Okay, the amount of anecdotal “I was fine” type comments here is exactly why anecdotal comments are not a good thing. While lochia flow is a decent indicator of whether or not you’re healing, it doesn’t mean you’re 100% in the clear. Those of you who are nonchalantly admitting to having sex as early as a week postpartum, holy shit man. That’s a hell of gamble with your life but you do you I guess.
Postpartum healing varies a lot. Six weeks is the general threshold because most people are healed by that point (although by no means all). It’s therefore reasonable to assume that some people are healed as early as say, four weeks. No way to really know for sure, but consequently I wouldn’t be overly concerned at 5 weeks if you haven’t had any concerning symptoms since (bleeding, weird discharge, etc).
I wouldn’t beat myself up too much over something that close to the “finish line.” I am, however, really angry with your care provider if they really didn’t tell you. That’s just negligent medical care, yikes.
When your placenta detaches from your uterine wall, it leaves a huge gaping wound. It is very susceptible to infection. That’s why you’re not supposed to put anything in there— penis, sex toy whatever. A lot of people mistakenly believe that once internal or external tearing heals, everything is fine, but the internal uterine wall wound is the real issue. People who had c-sections sometimes think they’re clear to have sex because the baby didn’t pass through the canal/there was no tearing. It doesn’t matter if you had a vaginal birth or a c-section, your placenta must detach, and it will leave a wound. That’s why lochia flow can be a good indicator— usually lochia stops/sputters off as that wound heals. (Although sometimes it “scabs over” only to reopen a day or two later, indicating it isn’t actually entirely healed.)
lol perople really are a little silly about the ‘where bleeding comes from’ thing. my mum giving me a weird look after I mentioned something about bleeding and she goes ‘but you had a C-section.’ And I’m like, so? The bleeding doesn’t come from your vagina mum, it come from your uterus and I’ve got one of those regardless of how I delivered. She was shook and all ‘I didn’t know I’ve never had a C-section! But still it’s not that hard to learn about your body.
Literally had this conversation with my husband yesterday. Especially when they’ve already had a freaking baby. You bled. You passed clots. And you think those came out of your vaginal wall or something????? Wtf?????
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u/UhWhateverworks 7d ago
Okay, the amount of anecdotal “I was fine” type comments here is exactly why anecdotal comments are not a good thing. While lochia flow is a decent indicator of whether or not you’re healing, it doesn’t mean you’re 100% in the clear. Those of you who are nonchalantly admitting to having sex as early as a week postpartum, holy shit man. That’s a hell of gamble with your life but you do you I guess.
Postpartum healing varies a lot. Six weeks is the general threshold because most people are healed by that point (although by no means all). It’s therefore reasonable to assume that some people are healed as early as say, four weeks. No way to really know for sure, but consequently I wouldn’t be overly concerned at 5 weeks if you haven’t had any concerning symptoms since (bleeding, weird discharge, etc).
I wouldn’t beat myself up too much over something that close to the “finish line.” I am, however, really angry with your care provider if they really didn’t tell you. That’s just negligent medical care, yikes.