After giving birth successfully, women’s health greatly decreased. The postpartum care plays an extremely important role to help the woman’s body quickly return to normal. And it is at this time that dads’ care and support are also very necessary. So, what should a husband do to look after his wife well after her giving birth?
Help the wife psychological stability
The sensitivities of a newborn woman are many times higher than that of a normal woman. They are sensitive to noises, words or blaming, suddenly happy and sad, even sob by something, besides, the anxiety and insecurity for the baby’s health that upsets moms’ daily activities and sleeps.
Without understanding and sharing of relatives, especially husbands, women will easily fall into a state of loneliness or depression. This condition is also partly due to sudden hormonal changes. That is, the hormones from the placenta during pregnancy will make her feel refreshed, alert, joy and happy, but these hormones decline soon after birth, causing the mother to change the mood. And so, if not shared by the husband, moms’ depression will occur.
There are many ways the father can do to help his wife overcome this situation. One of the things the husband needs to do is to create peace of mind for the wife, to become a firm shoulder for her to rely on. Husband, please listen to his wife, and help him to be assured by spending more time with both mother and child, defending his wife when necessary in relationships. At the same time, take care of her and nurture her baby, helping her feel secure about her husband even though she’s not around.
Help the wife care for wounds after giving birth
Dads, remember: the wounds in women who have a natural birth or the caesarean section are the same. If moms has a natural birth, please help her to take care of the perineal wound, and while giving birth, please help moms to take care of the incision.
Perineal wound: During childbirth, the woman’s uterus can contract as much as possible to accelerate the baby out. This can tear the anal sphincter. Therefore, doctors will use the perineal incision procedure to support and speed up the safe delivery. The care of the perineal wound is extremely important because if not properly cleaned or not cleaned the wound, it will cause infection, difficult to treat and more painful.
Therefore, Dad needs to clean the stitches with warm water, dry them, and then help his mother change the sanitary pads regularly 3 times a day to prevent infection and moisture from amniotic fluid. Give mom plenty of green vegetables to help avoid constipation because when she was constipated, it was easy to tear the stitches that had not healed.
If it is a cesarean incision, the doctors will help dad take care of his wife’s wounds during the hospital days. If the wound in the abdomen, a clean cotton ball will be used to dry the incision and leave the incision without a bandage, keep it always dry. Can disinfect incisions by betadin solution. But women who have a caesarean section still need to change tampon every 4 hours. Now, dad tries to help his wife to wash-clean-change when she needed. Dad noted not to arbitrarily apply any strange drugs or solutions to his wife without consulting the doctor.
In addition, please help moms clean their bodies by wiping them. Wipe their body, dads only need clean water – warm, mixed a little hot oil and wipe with a soft cloth all over the face, body, especially hands, feet. When wiping the body for moms, do so discreetly, don’t be afraid, do not be scared.
A note for dads is that moms born naturally can be allowed to wash normally (with the help of her husband). Moms who have delivered by caesarean section may also be exposed to water if the wounds are dry.
Supplement nutrition for wife
Postpartum is a period when mom’s body is deficient in many nutrients because it has given priority to the child during pregnancy and is lost during the labor. Moreover, moms still give priority to providing nutrition to their babies every day through breast milk. Therefore, increasing the supplement for moms during breastfeeding is necessary to help the mother’s body recover, be healthy, and increase the quality of breast milk.
Dad can now help his wife by making (or buying) for his wife nutritious dishes, or at least strongly interfering with her menu (helping her to avoid the old-fashioned abstinence of the elderly in the family).
Helping the wife breastfeed
Since after the birth, mom’s body is still in pain, so it will be difficult to keep the baby on the right posture. However, babies are born instinctively to find and breastfeed, so babies can know how to suck from birth without any training. As long as the baby is exposed to mom’s nipple, he will find his own nipple, suck nipples and suck enthusiastically.
Manipulating mom’s breast will stimulate hormones in the body, activating mom’s milk part to produce milk. Some moms may take 2-3 days for milk to return, so the sooner dad helps the baby suckle, the faster milk will return. If dad sees little milk, the baby cries loudly because he sucks and the milk doesn’t come out, he should not judge mom too little milk. Encourage and help both mom and baby in the first suckling times instead.
If the caesarean mother is often in pain, it is more difficult to move. For those who have a caesarean section, dad can help mom to breastfeed to avoid hurting the incision, she can breastfeed in the following position: hold the baby on one side of the breast, at this time the elbow of mom must ensure to do fulcrum for my head. And then, the palm of mom must hold the head on the neck of the baby and pay attention to the head and guide the baby to breastfeed. If you want to be comfortable for both mom and baby, it’s best to put a pillow on moms’ lap.
Help wife to do housework, take care of children
Family life if only the couple, the housework has not arisen much. But when there are new members, there will be a lot of housework, especially for women. The housework is called a “nameless” job, but working day after day, from going to the market, cooking rice, washing dishes, cleaning the house, drying clothes, bathing the children, etc. took a lot of time of women in the family, making them seem to have no time for themselves.
Thus, at this time, please take the initiative to share the housework with moms, do not hesitate to join moms in taking care of the children at night, so that the wife can feel that someone is always by her side at all times and anywhere.
In addition, sharing the care of a child with his wife has many benefits because it is also an opportunity to increase the intimacy between dad and son, and so that mom will also have more time to rest and regain her health after birth.
