How to prevent postpartum fatigue?

The day after a birth, it is not abnormal for young parents to often be exhausted. From the baby crying day and night, from the numerous family injunctions, from the stress, too. And as new mothers, it is even a little more difficult for us, with the physical consequences of pregnancy and childbirth that are felt. Postpartum fatigue grips us and can go so far as to prevent us from enjoying the first months of baby or even tend towards the baby blues . How can we prevent this fatigue and above all, how can we find answers to postpartum fatigue? We talk about it together in this article.

Postpartum fatigue, what is it?

Postpartum fatigue describes the tiredness we feel after childbirth, after the postpartum period, when the baby is born. The term specifically describes the tiredness felt by the person in the couple who experienced childbirth, as opposed to the physical and emotional fatigue that can be felt by both parents upon the baby's arrival.

Postpartum fatigue is a common and recognized phenomenon—but just because it's common and recognized doesn't mean it's not difficult to go through. ♥️ It's also one of the factors in postpartum depression, which is why it's important to get help if you feel the need: we'll talk about this a little more later in this article.

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What are the causes?

Postpartum fatigue is one of the most complex challenges of motherhood. Having a child is a physical, psychological, and emotional upheaval! Your life, body, and routines are all turned upside down!

Lack of sleep

Lack of sleep is the first source of fatigue that comes to mind when we talk about postpartum fatigue.

Baby doesn't sleep through the night yet, wakes up very regularly to feed and if you have chosen to breastfeed, you can very quickly find yourself, as a mother, having to cover all nights.

And beyond the infant's waking, there is the worry and hormonal upheavals that can lead to postpartum insomnia when, finally, an opportunity to sleep presents itself!

Hormonal changes

In addition to the lack of sleep linked to the arrival of the baby, hormonal changes can be disruptive for young mothers like us.

The postpartum period is the gradual return to “normal” after pregnancy, which has brought about many hormonal changes – if we can even talk about normality when we talk about female hormones! The peaks reached by hormones during pregnancy gradually fall and the menstrual cycle gradually starts up again: this is the return of menstruation .

This hormonal variation, similar to what we experience as women during each menstrual cycle since puberty, can also generate fatigue and pain leading to difficulty falling asleep.

Physical recovery

The postpartum period is a time marked, for many of us, by the physically and mentally trying moment of childbirth.

In the days, even weeks, following childbirth, some of us experience tremendous pain in the pelvic area as we continue to lose significant amounts of blood. For those of us who have had their flesh torn or who have had an episiotomy, the stitches can also remain painful while the healing process takes place. As for those who have had a cesarean section, movement is limited and fatigue is significant, also caused by the anesthesia.

Alongside these genital pains, the rise in milk and pain linked to the hormonal changes already mentioned above are diverse and can also contribute to exhausting us.

It takes time to physically recover from the birth of a child, but with the arrival of the baby and social demands, time can be in short supply.

Emotional fatigue

The final factor in postpartum fatigue is emotional fatigue.

Everything about having a baby contributes to this emotional exhaustion:

• Emotional surges: Emotions explode when a baby arrives. Oxytocin surges respond to worries: we're afraid of not being able to cope or of not being able to understand the baby's needs;
• Feeling of forgetting ourselves: If the birth of a baby is often described as a source of enormous happiness (and this too can represent stress for those who do not have this feeling!), many people describe having the feeling of losing themselves and no longer knowing who they are other than a mother;
• Unsolicited advice and recommendations: They flood in at birth from all sides and can make us feel worthless and overwhelmed!
• Conflicts, sometimes pre-existing at birth: Conflicts can be reinforced by the arrival of the baby, within the couple and both families. This can be a source of significant stress and fatigue.

What are the health symptoms and when to worry?

Postpartum fatigue symptoms are similar to those associated with fatigue. Because every woman and every pregnancy is different, you may not experience them at all or you may experience the full effects.

Here is a list of the physical consequences of postpartum fatigue:

• Physical exhaustion: General feeling of weakness, heaviness in the limbs, and difficulty performing simple physical tasks;
• Sleepiness: Feeling constantly tired and having trouble staying awake during the day, or even feeling the need to take frequent naps.
• Difficulty concentrating: Difficulty staying focused, processing information, and making decisions.
• Irritability and mood disturbances: Increased emotional sensitivity, making you feel more irritable, anxious, or depressed overall.
• Sleep disturbances: Disruption of nighttime sleep, resulting in difficulty falling asleep, frequent awakenings during the night, or unrefreshing sleep.
• Muscle pain: Muscle pain, tension, or stiffness.
• Gastrointestinal problems: Gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, bloating, or appetite disturbances.
• Depression: Feeling overwhelmed, sad, and deprived of emotion. This can even lead to the feeling of not being able to love your child. This is also called postpartum depression.

As we mentioned in the introduction to this article, it's normal and common for new mothers to experience postpartum fatigue. However, if these symptoms persist, and especially if they begin to impact your daily life and your interactions with those around you and your baby, it's essential to discuss them with your doctor, midwife, or gynecologist.

What behavioral consequences?

Postpartum fatigue, like any severe and chronic fatigue, can have a significant impact on our behavior. The consequences on our behavior are diverse, and the intensity of symptoms varies depending on the pregnancy, our age, and our hormones.

Here is a list of the behavioral consequences most commonly associated with postpartum fatigue:

• Irritability: Excessive or negative sensitivity and susceptibility to external stimuli.
• Difficulty concentrating: Difficulty maintaining attention and focusing on specific tasks, which may lead to errors or reduced performance.
• Cognitive slowing: Slowing of cognitive processes, which can result in slower reaction times and more confused thinking.
• Loss of motivation: Decreased motivation and enthusiasm, making it difficult to complete daily tasks.
• Increased risk-taking: Difficulty estimating risks and a tendency to increase risk-taking.
• Memory deficits: Memory disorders, resulting in difficulty recalling information, most often in the short term, and in forming new memories.
• Communication problems: Difficulty expressing ideas clearly and interacting effectively with others. This is due to fatigue, which prevents people from clearly expressing their thoughts, but also to irritability, which makes communication more difficult.
• Mood swings: Difficulty maintaining emotional stability. Increased susceptibility to stress, anxiety, and depression.
• Depression: Feeling overwhelmed, sad, and deprived of emotions. This can lead to the feeling of not being able to love one's child.

These behavioral changes can be particularly disruptive for you and those around you, to the point of destabilizing your relationship and those close to you. If, in the months following the birth of your child, you feel like you are "no longer yourself," don't wait: talk to the healthcare professionals who are treating you. It is essential not to let the problem persist to avoid worsening tensions.

How to prevent postpartum fatigue?

While it may be difficult, if not impossible, to get rid of postpartum fatigue because it's so associated with the birth of a child, there are solutions to reduce it and protect yourself. Here are some tips to prevent postpartum fatigue and limit its impact. You can, of course, share yours with us. ♥️

Let's accept being tired and talk about it.

Let's not let anyone—especially ourselves—minimize how tired we are. Lack of sleep and chronic suffering can lead to a sense of real hopelessness that obscures the beauty of our baby's first months. Loving our baby doesn't mean we should pretend everything is fine all the time: we have the right to feel worse, to be tired, or to feel overwhelmed.

Let's be patient and accept being imperfect.

The arrival of a baby in our daily lives is a major disruption to our relationship. It takes time to find the right actions, understand our baby's requests, or agree with our loved one on the steps to take. Setting numerous goals and deadlines is a source of stress and fatigue at the birth of a child. Let's accept that we're not perfect and let's accept that we'll be patient. The announcements will wait a little, we might start with disposable diapers instead of cloth diapers after all, we won't visit the entire in-laws every two weeks after the baby's birth: and that's OK. We have time. A baby has just joined our family.

Let's ask for help

In the first few months after a birth, our loved ones often want to help us but don't necessarily know instinctively how to do so. In addition to being clumsy, they sometimes put their foot in it by giving us unsolicited advice, increasing our stress... It's time to speak up and be explicit:

• State that you feel tired and that you will have difficulty tolerating comments;
• Ask specifically for what you need: a laundry, a sweep of the house, a nice prepared meal...

🌈 If you have chosen to breastfeed, you can also consider expressing your milk to allow your partner or a loved one to replace you (and go to sleep for example). On our e-shop, we have found for you the portable and cordless breast pump from the Perifit Pump brand . Discreet and effective, it slips into the bra so you can continue your activities without worrying about it.

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Let's make sure we eat well

After giving birth, it can be difficult to find the time and energy to cook. However, this is essential for getting nutrients and regaining energy on a daily basis. In the early days, we can consider asking our loved ones to bring us small meals, or even cook large meals to freeze. A course of vitamins and dietary supplements can also help us regain energy.

🌈 On Gapianne, we have selected for you Boom postpartum food supplements , designed to support emotional balance and combat fatigue in new mothers following a hormonal drop. The key ingredients are rhodiola to help the body adapt to emotional stress as well as physical exertion, nettle to promote lactation and participate in the remineralization of the body and L-tyrosine to boost brain function and promote the production of happy hormones. Discover all our postpartum food supplements .

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Let's take care of our postpartum body

During childbirth, our body has suffered a lot. Not only has our appearance changed due to pregnancy and we have to relearn to love ourselves, but our body is also painful: damaged vulva, marked stretch marks, breasts sore from the rise in milk... Taking care of our body does not, in itself, alleviate fatigue, but it allows us to reduce more quickly the pain associated with postpartum: in the long term, this facilitates physical recovery.

🌈 In Gapianne, we have selected for you the Baûbo balm , as its name suggests, is a nourishing balm that is applied to the vulva to moisturize it and soothe irritation and itching. It will be ideal if you have had an episiotomy or a tear, in particular.

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🌈 And to care for and moisturize your body, we love Talm's Pregnancy & Postpartum Moisturizing Body Balm . It soothes stressed areas of the body, such as the chest, stomach, and thighs. It's compatible with breastfeeding.

Let's try to rest when our child sleeps

It seems obvious, and yet: resting when our child is sleeping isn't always easy. Because we put pressure on ourselves to tidy up, clean, or even do all the administrative paperwork, we can tend to get busy when the baby finally sleeps. And yet. Resting when our child falls asleep helps limit our energy loss. This is neither laziness nor indifference. We need to rest to recover physically and be ready to face any new demands.