Mommy Diaries: First Period. Period.

Today is day one. Oh and this monster has a name. Postpartum period.

My period has returned after about 11-12 weeks since giving birth. And I am not breastfeeding at all. While around one-fifth of breastfeeding parents will get their period within six months of giving birth, non-breastfeeding moms get them in the earlier half of those six months. Well, informations and “scholarly articles” about postpartum period is rampant online.

But you aren’t here in my blog to read about scientific facts alone. You want the raw truth.

If you had period pain before, and thought that was bad – you would want to go back to that pain after your first day of first period after the birth of your child! It’s painful. When it is not painful it is overflowing. And when it is not painful and overflowing, you are nauseated. And in the midst of it all – if you are alone in a different country than most of your family, and you are taking care of a new-born child – zero Help. Cause Help is expensive. And of course I got it the morning of bringing little Tiger-cub to his doctor as that little two-n-half month old is already teething.

Getting out of bed, rather rolling out of bed, during the last few weeks of pregnancy (around 9th month) was tough? Wait till you have to pick up a baby who gets the tall-gene from the tall-side of the family (in our case the selectively-bred Bandyopadhyay side). That lower-belly pain? Especially during those first few hours when the blood bath hits? Unlike anything I’ve experienced before. The gush… felt like a pig in a slaughterhouse. Pain included.

In Bengali there’s a saying “চোখে সরষের ফুল দেখা” meaning “seeing mustard flowers” – (it literally explains the phenomenon of seeing random spots or patterns of light and colour that can potentially include yellow spots) an idiom to express pressure and pain. That is all I could think of as an appropriate expression of my pain.

Amidst it all, a huge shoutout to Tiger-cub’s paediatrician (mommy to a 9-month old baby boy). She saw my pain and asked me to take a seat, while she took care of dressing and undressing my little one for examinations. She said: I can imagine the pain you are in, mine was horrible. It remained horrible for two consecutive ones after the postpartum period. I will strongly suggest if it is this bad the second time around – see your gynaecologist. Mine prescribed me hormones and now I am much better – you have to see how yours go. We mommy’s have to look out for each-other, cause no one else will.

They say postpartum period will last weeks. At least two to three. Same pain and same flow. What is important is that you take your time to relax and enjoy other activities as much as you can. Otherwise this can soon go from a simply physical phenomenon to a mental issue.

I’ll give it four days and then change plans if it doesn’t stop.

P.s. if you enjoy my content, keep it fuelled by buying me a coffee, and I will think of you while writing my next blog post.