Your spouse will have put on weight gain during the pregnancy. While this is normal, many women worry about this increase in their weight following delivery.

These are important things your spouse needs to know if she is trying to lose weight:

- Weight gain may be normal: It is important for your spouse to determine whether the weight she has gained is within normal limits. Pregnancy weight gain of anywhere between 15 to 30 pounds is absolutely normal and she need not worry about it. However, if she weighs over 30 pounds more than before she became pregnant, she may need to consider losing some of it.

- Weight loss needs to be gradual: There is no truth in the popular belief that successful weight loss program has to be speedy. Actually post-pregnancy weight gain may take up to years to reverse and is dependent on many factors.

- ‘Quick fix' methods do not work: Doctors do not generally recommend any quick techniques or drastic diets to lose weight following pregnancy.

Your spouse can effectively lose weight by:

- Staying away from any ‘fad' diets likely to harm herself and, if she is breastfeeding, the baby

- Combining a healthy diet plan with a sensible exercise routine

- Aiming for a reasonable loss that she can maintain, rather than a drastic loss that is short-lived

- Consulting a dietician if her own efforts do not show results

Returning to normal

During pregnancy, your spouse's body went through tremendous changes. Now that she has given birth, she will experience more changes as her body returns to its normal state.

These are some of the changes that the new mom is likely to experience:
- Increase in temperature up to 100.4 F for about 24 hours after delivery
- Weight loss of about10 to 12 lbs. immediately after the birth, followed by another five pounds soon after.
- Discharge from the vagina
- Shrinking of the uterus as it returns to its original position
- Gradual closing of the cervix
- Recommencement of the ovulation cycle
- Gradual fading away of stretch marks on the belly
- Gradual toning of the firmness of the abdomen as it returns to its pre-pregnancy state
- Increase in breast size along with lactation
- Increased sensations of hunger and thirst
- Symptoms of flatus, or gas in the stomach and intestines, especially in case of a cesarean delivery
- Reduced sensation of the need to urinate and/or urinary incontinence
- Symptoms of a chill- quite normal unless accompanied by fever
- Increased sweating, especially at night, as accumulated waste matter is discharged from the body
- Pains caused by intermittent uterine contractions
- Reduction in the swelling of legs or ankles

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