After your baby is born you may feel some tightness or even pain in your chest. Nope, you're not having a heart attack due to new parent nerves either, this is a common occurrence for new mamas.
How it feels:
- Tightness or even pain in your chest.
- It may hurt when you inhale or exhale or both.
- Tightness or pain may continue from your chest to your ribs, back, or shoulders.
Why it happens: You just pushed a baby out of a super small area, not to mention you labored for who knows how long before that. Labor and birth is quite a workout. Your body has been through an experience that can only be compared to an extreme sport so you can't expect to come out of it unscathed. Imagine if you did a super hard workout or hundreds of push-ups; yeah, you'd feel it.
How long it should last: All women are different so time of pain or tightness will vary. If you were in super good shape at the time of your labor and birth, that's helpful and you may feel less sourness and pain in your chest. Even if you're not in perfect shape though, the pain shouldn't hang around for weeks.You can sometimes lessen chest pain or tightness with a soak in a hot tub or ibuprofen (check with your health care provider before taking medication though). Immediately after your birth (for the next couple of days) report any pain to your health care provider because chest pain, while normal, can indicate a more serious issue like a blood clot so it's smart to have it checked out. If the pain is deemed not serious by your provider but you still have pain in your chest a week later call your post-pregnancy health care provider again. Also call if the pain is extreme - as in you can't sleep or if the pain is all you can focus on.
