Having had two children and experienced two postpartum recoveries, I am in much better health now than before I got married and had children.
Some people say that I am getting better because I have a child.
To use my eldest daughter's mantra, the answer is: Impossible.
Master Fu Qing of the Qing Dynasty wrote in the monograph "Fu Qing Master Female Department" of traditional Chinese medicine obstetrics and gynecology that after childbirth, hundreds of festivals were opened and blood veins were scattered. To conceive and raise, the old mother consumes a huge amount of qi and blood. Those scattered qi and blood will not automatically return because of the process of giving birth to a child.
The key is actually to nourish qi and blood after childbirth.
The wisdom of our ancestors is full of grades, and in order to allow mothers to recover the lost qi and blood, we have had the tradition of confinement since ancient times, and there are various methods of postpartum recuperation.
It is said that in some exquisite cities, the confinement takes a hundred days to sit. I didn't understand the first child, and I didn't continue after sitting for 30 days. After confinement, you have to feed every day, you can't sleep in the middle of the night, you have no experience with the baby, and you still need to consume a lot of qi and blood. At that time, the boss was upside down day and night, often crying, and my serious lack of sleep caused a vicious circle, no appetite, mental trance, and often felt that the body was not quite like my own.
Later, the hands and feet are sore, it is easy to get tired, obviously thirsty but drinking water does not quench thirst, often sweating, puffy face, and emotional instability.
That is the alarm of the lack of qi and blood in the body. Fortunately, my father came out to help, and I had more time to rest, plus the nourishment of dietary therapy, and I got better little by little.
By the time my second was born, I had prepared early. I invited my sister-in-law to bring the baby, and from the beginning of the month I gave myself moxibustion. I have more experience with the baby, I sleep relatively well at night, my appetite is still good, and when I am thirsty, I drink all kinds of soups. When the lochia is clean, in order to ensure the quality of the milk, in addition to ensuring a large intake of staple foods, I will also stew some nourishing soup.
Every day after life with the second with the boss, I do not have the heart to think about seven thoughts, the mood is not bad, the amount of milk is sufficient, during the two years of breast milk has been fleshy, very good belt.
After the two births, through my own efforts to recuperate, my body recovered quite well. Today I have summarized some of the most important ones for your reference, referring to the experience of the two postpartum periods.
Let's start with a few questions.
1. What are the possible manifestations if there is a qi and blood problem after childbirth?
Lochia: Not clean for a long time.
Face: pale and dull, no color, dull and rough complexion, pale lips.
Hair: Hair loss, hair strands will also be boring and forked, and even some yellow.
Milk: Not enough milk for your child, or if your child grows slowly and is prone to lumps, despite enough milk.
Spleen and stomach: large humidity, bloating, abdominal pain, easy diarrhea, edema of hands and feet.
Sleep: difficult to fall asleep, frequent awakenings, night sweats, dreams.
Whole body: numb and cold hands and feet, fatigue, easy to get tired, pain all over the body, back pain, easy to sweat, dizziness, shortness of breath, fear of cold.
2. How long after childbirth?
The month after childbirth is certainly the best period of regulation. Chinese medicine believes that women who have a normal birth have hundreds of knots open, and this time conditioning helps to drain all kinds of garbage from the body. Three months after childbirth, half a year, one year, two years, five years, the more time is postponed, the more difficult the conditioning also increases.
3. What if I miss the time within a year or two after giving birth?
Starting now is also the best time.
Nourish qi and blood after childbirth
The most important things
The first point is to go to bed early.
My Chinese medicine teacher, Mr. Yuan, has treated too many difficult and complicated diseases. He said: No matter what medicine you take, if you stay up late and don't go to bed early, then the effect will not be good.
Sleep is the best self-repair of the human body, and it is the most golden time for the recovery of qi and blood. After giving birth, we are 7 * 24 hours with a baby super nanny, time is not controlled by us, at this time we have to use a variety of ways to ensure their sleep time.
I used to get up after my kids had gone to bed to play on my phone or do some housework, and I thought I had a little personal time of my own. But slowly, I found that this was actually more tiring, and the next day the whole person was not energetic. When there is no energy, it is easy to get tired, easy to be irritable, the reaction can not keep up, the memory becomes poor, and the temper will be more grumpy.
Later, I went to sleep with the children, woke up early in the morning, and became more energetic throughout the day.
Nowadays, many of people's diseases are accumulated by long-term fatigue. Almost all people lack sleep, especially quality sleep. Stressful work, improper eating, excessive thinking, our life and work need to consume too much, but we have not been able to get a good repair. Especially for mothers, few can sleep enough, which is the most critical reason for the lack of qi and blood after childbirth.
I once suggested that young colleagues in the department go to bed early, and everyone said that they did not want to enter the life of old age so early. But they already have a lot of problems with the ovaries, breasts, lumbar spine, cervical spine, and long-term difficulty falling asleep, so they go to bed later and then a vicious circle. To tell the truth, such a physical condition is no longer what young people should have.
Second, it is especially necessary to avoid being affected by wind and cold after childbirth.
One would ask, isn't shelter from the wind and cold something you do in the confinement? After giving birth, not only confinement, but always adhere to the wind and cold, pay attention to keep warm. The flow of qi and blood in the body affected by the wind chill is slowed down because of the tightening of the wind chill, and the qi and blood will also consume a lot in order to resist the wind chill. Avoiding postpartum wind chill is also the key to nourishing qi and blood.
In addition to getting dressed to keep warm, there are two major areas to pay attention to, one is the back of the neck, and the other is the heel and calf. Cold comes from the soles of your feet, and the wind comes in from behind. Winter scarves, clothes with hats, and summer silk scarves are all artifacts for protecting the neck, and as for the heels and calves, there are long stockings in winter, and silk stockings can be used in summer.
When wearing skirts and cropped pants, you must pay attention to the warmth of your legs and feet. Now on the street, you can see many people wearing socks in the winter to expose their ankles to the three yin sex. This location is the intersection of the three meridians of the liver, kidneys and spleen. Exposing this point to the wind and cold, it is easy to have weak legs and feet, lower abdomen and menstruation will also be affected.
Third, we must move.
The spleen main limbs, exercise can strengthen the function of the spleen, the body's blood circulation is accelerated, and the metabolism can also be accelerated. It is tiring enough to take a baby after childbirth, but it still needs time to move.
I used to take my boss for a half-hour walk to the vegetable patch to see the greens growing vigorously. If possible, standing pile, baduanjin, and tai chi are also good postpartum exercises. Spend 10 minutes or 20 minutes on time, and gradually choose the sports you like in your heart.
Fourth, the first few steps have been done, and we will talk about how to eat.
This step is put in the back, because if you can't even go to bed early, just think about what to eat to replenish qi and blood, the end is upside down, the effect will not be good.
Before the diet, we must first eat the staple food well. During my two breastfeeding periods, I would eat a lot of rice or porridge noodle staples at each meal. The staple food is well eaten, the qi and blood are sufficient, the quality of the milk converted from the qi and blood is good, and the two children are called "milk fat sisters" during the breast milk. Eating well is the first thing to do in terms of eating when nourishing qi and blood. Do not eat well, and pursue what soup and water to nourish, the effect may be short-term, but not long-term.
In the three months after giving birth, I rarely drank boiled water, relatively speaking, the nature of the water is still yin and cold, and it needs more yang to melt. When I can't quench my thirst by drinking soup, I use red date apple water and astragalus lean broth to quench my thirst.
Red date apple water, the method is very simple, is to wash and peel and cut the apple and red dates, unlimited quantities, put into the pot with water to boil, cook for about half an hour, you can drink. There is a faint sweetness when drunk, and the sweetness of these foods themselves can be burned in and can nourish the spleen and stomach. Red dates replenish blood, apples are raw, which is a very nourishing liquid sugar water.
Astragalus lean broth, take a few small pieces of lean meat, blanch with cold water and then take out, add astragalus and cold water to the soup. Astragalus tonic qi, lean meat nourishing yin, this soup can replenish qi and blood, but not greasy, for weak digestion of pregnant women is also suitable.
Our Hakka family will often give pregnant women to drink red rice fried rice water. Stir-fried rice is ordinary rice after frying, and red rice is a fermented red rice.
The combination of fried rice and red rice is warm in nature and can neutralize the coldness of the water. Red rice has the effect of eliminating food and swelling, invigorating blood circulation, and stomach and spleen, this water can help the discharge of lochia, but also can remove dampness and strengthen the spleen and stomach.
First, put the rice in an iron pot, do not put the oil, and stir-fry over low heat until it is a little yellow. Add a pinch of red rice, the amount is not too much, more will be a little bitter, soak in the water there is a little bit of red on it. Stir-fried rice and red rice boiled in water and put in a thermos cup to drink at any time.