The Delivery Day – Part 2

Everyone has different experience when it comes to delivering a baby. But the pain and exhaustion remain the same. Also, the joy of seeing your little one for the first time remains the same too. In my previous post The Delivery Day – Part 1 – Happy Mom Happy Family I have written about my experience of getting into labor. Today I would be sharing my experience about the delivery day after my baby entered this world.

It was at 9.25 am on 29th Jan 2020 when my baby was born. I had a normal delivery with a second-degree tear. Dissolvable stitches were applied to help heal the tear. As I was getting stitches, Nurses took my baby for cleaning. After some time, they showed me my neatly cleaned & wrapped baby. I was given saline and asked to rest.

The biggest mistake done here was – no skin-to-skin contact with the baby and no attempt at breastfeeding. And the baby was directly given formula by nurses without prior notification. The hospital I was admitted to was very good in terms of high rates of natural delivery but was not very breastfeeding friendly.
I would request you all to attempt breastfeeding as soon as the baby is born. I will write more about breastfeeding in the coming days. But don’t do the mistake I did.

After finishing the saline, I was shifted to my room. Nurses helped me with high-absorbent pads to manage the blood flow. They took almost 2 hours more to hand over the baby to us. By that time baby was fed formula twice. The baby was neatly wrapped, cleaned, and looked calm. I tried to breastfeed but there was no milk coming so we continued with formula after every 2 hours. 

I was given coconut water first and was asked to drink some tea and biscuits after some time. Nurses asked to start with normal food post that.

I felt perfectly fine on the first day. When I was sitting cross-legged on my bed, a nurse on duty scolded me and asked me not to attempt sitting cross-legged for a few days at least. As the stitches are fresh, it’s not recommended to sit cross-legged. Also, your body has gone through major changes, so it’s advisable to rest as much as possible. 

In the evening, my aunt helped me with a hot water bath. She strongly believed it’s important to take a hot water bath every day post-delivery. The water wasn’t warm – it was hot. She said hot water would soothe the stretched muscles & aching bones.  I continued with coconut oil massage and hot water bath for 40 days post-delivery.

I was also told to take a sitz bath to soothe the vaginal stitches. As stated earlier, I was all fine on the first day, but my stitches were paining very badly since the next day.

Baby mostly slept through the day. I was given a chart and was asked to make entries of timings every time the baby was fed, passed urine, or stool. No diapers for the first few days. This was to make sure that baby was being fed properly. I had to make entries even during the night. 

Though I tried to breastfeed multiple times, I wasn’t getting any milk. The same thing continued for 1 more day. I was advised to keep trying to latch him.  Finally, the doctor gave me some medicine on the third day. And then I started lactating. But things were tough for the next 4-5 days. I had flat nipples initially and it took a few days for all nipple ducts to open and start producing milk that could fill my baby’s stomach. After almost 5 days, my baby was breastfeeding normally, supplemented with formal once a day. After 10 days, I stopped the formula completely and the baby was exclusively breastfed.

Even feeling formula was not straightforward through bottles. Doctors were very firm about feeding milk using a small spoon. Most of the time baby was asleep. It was difficult to wake him up and keep feeding him every 2 hours. Feeding with a spoon itself would easily take 30-40 mins.  Along with that, I had to also attempt to latch him. 

My baby was diagnosed with Neonatal jaundice on 3rd day. He was given phototherapy for 2 days to help him recover faster. Though jaundice is common in newborn babies, the whole situation was stressful for us. 

We were discharged from the hospital after 5 days. Though it was normal full-term delivery, we chose to stay in the hospital until the baby was breastfeeding normally and was free from jaundice.

I would advise you to ask visitors not to visit the hospital at least for 2-3 days. You wouldn’t want to see anyone except your mom, aunt, and husband who are helping with the baby. At least I dint want to. After all the sleepless nights, body pain, breastfeeding attempts, formula feeding, frequent changing of baby’s clothes because of no diaper policy, and all the stress that came with the baby’s & my health conditions. I didn’t want to see anybody at all. 

I would say, those 5 days were the toughest days of my life. Looking at those days I feel, pregnancy was a piece of cake. The sudden responsibility of a newborn can leave you overwhelmed. And that too when your body is not in the best of its state. A new mom easily takes at least a month to recover fully. This is the time when support from your close family means the most.

Hoping my experience was helpful to you.