Hands swell after childbirth. How to remove swelling after childbirth. Postpartum edema: causes and treatment

Why do legs swell after childbirth?

Edema appears on the most different reasons, among which: protein deficiency, varicose veins veins, as well as diseases of the kidneys, heart and thyroid gland.

For pregnant women, edema is to some extent the norm, because it predisposes to this phenomenon hormonal background. However, the load on the veins of the legs also occurs due to additional weight in the later stages.

If the vessels of a woman are healthy, then after childbirth, the swelling of the legs should go away. But there are times when they not only do not disappear, but also become larger. This can be explained by the poor functioning of the valves of the internal and external veins. lower extremities.

There is also such a complex condition as deep vein thrombosis of the lower extremities, which consists in clogging the vessel with a thrombus and disturbing the outflow of blood. The susceptibility of pregnant women and women who have given birth to this disease is due to stagnation of blood and hypercoagulability (blood thickening) as a result of preparing the body for the impending blood loss during childbirth. But not only these two factors are needed for the development of thrombosis. Damage needed inner wall vessel where the thrombus actually attaches. Can cause this during pregnancy colds, vaginal examination, or an autoimmune disorder. The risk of developing thrombosis during the birth itself increases many times over, especially in the case of a caesarean section.

Treatment of edema after childbirth

Home remedies for swollen feet

Physiological swelling of the legs after childbirth should go away on its own within a few days, they do not require treatment.

You can help yourself by doing the following exercises to improve blood circulation:

• Walking on toes for 2-3 minutes.

• Alternate abduction and contraction of the toes.

• Lifting small objects (pencil, ball) from the floor with bare feet.

• Rotational movements of the feet in different directions (in and out).

• Standing on toes for a few seconds, then jumping (5-10 times) on tiptoe.

• Sharp flexion and extension of the toes.

Home remedies for edema include:

• Baths with sea ​​salt and contrast baths.

• Foot massage (possible with ice cubes). It is enough to carry it out on your own.

• Diuretic fees from horsetail, knotweed and birch buds also help relieve swelling.

• The amount of liquid consumed in evening time, should be reduced.

• You need to sleep with slightly raised limbs, for example, placing a roller under your feet.

Medical treatment

Those who do not pass should alert long time swelling of the legs after childbirth, which are accompanied by pain and heaviness in the legs. Asymmetrical swelling (of one leg) with swelling, burning and redness is also dangerous.

It is not recommended to take any medications on your own, they can Negative influence on the body of a nursing mother and get into the baby's blood with her milk.

In turn, a phlebologist may prescribe a duplex angioscanning of the veins (superficial and deep) of the lower extremities to determine the condition of the vessels. This procedure is necessary for women with edema after childbirth, especially those who have a predisposition to this phenomenon.

Examination of the veins after childbirth should be carried out if there are such additional factors:

• Parents suffer from varicose veins.

• A woman over the age of 35.

• and the use of hormones.

• Excess weight.

• The presence of symptoms such as heaviness in the legs, cramps in calf muscles.

Medical treatment will depend on the cause of the swelling. Ointments based on heparin, rutin (Essaven, Lyoton) or products based on herbal ingredients to strengthen the walls of blood vessels and eliminate microthrombi.

Prevention of swelling of the legs after childbirth

You can prevent the development of puffiness if you follow some recommendations during pregnancy:

• Sleep with legs elevated

• Give your feet a rest, massage them

• Reduce salt and fluid intake in the evening

• Wear special elastic underwear and compression stockings.

Remember that the main thing when swelling occurs in postpartum period- see a doctor in time. Health to you, dear mothers!

Victoria Koreshkova for the site

When a woman is in interesting position, slight swelling of the extremities are considered quite normal. They are usually associated with the natural accumulation of fluid in the body. future mother necessary for the full development of the future man. But why do swelling of the legs appear after childbirth, because after rebuilding, the body must remove unnecessary water?

Identify and eliminate

The causes of such phenomena may be hidden in the occurrence of health problems. Often, puffiness appears due to the exacerbation of old chronic diseases or the emergence of new ailments provoked by physiological changes occurring during pregnancy.

Many young women are frightened and alarmed by the appearance of swelling of the legs after childbirth, what to do in this case, they do not know. These worries are not groundless. Most often, after the birth of a child, the kidneys and veins of a young mother suffer, since it is they who are most difficult to recover from the global changes taking place in the body. Anyway, to install exact reason and to get rid of such phenomena, you need to consult a doctor. After inspection and appointment necessary research Your doctor will be able to recommend appropriate treatment for leg swelling after childbirth.

Reason one: kidney dysfunction

Pregnancy is very difficult period for the kidneys. Quickly return to normal condition after the end of pregnancy, it is quite difficult for them. Therefore, for some time they will slowly remove the liquid. The situation can be exacerbated by chronic diseases genitourinary system mother has. To exclude the occurrence serious pathologies, a woman needs to see a doctor and pass a series of tests.

If swelling of the legs after childbirth is accompanied by palpable pain in the lower abdomen, which, by the way, is very often confused with general postpartum pain, then most likely there is an exacerbation of cystitis. Inflammation Bladder may have very backfire, therefore, it is also not worth delaying a visit to the urologist. A few simple but very important analyzes help determine or eliminate the cause of swelling.

Phlebeurysm

Circulatory disorders in the extremities, caused by fetal pressure on the pelvic vessels during pregnancy, predispose to the appearance various pathologies. Inelastic walls blood vessels or weak vein valves provoke the development varicose disease after childbirth. Swelling of the legs, heaviness or burning can become a fundamental symptom.

Postpartum preeclampsia

Preeclampsia is a severe pathology during pregnancy. Usually its manifestation is observed at the end of the second - the beginning of the third trimester. It is practically not amenable to medical treatment and most often disappears after delivery. Mild forms of this pathology have no consequences and completely disappear on the second day after birth.

More severe forms preeclampsia may persist after childbirth. The main symptoms here are: increased arterial pressure, detection in taken analyzes a large number protein, rapid weight gain associated with the appearance severe edema legs. After childbirth, such phenomena should stabilize, however, if the disease has seriously affected the mother's organs, this does not happen. Treatment in this case takes place under the strict supervision of a doctor.

Other reasons

Often the banal cause of such a pathology is malnutrition. Abuse of fried, spicy and salty foods, drinking a lot of tea or coffee in combination with bad habits can provoke swelling of the limbs.

Swelling of the legs does not go away for a long time, when, after giving birth, the mother immediately returns to work in the office. Absence physical activity and prolonged sitting at the computer is clearly not what the body needs during this period. Yes, and appearance additional loads in the form of yet unfamiliar worries, essentially "embellish" the picture. Sometimes a young mother can relax only at night, and even then only for a few hours.

It can take up to four weeks for the body to return to normal lymph flow and blood circulation.

Risks in self-treatment

Very often, when swelling of the legs appears after childbirth, women independently prescribe diuretics for themselves. medical preparations. This is fundamentally wrong. You should be very careful with such drugs, since most diuretic tablets remove potassium from the body, which negatively affects the functioning of the heart and the condition of the blood vessels. After inadequate diuretic therapy, not only there is a risk of cardiovascular diseases, but there is a possibility of increased swelling after discontinuation of drugs. In addition, diuretics will be completely ineffective in the formation of venous pathologies.

Alternative medicine

Diuretic fees are less dangerous for the body, but even their intake must be agreed with the doctor. When using medicinal herbs in situations where the legs in the ankles swell after childbirth, there is always a risk of manifestation allergic reactions. Such methods are undesirable and breastfeeding. Since all the products that mom will use, through breast milk the child will also receive, the baby also has a chance to earn an allergy.

In addition, in order to properly brew medicinal herb, sometimes you have to tinker a lot, and this is not always the way for a young mother.

Gymnastics for the legs: how to relieve swelling

Legs are swollen unknown reasons? In this case it may help special gymnastics which doctors often recommend to their patients. Such exercises will be much more effective if done standing up:

• Exactly stand on the floor and alternately raise one leg, then the other, lingering in this position for a few seconds.
• Walk barefoot on tiptoe, do a few jumps on your toes.
• Do "rolls" of body weight from one leg to another.
• Roll weight from heels to toes and from toes to heels.

The following exercises are performed already in the "sitting" position:

• With a bare foot, alternate rotational movements clockwise and then counterclockwise.
• Raise your toes as high as possible, and then also bend down as much as possible.
• Try to spread your toes as much as possible, and then close them.
• Do foot rolls from heel to toe, and then back.
• Try to lift any small object from the floor with your feet.

If swelling appeared on the limbs, then there is no need to postpone a visit to the doctor - it is necessary to urgently begin treatment. Such phenomena do not go away on their own, but only get worse with time. Depending on the true reason the occurrence of unwanted symptoms, the doctor prescribes treatment. So, after the birth of a child, the legs swell. How to remove swelling, so as not to harm the body and at the same time get rid of the disease quickly, such a summary table will tell.

Sleep and rest disturbances can cause swelling of the limbs: in the endless household chores and caring for the baby, the young mother forgets that she also needs to rest.

Prevention

To reduce the risk of edema, you need to regularly rest your legs and exercise preventive actions. For this, doctors recommend:

• Go to bed every two to three hours, laying your feet on a hill (a pillow or a blanket rolled up into a roll). It is not recommended to sit or stand for a long time.
• make a special therapeutic gymnastics.
• foot baths and contrast procedures followed by rubbing the limbs with a hard towel - excellent tool not only to strengthen muscles and vascular walls, but also in the fight against cellulite.
• Adhere to a proper, balanced, regular diet and, if possible, limit the use of tea or coffee. In the fight against swelling of the limbs, the use of tomatoes, viburnum, cranberries, sea buckthorn, lemon will help well (provided there is no allergy to these products).
• Get rid of bad habits(If there are any).
• Seek medical attention if symptoms of swelling occur.

Listen to the signals of your body, because often even a slight steady swelling of the legs in the evenings can indicate the occurrence of serious diseases.

Almost every woman faces swelling of the legs in the third trimester of pregnancy. This is a completely physiological phenomenon associated with the natural accumulation of fluid in the body, necessary to increase the volume of circulating blood (BCC) and normal development fetus. The weight of the pregnant woman is constantly growing, it becomes harder to move, the enlarged uterus compresses the vessels of the small pelvis, making it difficult for venous outflow, the load on the lower extremities increases significantly - all this leads to the formation of edema in the last stages of gestation. But why do the legs swell after childbirth? After all, all these reasons are no longer relevant.

information Normally, swelling of the lower extremities, the cause of which was only a physiological increase in BCC, disappears without a trace within a few days or a week after childbirth. But if swelling persists or reappears, then there must be more compelling reasons for this.

The reasons

To possible reasons postpartum edema include:

• kidney disease;
• vascular disease;
• improper diet and daily routine.

kidney disease
At chronic diseases kidneys (for example, pyelonephritis), which the mother had before pregnancy, there is a high probability that after childbirth it is difficult for them to cope with rapid elimination fluid accumulated during this time. Therefore, such edema can persist for a long time.

Vascular diseases
Pregnancy is one of the predisposing factors for the development of varicose veins. If you notice that on the skin of the legs appeared spider veins, you feel swelling and heaviness in the lower extremities by the end of the day, sometimes the arising cramps in the calf muscles bother you, then you should know that these are the first symptoms of varicose veins.
Symmetrical swelling of the legs after childbirth will testify in favor of varicose veins, but if one leg is swollen, swelling, redness and burning appear skin, it is most likely associated with deep vein thrombosis. The presence of such a symptom requires immediate examination.

Nutrition and daily routine
Sometimes the occurrence of edema and their preservation after childbirth is associated with a very commonplace reason - malnutrition. The use of salty, smoked, fried foods leads to excessive accumulation and fluid retention in the body. Moreover, high physical activity young mother (housework, caring for the baby) contributes to the development of excessive fatigue, which as a result leads to the formation of small edema in the evening and the appearance of heaviness in the legs.

Treatment

important Prolonged retention of swelling in the legs after childbirth is not the norm. No matter how you console yourself and think that everything will pass soon, this is not a trifle, but, perhaps, the first signs of a serious illness. Be sure to visit a doctor, find the cause of your illness in order to correctly, accurately, effectively and permanently get rid of it.

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Reading time: 5 minutes

According to statistics, every fourth woman during pregnancy and after childbirth has swelling - excess savings fluids in organs. During the bearing of a child, edema is a completely natural phenomenon, which is extremely rare to avoid, but after childbirth they gradually disappear. There are cases when swelling after childbirth does not completely subside. What is the reason for this and what measures should be taken, read further in the article.

Why legs swell - reasons

Women who suffered from edema throughout their pregnancy want to quickly regain their former harmony. As a rule, they manage to do this one to two weeks after giving birth. In more rare cases It takes a month to restore the figure. Causes of swelling in the postpartum period:

• Problems with the functioning of the kidneys. If your kidney function was disrupted during pregnancy and you had to resort to the help of diuretics, then returning to the previous mode of functioning in the postpartum period will take time. Diseases of the urinary system also contribute to the prolonged presence of edema after childbirth.

• Unhealthy food. In order to maintain perfect figure professional nutritionists and adherents healthy lifestyle life is recommended to consume large volumes of water daily. On my own this advice is useful, but not in the case when the main task of a woman on the way to former forms is to promptly get rid of edema after childbirth. To reduce swelling, it is necessary to reduce the size of the absorbed liquid and temporarily abandon fried, salty, spicy dishes, causing the appearance thirst.
• Excessive activity. After the birth of a child, the number of worries that a woman has to cope with every day increases several times. Lack of time for normal rest is often the main factor that hinders the conduct effective fight with swelling of the legs in the postpartum period. In this regard, young mothers should not overwork themselves with routine chores, allocating time for self-care.
• Vascular diseases. It is not uncommon for postpartum swelling to be directly related to varicose veins. This disease for a long time proceeds in a latent form, but if the period after the birth of the baby is accompanied by constant edema, this good reason seek advice from an experienced phlebologist.

Edema does not go away after childbirth - what to do

With the problem of swelling of the legs and other parts of the body, in particular the perineum, women have been facing for many centuries and during this time a number of methods have been developed to help deal with them. Edema after the birth of a child usually forms on the legs - provide these parts of the body good vacation. What is meant by this? Every one to two hours, take a prone position, placing your legs above the level of your head - this improves the outflow of blood. It is useful to perform such simple exercises:

• Circular rotation of the feet clockwise / counterclockwise.
• Rolls from heel to toe and back.
• Walking on toes.

Salt baths and foot massage will help relieve swelling of the legs after the birth of the baby, the action of which is aimed at eliminating fatigue. Realize similar procedures preferably at bedtime, and you can increase their effectiveness by adding a decoction of juniper or chamomile to the water, which has calming properties.

It is important to pay attention to how you sit, in particular keeping your back straight, not crossing your legs and choosing comfortable chair, which will not pinch the arteries, causing swelling. During sleep, it is recommended to lie on your left side - this improves blood circulation and provides quality rest.

As for nutrition, the inclusion in the diet of foods such as grapefruit, lemon, viburnum, grapes, sea buckthorn and tomato will help thin the blood and reduce swelling of the legs in the postpartum period. The body of a young mother is susceptible to new products, they should be added to the usual diet gradually so as not to provoke an allergic reaction.

How long does it take for swelling to go away

How long does the swelling formed after childbirth disappear? On average, swelling disappears within two to three weeks, but sometimes this process is delayed for one to two months. In this case, sound the alarm without good reason(problems with the kidneys or the presence of another disease) is not worth it. Even the most severe swelling of the legs after childbirth eventually disappears and the figure returns to normal.

How and what to remove - treatment of edema

Depending on the cause, leg swelling requires different treatment. Do not self-medicate the best choice because by incorrectly identifying the catalyst of the problem, you will only delay its solution. To prescribe the necessary course of treatment, consult a doctor. After collecting an anamnesis and examining the edema formed after childbirth, he will reliably determine the factors that provoked their appearance, and decide which method will be most effective in combating them.

If the root cause of the formation of swelling of the legs in the postpartum period is associated with kidney disease, then a course is required drug treatment. You should not ignore the recommendations of the doctor, replace the prescribed drugs with analogues familiar to you. The doctor prescribes the least toxic drugs that belong to a separate narrow group intended for breastfeeding women. When using other medicines, there is a possibility that their action will negatively affect the child.

Treatment of varicose veins is somewhat more difficult. Here it is necessary to act according to a certain methodology, the main components of which are rest, changing the position of the legs. Regular and consistent implementation of simple requirements will help to remove the swelling of the legs that appeared after childbirth as soon as possible.

When swelling of the legs occurs due to malnutrition and excessive activity, the best medicine- change of lifestyle. A young mother should be aware that she is responsible not only for her own, but also for the life of the baby, and rest for her is no longer a luxury, but a necessity.

Video: How to deal with swelling in the legs

The resulting swelling of the legs after childbirth is a very common problem. This topic is actively discussed on the Internet, in various TV shows, where experienced doctors give practical advice. Expert advice on elimination of edema and other useful information- you will learn about all this by watching the video: