Kegels are exercises you can do to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles. Those are the muscles that support your urethra, bladder, uterus, and rectum. Kegels also improve circulation to your rectal and vaginal area, helping to avoid hemorrhoids and speeding healing after an episiotomy or tear during childbirth.
This is how you do it:
Lie on your [...]
This is the dark line from your pubic bone to your belly button and is caused by hormones. It will disappear after birth.
In the first weeks after birth, small red bumps may appear on the face of your baby. This is caused by excess hormones circulating in the body. Leave it; it usually disappears by the time your baby is 3 months old.
Yes, jaundice is the name for the yellow skin in newborn babies. It can occur when a baby’s immature liver can’t process bilirubin. Bilirubin is produced when red blood cells break down. Mild cases of jaundice go away by themselves. If the jaundice has not disappeared within 10 days, your baby may need a special [...]
Upon birth, the baby’s nervous system is still very sensitive to cool or even normal temperatures. This can cause your baby’s fingers and toes to turn blue-ish. This condition usually lasts for a few days after birth. You can take your baby to a warmer environment or wrap her or him with a cloth. The [...]
This is a white and cheesy coating that protects your baby in your tummy from the drying effects of the amniotic fluid. Upon birth a nurse will wipe off the vernix. As a result, your babys skin may peel a little. This is perfectly normal and can last for a couple of weeks after birth.
First, don’t use baby wipes at this moment, since they can irritate your baby’s affected skin. Instead it is better to use a soft cotton clean washcloth, soaked in warm water. Then, if possible, keep your baby’s bottom exposed for a few minutes so it can air-dry. If you’re in a hurry you can also [...]
Generally this will be about four to six weeks postpartum for a vaginal birth and six to eight weeks for a surgical birth. Again, talk to your doctor about returning to exercise. There are also special exercises, like kegeling, that can be started immediately after the birth.
Read more: Exercise after pregnancy
Normally, your hair is in a cycle of growing, resting and shedding. At any given time, you could be losing as many as 200 hairs per day. This is not a problem when you consider that there could be 100,000 or more hairs actively growing. When you are pregnant, however, estrogen prolongs growth and those [...]
No! Though some tenderness during the first few days is relatively common, this should be a temporary situation which lasts only a few days and should never be so bad that the mother doesn’t like to nurse. Any pain that is more than mild is abnormal and is almost always due to the baby latching [...]
