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Officially, Recovered
Life six weeks after giving birth
Two weeks postpartum, I was summarily discharged from midwife care. It’s a projected six week recovery from episiotomy stitches, but the maternity team isn’t checking in anymore.
“Just don’t go running any marathons,” the midwife laughed when I asked what I was cleared to do.
Robert met my eyes, because he knows I would. But even I can recognize the need to recover from this one.
The injuries of birth are pretty severe. I got cut through a muscle in my pelvic floor. My abs are shot from carrying a baby. Any existing health issues tend to compound with lack of sleep. Plus, weird new things have been happening to my body. From breastfeeding? As an aftermath of birth?
For a while, my only two orifices not medically diagnosed were the eyes. My left ear stopped hearing. I finally stopped coughing, but my teeth got sore spots.
I developed an intense fear of a regular bodily function: I started passing tree-trunk-sized stools, which creates anal tearing and also pulls on the vaginal stitches. I dreaded the daily rite of re-tearing, blood enough to make the water red, unhealed episiotomy aching for hours after. I finally talked to a doctor, but they took a week and a half to call in my prescription.