Postpartum recovery is one of those things that isn’t often discussed in advance. I know for me, my birth class at 30 weeks was the first time I’d really thought about what recovery would entail. Sure, I’d read about pregnancy, labour, breastfeeding and sleep deprivation, but I hadn’t given a whole lot of thought to what it would be like to recover from pushing out a baby.

The birth class struck fear into me with tales of episiotomies, fourth degree tears, massive hemorrhoids and spinal headaches from epidurals. As I assembled my postpartum kit, I began worrying more and more about how my body would bounce back. I’d never had so much as a single stitch before; what was I getting into? I stocked the freezer with witch hazel pads, put a peri bottle in each bathroom, and prepared for the worst.

I wrote here about my actual recovery experience with Little Oats. Since she was pushed out so quickly, the tear was messy and complicated, and when my 25+ stitches got infected at three days postpartum, recovery became nearly as bad as birth itself.

Heading into birth this second time, I was once again nervous about recovery. In my opinion, I’d experienced just about the worst it could be, and since my pregnancy had been so rough, I wasn’t really expecting recovery to be much better. When my iron levels dropped really low pre-delivery, my midwives warned me that I’d have a much harder time bouncing back if my levels remained low. So, I stocked up my postpartum kit again, and mentally prepared for the weeks following childbirth.

Much to my surprise, recovery was an absolute breeze this time. I had a second degree tear and plenty of stitches, but apparently the tear was much ‘simpler’ than last time, which meant it was easier to repair. Hemorrhoids were fairly inevitable, but manageable. My muscles were sore everywhere for a few days postpartum, and I burst blood vessels in my face and shoulders, but ultimately, I felt great. I didn’t experience the ‘birthing high’ with Little Oats, but this time around, I had a surge of adrenaline that lasted several days. By day four postpartum, I was down to only a few doses of Advil daily (as opposed to alternating Advil and Tylenol around the clock). By one week postpartum, we were out at the farmer’s market as a family of four. Now, with a 15-day old, I feel nearly 100% normal. I still have some bleeding, but it’s slowing down as well. I can’t believe how drastically different things have been this time.

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Emotional recovery is an entirely different story, and I’ll cover that topic in another blog post. But even the ‘baby blues’ this time have been different. I had one day when I was really weepy, but other than that, I’ve been doing really well. If I had recovered like this the first time around, I feel that things would have been so much better going into my year of maternity leave.

Did you have similar postpartum experiences, or were they different? What surprised you about recovery?