Postpartum recovery massage

Regular postpartum recovery massage performed by medical/rehabilitation qualified personnel is indeed effective in relieving breast blockage, improving relaxation within 2 fingers of rectus abdominis separation, reducing pain caused by pelvic anterior tilt/pubic symphysis separation, and eliminating postpartum limb edema. To clarify the effect; for normal delivery, wait for the 42-day postpartum review to show no abnormalities, and for cesarean section, wait until the wound is completely healed (usually 2-3 months after the operation). Avoid menstruation and find someone with a rehabilitation practitioner certificate or physician qualification certificate to perform the operation. There will be basically no safety issues. There is no need to deify its effects, and don’t label it as an IQ tax.

I met a 1995-year-old mother a while ago. Her breast blockage reached 38.9 degrees Celsius just after confinement. The beauty salon near her home said that a 398 degree breast massage would clear it up. After the massage, she was so painful that she was hospitalized that night. She was diagnosed with a breast abscess and needed to be punctured and drained to remove the pus. Later, she went to the maternal and child rehabilitation department for repair, and the rectus abdominis muscles were retracted from 1.8 fingers to half a finger. The back pain that she had suffered from standing for 10 minutes was gone. She turned around and told me that the postpartum massage was really delicious. You see, the same thing, the vastly different experience is essentially a matter of whether you stepped on the right pitfalls.

There is a lot of quarrel on the Internet now. One side says that this thing is to collect the mother's IQ tax, and pressing it will be useless, and there may be problems; the other side says that it must be pressed after giving birth, otherwise the belly cannot be retracted and the hips will become wider. In fact, both sides of the story are reasonable. Those who have fallen into the trap will naturally think it is a scam, and those who have found the right path will definitely think it is useful. I have talked with maternal and child rehabilitation practitioners, as well as traditional Chinese medicine practitioners who do traditional postpartum repairs. There are indeed two paths in this industry: one is to take the modern rehabilitation route, and massage is pure muscle relaxation. For example, when the rectus abdominis is separated, the abdominal transversus abdominis and the tight muscles around the rectus abdominis are massaged, combined with breathing and core training, and there is no "pressure". The other group is based on the postpartum conditioning route of traditional Chinese medicine, which combines acupuncture points such as Guanyuan and Zusanli to help blood circulation and help eliminate lochia. The premise is that the operator understands the acupuncture points and controls the intensity well, which is also effective. You don’t have to choose one or the other, just whatever suits you.

Oh, by the way, a mother complained to me before, saying that she had two pelvic massages and her crotch hurt for almost half a month. When I asked, I found out that it was only 30 days after her cesarean section. The wound sometimes still hurts, so she was tricked by the salesperson into doing "pelvic closure". Isn't this just nonsense? It takes at least 2 months for the deep wound of a cesarean section to heal. At that time, if you press the pelvis hard and pull the deep tissue, it won't hurt. There are also cases where the rectus abdominis muscles are separated by more than 3 fingers. Don’t do any abdominal massage blindly. The abdominal muscles are already separated. Rubbing them will push the rectus abdominis further apart. In this case, you must first see a rehabilitation practitioner for evaluation and perform electrical stimulation or training first. Wait until the separation is reduced to less than 2 fingers before considering massage.

Some people also ask if they can do massage at home. I had severe edema after giving birth naturally. The rehabilitation teacher taught me a very simple technique, which is to push from the ankle to the calf, with a lighter force, for 10 minutes each time. It is much faster than soaking the feet in hot water to reduce edema. But if you have problems like breast blockage, diastasis rectus abdominis or pelvic pain, don’t massage it blindly. I used to rub my breast blockage for half an hour and almost cried in pain. The more I rubbed it, the more it became swollen. Leave professional matters to professionals. It’s really not nonsense.

Actually, there are mothers around me who have never had a postpartum massage. I followed reliable tutorials at home to practice Kegels and core training. Half a year after giving birth, my recovery was almost the same as before pregnancy. There is really no need to be deceived by anxious salespeople who say "you won't recover well without massage", and there is no need to think that everyone who does postpartum massage is paying an IQ tax. After all, giving birth to a baby is hard enough, and you can make it as comfortable as you want. As long as you don't use your body as a guinea pig, find a regular person and set the right time, it's better than anything else.