Hello, and welcome to Bodyfixit. My name’s Gemma and I wanted to give you some top tips for new mums who have had a C-section so A – you’ve got the lovely new baby but it screams and it poops and there’s no time for you but also you’ve got a C-section scar and you probably find that you’re hesitant moving because you don’t want to pull it but also there’s that pulling sensation within the scar which is quite painful and you need some relief from that.
So the number one tip is JERF which stands for Just Eat Real Food so if you can, the idea is that you just eat real nutritious food. Think healthy and eating regularly, you don’t have to eat big meals, just eat healthy options rather than just going for the quick options. So think real food and that will help you heal quicker.
My next tip is getting help. Now a lot of us are sort of martyrs and think we need to do everything ourselves. You actually will heal quicker if you accept the help say, a friend wants to come round, you say, “Yup, you can come round but could you do this for me while you’re here?” or “Would you mind doing this?” You kind of need to build up a family so get, if you don’t have your own family nearby, get friends and people who are willing to help you do the washing or hang out the washing or you know, walk the dog, simple things that you don’t have to spend your time doing them and that’s quality time that you get back.
Blue breeze are like a superfood but they’re really good because they’re packed full of antioxidants, really easy as well, you can freeze them, defrost them and eat them and they’re really going to help you recover quicker.
Water, so make sure, particularly if you’re breastfeeding, that you’re drinking enough water so you stay hydrated for you, let alone feeding the baby so make sure you’re having enough water to rehydrate and stay awake and healthy.
Making sure you’re eating enough protein. A lot of people think protein has to be red meat and heavy, it doesn’t, it can be legumes. So it could be chickpeas, it could be lentils, that’s the word I was looking for, it could be lentils, anything like that which you could supplement into your food which would help increase your protein levels. Eggs are a good source of protein as well. So adding those into your meal so that you’re getting protein aid your cell recovery.
Sleep. I know sleep is a problem because you have a baby and they don’t like to sleep very often or when you want to sleep they don’t want to sleep. What I would say is, when you get a moment and that baby is asleep, just lie down, take a minute, maybe it’s not you’re asleep, but you’re just resting and having some time to you in peace without noise and just relaxing.
You can self-massage. So if you’re struggling with aches and pains rub the area that’s sore, you can use a tennis ball to do the same thing and just get the area so that it’s not painful anymore.
Posture also will help. If you like your shoulders are up here, trying to get them so you haven’t got your shoulders by your ears as earrings, get some space between your shoulders and your neck and that will help as well.
Breathing. Quite often when you’ve had a C-section or a baby, you feel like you’ve got to hold everything in because everything’s weak but you need to use your tummy muscles to breathe. So when you’re breathing, you want to think that your tummy is coming out of the front but it’s also coming out to the sides and it’s coming out not your tummy, but your abdominal muscles are coming out sideways and they’re coming out at the back so it’s like…this is you and the whole expansion is happening, it’s not like you got to hold your tummy really rigid or that it’s just in your tummy or in your ribs, so your ribs rise up and down, think the whole space from your sort of bra level to your tummy button, that has to expand out to the sides and back and front.
For a good night’s sleep, you might find if you’ve had a bolster cushion when you were pregnant, you might want to carry on using that because if you sleep on your side and you twist, you’re going to end up with backaches and pains particularly because of the laxity still being there. So use the bolster for cushion if you need to.
Lastly, a lot of people are really keen to get back to the exercise, get back to your boot camp or pilates or yoga. Just start with gentle movements, go out for a walk, get some fresh air rather
than having coffee with your friends, get your friends and go for a walk, think gentle movements rather than putting more stress on your body, ease it in gently.
I hope my tips are going to help you get relief from your aches and pains, recover faster from your C-section and if you’d like more help, then contact us at Bodyfixit and we look forward to helping you soon.