How Long It Takes Your Bump To Go Down After Birth

Did you know that within a few minutes of your delivery, several contractions start occurring in your body? These cause the uterus to shrink and the placenta to detach from the uterine wall. The sight of your tummy might shock you. Do not be surprised if your belly is still bumpy with that squishy midsection which you carried in your sixth month of pregnancy.

During pregnancy, your belly weighs around 7.5 pounds extra than original weight. But when you deliver and walk out of the delivery room, you still don’t have that pre-baby body back.

This is because it takes time for your body (abdomen and belly) to fully recover and get back to normal. As the body transforms extremely during these nine months due to the inflation of the abdomen like a balloon as the baby grows inside, getting back to normal takes time.

From the time you deliver, your uterus starts shrinking to its pre-pregnancy state and takes approximately six to eight weeks to get back to its normal size. In the first-week post pregnancy, you ought to secrete more fluids in the form of sweat, urine, and vaginal secretions because of the swollen body cells. On an average, you lose up to 12 pounds when you deliver, including the baby, blood, fluids, and the amniotic fluid. But the timeline for weight loss is different for everyone as it depends on factors such as the weight gained during pregnancy, breastfeeding, exercise and diet, etc.

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A week later

Breastfeeding plays a crucial role in weight loss, as feeding the baby consumes a lot of calories without compromising your health and your baby’s diet too. When you are nursing, you tend to lose more weight after birth as you naturally burn calories to make breast milk every time. During the first two weeks post pregnancy, you are still in that ‘baby blues’ zone due to hormonal changes and might get upset if you get on the weighing scale again and again.

A month later

After a month of having those postpartum blues, you have a reason to finally smile, as the extra fat you gained for baby’s nourishment starts burning off by continuous exercise and breastfeeding. It is common for new mothers to lose up to 20 pounds a month after delivering and it sheds one month down the line. You get to have a flatter and slimmer look of your belly and will start getting that pre-baby body line. You will ultimately love the feeling of getting in your old clothes perfectly.

A few months later

It is recommended that adapting healthy habits during pregnancy and following them post pregnancy will lead you to get back in shape within a few months after delivery. Your normal weight will be just an arm’s length away if you combine healthy eating with some workout. This not only lets you shed those extra pounds but also makes you fitter and active.

After nine months

It is often known as ‘nine months on and nine months off’, but if in some cases the mother gains more than the recommended 25-35 pounds during pregnancy, it gets a bit difficult to lose weight at the normal pace. Sometimes the new moms try to shed weight very quickly and start following fad diets and crash dieting. This denies their body the essential nutrients and also delays the healing body requires post birth and ultimately deprives the newborn baby of the crucial nutrients of breastfeeding.

Intake of vitamins and minerals, lots of fluids, fruits and veggies, and whole grains, will result in promoting a healthy body and maintaining body weight. Switching to yoga and workout will incorporate a healthy lifestyle in the moms who would be an awesome role model for other moms too.

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