After your baby is born, your body goes through enormous fastpaced changes. Your pelvic and abdominal organs start returning to their prepregnancy condition and position. Your hormones begin to adjust from supporting a pregnancy to readying your body for nursing and bonding with your baby. And you've just gone through the enormously hard work of labor and delivery, and, if you delivered by cesarean section, had major surgery. Here's how your body may feel in the hours after delivery.

Never Better

Many moms feel wonderful after giving birth. The rush of endorphins that accompany the final stages of labor act as natural painkillers, and you may feel exhilarated and blissful. Some moms have a lot of energy right after birth and may have a hard time staying “down.”You may also be reveling in your newly unpregnant body and all the joys that go along with it: being able to lie on your belly again, bending forward easily, and even seeing your toes!

Tired and Sore

Labor and birth are enormously hard work. It's normal to feel tender and exhausted right after your baby is born, or for soreness to kick in later after an epidural or adrenaline rush has worn off. You may even experience soreness in places you didn't even realize were working or tensed up during labor and birth, like your shoulders or calf muscles.

Faint or Woozy

Feeling dizzy, wobbly, or faint in the early postpartum hours is not too unusual. The shift from your end-of-pregnancy blood volume and body fluid to your nonpregnant state means your cardiovascular system has a lot of work to do in adapting. When you change position from lying to sitting or from sitting to standing, take a moment to allow your body to adjust. Enlist help on those first few trips to the bathroom.

Cold and Shaky

New moms may experience shivering and shaking in the first few postpartum hours, even on the hottest days. It's thought that the body is reregulating its internal thermostat. Wrap up in blankets warmed in the dryer, or tuck heating pads around you, and snuggle your warm baby skin-to-skin to keep you both nice and toasty. Ask your care providers for blankets as often as you want them.

Afterpains

The uterine contractions that keep your uterus shrinking back to its prepregnant size may continue for several hours to several days after your baby is born, and can range from uncomfortable to quite painful. Generally, the more babies a woman has had, the more intense and long-lasting these afterpains can be, and there's often no way to know how long one will last or when the next will strike. For more information on relieving the discomfort associated with these contractions, see Chapter 3.