What happens in the days after a vaginal birth?

[Antheia]

With regards to needing to wee after you have bub, my midwife told me to wee in the shower and hold the shower hose there to let the water run over my stitches so that it didn't sting. Worked a treat.

[Cricket]

For a hospital or a homebirth we are always given a squirt bottle to fill with warm water to gently spray over the perineum during/after peeing. Helps a great deal for the stinging! My homebirth midwives also gave me a herbal "tea" to bathe in and put in the squirt bottle which really helped heal everything up quickly. I'll have to re-check and see what was in it, but it was wonderful stuff! My "scrapes" healed within a day!
Anyways, what to expect post-vaginal birth - if you have tears or stitches or haemorrhoids, they SHOULD check you regularly. (at least ask, and tell you what to watch out for.)
The "rule" about having a pee and BM before being discharged is to make sure that your bladder/urethra weren't too bruised during delivery, which I think can interfere with peeing, and a lot of women are so afraid of breaking their stitches or popping something open, or hurting their already sore haemorrhoids after birth that they hold the BM until they are badly constipated and in trouble. The nurses just like to make sure that you know everything works!

When I was a nursing student, we were told to check breasts, uterus, bladder, bowels, lochia, episiotomy, Homan's sign (for deep vein thrombosis - not too common) and emotional state, during every shift.

[Liz]

re breastfeeding, I would think if the overalls unclasp easily they should be ok. But I second/third/fourth?? the trackies suggestion. Have a couple of pairs of black trackies (in case of blood leakage). Comfy & easy to remove if necessary.

The nurses regularly checked my uterus (on my bare belly) and asked about bloodloss.

One thing I learnt this time is they have a time limit for emptying your bladder after birth! They 'threatened' a catheter if I hadn't peed (can't remember how long they gave me tho). They did ask about opening bowels, but didn't seem too concerned. (I pooed in labour LOL so I didn't have anything left for a day or so! LMAO) Oh yeah - and they always asked if I had pains in my legs re DVT.

I was asked if I wanted pain relief for afterbirth pains, but I was fine.

Gosh - it's so close Sarah!!

[Cricket]

Oh - the other reason for the concern about bladder emptying - a very full bladder will displace the uterus and make it more difficult for it to contract and clamp down on the placenta "wound". You are at risk for more bleeding with a very full bladder.

[leebee81]

I peed before I even had a shower - It didn't even occour to me it might hurt at the time. It stung a little but wasn't too bad. I leant forward instintually but the midwife said she would have suggested it anyway, to direct the stream away. All I remember is the wet wipes being blissfully cool.

I didn't have a BM until 3 days later but I'm notoriusly irregular so I wasn't concerned, I knew it would happen eventually. Even though I had a massive 'roid it wasn't as bad as I expected. The midwife was threatening me with her fibre stuff if I hadn't gone when I did.