Bleeding after childbirth.

From: midnightwolf31.hotmail.com
To: herb.lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 04:17:59 -0800
Subject: [Herb] infection in uterus

I and the rest of the family would like to request assistance in searching for any help we can receive dealing with uterine infections after childbirth. My sister had her baby going on six weeks ago now. The doctors have tried treating it with antibiotics but she isn't responding. Also passing brown gunk with small vein looking strings with it since shortly after having her daughter. Know it is typical to pass this, but the doctors feel the timing has exceeded its limits. My mother is wondering if the doctor didn't get all of the placenta out after her child was born. The OB nurse at the hospital did mention that if the placenta had been abrupting during the pregnancy, it could have been breaking down in this form. She had bleeding during most of the duration while carrying both children.

They are talking of putting her in the hospital and possible hysterectomy at age 19. Going to try a D&C first though.

From: May Terry mterry.snet.net

> My mother is wondering if the doctor didn't get all of the placenta out after her child was born.

About 3 weeks after my first and third childbirth, I hemorrhaged and had to be taken to the hospital for an emergency D&C. My doctor felt fairly strongly that the placenta, in those two pregnancies, had attached itself over an area of scar tissue (from who knows what), and when the uterus shrank after the birth, it sucked up a piece of the placenta, then decided to slough it off a few weeks later.

Seems like something 'mechanical' like this might be what's going on with your sister. If that's the case it will have to be taken care of in a *mechanical* way; if she also has infection, it may clear up more readily if offending tissue is removed, or whatever the underlying cause is. She certainly needs nutritional support, so diet/supporting herbs sound like a good idea, but the doctors have to figure out what's going on, not just remove the uterus to eliminate the problem *area*.

I hope this doesn't sound condescending to doctors. Just a layperson's opinion.

From: Sharon Hodges-Rust mwherbs-cox.net

First of all take a deep breath. She is probably going to be ok.

Antibiotics won't stop bleeding- it helps the body to fight infection- if infection is the cause of the bleeding then it will eventually stop.

The blood is brown,so that is good, it is not frank bleeding which can be more of an emergent problem. Does the discharge have an odor? how much bleeding is happening in an hour? in a few hours? in a day? is she soaking pads, how many?

So how much running around has she been doing since the birth? If she is doing much running around or lifting, climbing stairs, caring for a toddler and doing all the normal house work and shopping too then she can even end up bleeding longer. Being upright and mobile with care prevents other complications such as blood clots in the legs, but trying to maintain a normal life is too much for most women in the immediate postpartum. If she has a toddler at home with this new baby then just eating and child care is about it, the house work needs to be farmed out to others, if company is over to drop off a meal, then mom needs to be sitting with the baby and the company needs to be doing a load or 2 of laundry or washing the dishes, picking up the house...

Is she breastfeeding, I am hoping she is because this helps the uterus to clamp down and go back to normal size. when a uterus clamps down it is providing its own direct pressure and staunches bleeding.

When the placenta is delivered after the birth of the baby the uterus is greatly enlarged and the entire surface of the placenta which is often the size of a plate has been inter-looped sort of like velcro to moms uterine wall. A piece or even a separate lobe can be left adhered,aged placentas can certainly fall apart and do this but I think far more often it is do to the hands of an impatient practioner who may tug a bit too quickly and sheer off a piece. abruption is just the opposite of retained and so I think that some misinformation has been floating around.

In reading your post I am thinking that it is possible that your sister has a fibroid or 2- this would account for the bleeding during pregnancy as well as excess post partum - fibroids are so firm that they don't clamp down properly.

I would recommend rest, and to stop the bleeding my first choice would be yarrow because stops internal bleeding of any kind. plenty of fluids, green veggies like broccoli, leaf lettuce,and cooked greens to build up her vitamin K for clotting, also for the iron and I am wondering if at this point how anemic is she.

Sharon in Tucson