When to start belly binding after birth
When To Start Bengkung Binding After a Vaginal Birth
having been a birth and postpartum doula
and in the world of belly binding for
years both with my clients and through
the postpartum times that I've had with
all five of my children one of the
questions that has come up the most is
when can I start binding after a normal
vaginal birth that's something that I
wanted to answer for you today at least
give you a little bit of guidance so
that you can make that decision for
yourself based on how your body feels
the type of labor and delivery that you
went through and what's going on in your
life how you're handling the change of
dynamics in your family with the new
baby I will start by answering the
question directly as soon as you
possibly can what I normally tell my
clients and my customers is as soon as
you peacefully can and what I mean by
that is there are so many things going
on so many different factors that come
into play after you have a vaginal birth
and you're adjusting to having this new
little person here who just needs you
all the time you're trying to balance
maybe other children you're trying to
balance your own health and wellness and
taking care of yourself while also
taking care of this new little person so
I know that there is a lot going on and
and you know some women handle it
differently than others and that's
perfectly fine but no matter how you
look at it it is a big change and there
is a certain amount of adjustment and
adding in a new practice during that
change can be a little daunting so like
I said as soon as you peacefully can now
that being said I would recommend you
trying to start binding the day you give
birth now there are lots of different
opinions on this and that's perfectly
fine but I'm telling you from my
experience with my own five children in
postpartum times as well as
helping other Mama's through their
postpartum times yes the day that you
give birth is a great time to start and
since you have so many other changes
going on it might be a smart move to
introduce this new practice this new
ritual at the same time and it then it
just integrates itself into this new
life that you're creating this new norm
now whether you give birth at home or
you give birth in a hospital or a birth
center you're going to end up taking a
shower probably within the first few
hours after giving birth that is a great
time to start this new ritual someone's
gonna be watching the baby and this is a
great time for you to shower clean
yourself up and start this new practice
the reason why I suggest starting the
day of is because first of all you are
taking advantage of the relaxin hormone
which is present in your body after
birth
now this hormone was thought to only
last a few days but now they've done
studies to say that it can last in women
a few months so if you don't start
binding right away or if you don't have
a bind or just learn about it later
and and want to start then you're
perfectly fine to still utilize that
relaxing hormone week sometimes months
postpartum now that relaxed and hormone
and I've discussed this in other videos
it's not necessary in getting your
stomach down what it is necessary in
doing is making your ligaments and
joints and all of the connective tissue
like in your hips more malleable so that
you can kind of reshape your hips down
to size now most of the women that I've
dealt with are less concerned about
their hips and they're more concerned
about their belly area and the relaxin
really doesn't play that much of a part
with your belly area as it does your
hips so even if you're years postpartum
you can utilize a belly bind and still
get the benefits going back to immediate
after you have the baby after you take a
shower if you start binding you're
utilizing the relaxin hormone you're
also helping with postpartum bleeding
now a lot of moms experience when they
bind right after birth they will get
kind of a gush of blood from starting to
bind and starting to squeeze that belly
area down but then the bleeding kind of
subsides faster so everyone's different
everybody's going to experience
something different but that is also my
personal experience that the binding
actually helps the bleeding lesson in
severity and in length as well another
great benefit of binding right after
birth is that a lot of times our backs
are so out of place and our posture is
so different from when we had this belly
that required us to lean back and and
are the curvature of our spine is
different and then all of a sudden all
this weight is taken off our our sense
of balance is changed and with that
comes a very kind of distorted posture
for the first few days that can cause a
lot of back pain now you're having to
sit upright to nurse your baby and
that's a whole different kind of posture
that you're dealing with what I found
with Bank unbinding is that for myself
and for a lot of other women when they
bind it allows their posture to be more
upright it gives you a kind of framework
to help you with your posture when your
abs are not doing their job at keeping
you up right now your abs are in a
really weird stage right after you have
a baby
they've been stretched over and to the
side and so you can't really rely on
them to counteract your back muscles so
binding right after you have a baby is
just such a wonderful help in keeping
your posture good and in also keeping
your back from hurting while you're
nursing and walking around
after you have a baby one of the most
important aspects of binding immediately
after you have a baby is helping with
after birth pains so after birth pains
are the tightening down the kind of
contractions that happen to get your
uterus back down to its small size and
in order to do that there is a amount of
cramping that happens that a lot of
women like into - contractions some
women say they feel like PMS cramps and
they can range from that all the way up
to full contractions they normally get
worse at night and they generally happen
more when you're breastfeeding our
bodies are so incredible and they have
these neat symbiotic relationships that
happen after you have a baby and one of
those is when you nurse your baby it
stimulates those contractions to help
shrink your uterus down that's why part
of why a lot of women say that their
bellies go down a lot faster when
they're breastfeeding than if they
didn't breastfeed it's such a neat
process I mean it really is amazing but
I'll tell you what at the time when
you're going through it it can be very
painful and the more babies that you
have the more painful it becomes so
instead of reaching towards a pain
killer that of course can go through
your system into your breast milk I've
found that binding absolutely mitigates
those after birth pains it's incredible
after I had my fifth baby before I
started binding you know I put him to my
breast and I started having those
intense after birth pains and again
being my fifth they had gotten worse
every single time which is normal and I
could tell that this is going to be
something that could possibly keep me up
at night and a lot of women report that
that it's not necessarily the newborn
that's keeping them up at night
the afterbirth pains the cramps that
happen that keep them from sleeping
those first few nights however when I
started binding they completely went
away it mitigated all of the pain so I
definitely recommend binding that first
day after you give birth so that you can
take care of those after birth pains
that have a possibility of keeping you
up at night and not getting the rest
that you need to get better and to be
attentive to your newborn so the
benefits of binding the day you give
birth helps with bleeding helps with
your posture and back issues helps with
after birth pains these are all really
big things also a lot of women complain
about what they call jelly belly and it
is one of those things that after you
give birth you still kind of look like
you're five months pregnant and it's
just kind of this blob there and it's
might not be physically uncomfortable
but you know looking at it and and and
just feeling it there can be kind of
emotionally uncomfortable you really
start feeling more put together it
starts closing your body back up there
are a lot of beliefs and traditions
about how after you have a baby you're
leaving all these doors and windows open
in your body and you become more
susceptible to illnesses and fatigue and
things of that nature and and in order
to really close up your body and start
healing and becoming a whole person as
just you requires that kind of a
practice you need to listen to your body
your body is the best indicator if
something is very uncomfortable if it is
hurting you if it's pinching you if it's
putting a lot of pressure downwards and
and it's making it uncomfortable to sit
or nurse or lay down or anything like
that
then you should stop bindings should not
be uncomfortable that being said the
beauty of being
binding is that it is fully customizable
to your body with each rap that you go
around your body you can customize the
tightness so you can maybe be a little
less tight lower down where it might be
a little bit more tender right after
Labor and then get tighter and tighter
as you go up if during labor you had a
very long and extensive and intensive
pushing time then then it might be a
little bit more uncomfortable to put a
lot of pressure lower down that would be
an example of a time when you would want
to bind very loose lower down so that
you're not pushing and putting a lot of
pressure on that area so that you're
giving it time to get the swelling down
and and be less tender if you had an
episiotomy or you tore sometimes women
report that again when they bind tightly
those first few days it can put some
undue stress and pressure down there on
their tear or their stitches so again
another time when you can bind a little
bit looser lower down some women
unfortunately have to deal with
hemorrhoids through their pregnancy or
they get hemorrhoids through the pushing
process and again that is another
situation where you can bind looser to
put less pressure down below
always listen to your body that is my
best suggestion to you it will tell you
if it's not ready now if you bind
tightly and you find that again there's
too much pressure going down try
loosening it up if you're still feeling
discomfort then there's no problem in
putting the binder a day or two and then
trying it again you're not gonna lose
any ground on getting your pre-pregnancy
body back if you experienced some of
these discomforts binding the day that
you give birth you have a little bit of
help with the baby and a little bit of
patience with binding I'm sure you can
find a way
you can bind loosely in the areas that
are causing you the discomfort while
still getting a lot of the benefits that
we talked about before I hope this is
helped at least given you some sort of a
guideline to run with about binding
directly after a vaginal birth and if
you are a c-section mama and want to
know about how soon you should start
binding after your c-section I will link
a video below that I made about that and
I'll post it after this video but I hope
regardless that you had a magical birth
experience and a peaceful postpartum
time if you have any questions please
feel free to leave them below and until
next time be well
you
