bag.
During pregnancy, changes in hormones, metabolism, fluid retention, and blood circulation can all affect your eyes and your eyesight. It is common for women to experience minor symptoms such as blurred vision, dry and tired eyes. Use our eye pillow to relieve any discomfort naturally.
For dry eyes, heat it up in the oven or microwave and apply to your eyes. the eye pillow can also be chilled in the freezer and applied to puffy and tired eyes
More strategies that may help prevent dry eyes during pregnancy include:
- Drink plenty of water, especially if you’re experiencing morning sickness.
- Eat a balanced diet with plenty or fruit and vegetables (if you can stomach them!)
- Take prenatal vitamins including Folic Acid and Vitamin D.
- Use a humidifier at home to introduce some moisture into the air.
- Keep some plants in your home to help keep the air moist and fresh.
- Wear sunglasses when you’re outdoors to protect your eyes from the sun and wind.
- Avoid staring at screens too long.
After Birth
We all know how drastically having a new baby at home can affect your sleep. Preliminary research shows that caregivers who sleep less experience higher levels of stress, which can lead to less positive parenting, anxiety and postpartum depression.
Having a plan of action for how you are going to deal with nighttime wakings will help you navigate through those first few weeks. It's important to take naps whenever possible. The washing up can wait. And if you need a little help getting off to sleep after being up with your baby, the eye pillow is designed to block out unwanted light, help deepen your relaxation and aid sleep.
The gentle pressure on your eyes from the eye pillow will send a neurological signal to your brain that initiates full body relaxation. This can really help if you are having trouble sleeping during pregnancy and also with the chaotic sleeping schedule that having a newborn can bring!
Our Lavender Mist can be used to aid sleep, reduce stress and improve mood.
Lavender oil is frequently selected for aromatherapy as having antiseptic and healing properties. More specifically, it has been used as a bath additive postnatally to reduce perineal discomfort.
- Use it on your pillow for help falling into a deeper sleep.
- Spray it onto the Wheat Bag or Eye Pillow to enhance your relaxation.
- Add a few drops to a warm bath to help fight infections and heal any tearing.
You can find the products featured here via our new stockist; It's Motherhood. They also have lots of helpful advice on how to navigate your way through this exciting time.
If you are looking for more help with your postnatal journal, we recommend our friends, Joya Postnatal. Joya is a multi modality postnatal course which is led by postnatal experts who will help you on your journey to postnatal recovery.
To all women out there who are waiting to meet their new babies or are recovering from birth; you are amazing!! We wish you the best of luck for the weeks and months ahead with your little ones.
