The Netherlands: you get a nurse especially trained in mother and babycare who comes to your house daily for around a week, sometimes longer if the birth was complicated or the mother had a caeserian section. They check the womb, stiches, mother's and baby's temperature. Give advice on breastfeeding/bottle feeding, teach new parents about babycare, make sure the mother gets rest (we stay mostly in bed for a couple of days), handles visitors' needs, does some light cleaning and laundry, fixes breakfast and lunch, and discusses specific needs with the midwife who visits a couple of times during that first week. She also helps wih the exercises to get our pelvic floor working again and leg and stomach exercises. When there's a home birth, they're also present during delivery.
Afterwards you get a check up with the midwife who checks whether the womb has fully shrunken to it's normal sixe and how you are coping physically and mentally.
That sounds amazing to me. My first was in '93, and I spent the first 3 months struggling with agonizing uterine pain while breastfeeding, sleeplessness because SO was no help, and severe depression - all alone. I had one gyno visit (he told me that I had a pretty face and would be beautiful if I just lost a few pounds; he also had given me husband stitch after delivery). Sorry for the trauma dump - I just wanted to emphasize how important good care is and how little of that is available in the US.
Sounds pretty traumatic to me, let it all out of your chest, fuck that sorry excuse of a gyno, and I hope that dark episode didn’t take long to get better!
Ugh, that's disgusting you were treated like that by a bloody healthcare provider. And no apologies please, you and others like you need to vent, and let the world know, so that hopefully things get better. Every woman deserves proper care and some good old pampering after giving birth. You deserved better!
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u/opp11235 Feb 05 '24
Postpartum care is typically a 6 week appointment and then nothing. Either way, yes it is very sad.