After the birth of the baby, the uterus needs a certain period of time to reduce and recover. The first week after childbirth, and sometimes up to 10 days from the vagina of a woman, fresh blood or blood clots are allocated. This is because after the removal of the placenta, the blood vessels in the uterine wall that connected to it are open. And only the contractions of the uterus close them, stopping the bleeding. For several days the uterus contracts, diminishing in size, and the blood from its cavity, which has emanated after childbirth, is pushed out.
About a week later the blood and clots cease to be allocated, instead of them appear yellowish discharge (lochia). Their number gradually decreases, after a month the discharge becomes insignificant and mucous, and after 1.5 months the inner surface of the uterus is completely restored after childbirth.
The entire period after childbirth, any bloody discharge, which have similar signs with monthly, can not be considered as such. And only after the recovery of the mucous uterus may the onset of ovulation, and as a result - the onset of menstruation after 2 weeks after it. Therefore, monthly after childbirth does not come in a month, but only after 2 months or more.
Start of menstruation after childbirth
The first months after childbirth are often meager and not at all like usual: last a couple of days, highlighting is smearing. The second months after birth rarely occur at the time when they came before pregnancy: it takes 3 months or more to completely restore the hormonal background of the woman.
Another reason why the first few monthly cycles after birth are meager and irregular are the hormone prolactin. In nursing mothers, it inhibits or stops the onset of ovulation (depending on how often a woman nurses a baby). If this occurs every 3 hours with an overnight break of less than 6 hours - it is usually after the birth of a period, there is not very long, sometimes up to 12-14 months.
This is inherent in nature to protect the mother's body from exhaustion: when the baby is born, feeding it from the mother's body, many useful substances, including iron, are washed out, and with the monthly it is even more. In addition, mothers need 2-3 years to recover before a subsequent pregnancy, and pregnancy will stop lactation, and breastfeeding is very important for the baby in the first months after birth.
When do the first months after the delivery?
The organism of each woman differs in its peculiarities and it is very difficult to predict when the first months after the birth will occur and what they will be. But there are certain rules that determine the onset of menstruation:
- In non-breastfeeding mothers, the first menstrual period should begin after 2-3 months after birth, and after 2-3 cycles they should become regular and remain so.
- If a woman feeds her child every 3 hours with a break for the night not more than 6 hours, the menstrual period may be absent, but if the first menstrual periods appear, then ovulation is restored and breast-feeding will not protect against pregnancy. This means that irregular monthly and their absence after the first menstruation can indicate the onset of a second pregnancy,
for the prevention of which non-hormonal contraceptives are recommended immediately after the onset of menstruation after childbirth. - After the first menstruation after 2-3 months, the regularity of the cycle should be restored.
- With the introduction of lures and mixed feeding, the monthly ones are restored until the end of lactation, most often in six months after childbirth.
- If the lactation has ended, and the menstruation has not recovered, you should contact the gynecologist for an examination.