If you've just had a cesarean section, you may still have a round belly or pooch. Chances are that your maternity clothes will fit you more comfortably than your regular ones. It would seem that after you deliver your baby that your tummy would be flat again very quickly, especially if it was flat before you became pregnant. However, there are a few reasons why your waist will still be large, for several weeks or months after your c-section.
Your Fruit-Sized Muscle
It's obvious that your abdominal muscles have been stretched out during your pregnancy and will take time to "snap" back. However, you may not realize that your uterus is also a muscle that has stretched and grown. It goes from the size of a pear to the size of a watermelon in a matter of months. While it will shrink back down to size on its own, breastfeeding can help speed up the process of flattening your belly in two ways. First, breastfeeding releases hormones that encourage your uterus to contract and get smaller. This is why you may feel menstrual cramps while nursing your baby in the first few weeks after a c-section. Second, breastfeeding mothers burn 500 to 1000 more calories per day than non-breastfeeding moms. This helps you lose fat at the waistline. Speaking of fat...
Fat Deposits
Fat may be the second culprit for your larger-than-expected tummy after delivery. Even if you were not overweight before pregnancy, you may have picked up weight along the way that was stored as fat around your tummy. That means that even after your ab muscles and uterus go back to their original size (or close to it), the abdominal fat on top of your muscles is still there.
Excess, Drooping, Dark or Wrinkled Skin
The third contributor to your expanded belly size may be excess skin. Each woman's skin behaves differently during and after pregnancy. Also, the skin behaves differently in the same woman during different pregnancies, especially as she ages. As we get older, our skin loses some of its elasticity which gives it the ability to "snap" back into place and become firm and tight again.
Does your skin droop and sag over your c-section scar? Does the skin appear to be darker or somewhat wrinkled? It's normal for skin to look that way in the weeks and months after delivery. In fact, if you were to see a plastic surgeon for a tummy tuck, he would probably advise you to wait up to six months after delivery to observe how changes on its own.
Another predictor of how well skin snaps back is your DNA. In some families, women get pregnant and never see a stretch mark or look like they've had children several months after delivery. In other families, all the mothers have belly pooches, stretch marks and a tendency to store excess fat around the midsection.
Water Weight
Any mom who went through her third trimester in warm weather can tell you about swelling and water retention. Some women retain water so much so that they have what's called pitting edema. In pitting edema, if you press your finger down onto the swollen part of the body (usually the legs and feet), and then lift your finger, it leaves a "pit" with the impression of your finger still showing on the body part.
Even if you had no swelling during pregnancy, you may still be retaining water for some time after a c-section. This is due to the IV fluids that were given to you during your hospital stay. If you notice that it's hard to get your rings on and off your fingers or that your toes look somewhat puffier than usual, you may be retaining water. This may cause your belly, face, legs, ankles and hands to appear larger for a week or two after a c-section delivery.
No comments:
Post a Comment