Bleeding stopped and what I think is LOADS of discharge?

[Serene123]

Well I'm hoping it's loads of CM. Is it? I don't want to go get my lady bits examined, I had quite enough of that when I was pregnant. So I thought I'd see if it's normally before I run off to the doctors. Feeling very period-like today too?

 

[Margerle]

It's probably still lochia which is a type of discharge from inside your uterus, not your cervix, though your cervix can be making some too...

A really amazing thing happens to the inside of your uterus after you have a baby. Think about it... It's a big stretched out muscle with a huge gaping wound in it (where the placenta was attached). Now if your leg had that much exposed wound it would make a scab, then a thick scar right!?

Well your uterus CAN'T scar (under normal circumstances) because it's designed to carry a baby again. If after every pregnancy it scarred, the ability to carry another baby would be hindered. It would be harder for that area to stretch, and would be hard for implantation to occur on any of the scar tissue.

So your uterus makes a new lining! (That's where the lochia comes in.)

So post partum, you're trying to get the exposed wound to quit bleeding, the uterus to contract back to normal size, and the lining to renew itself for the next baby.

We have amazing bodies

If you are still producing milk, prolactin is a natural ovulation suppressant (kinda like progesterone was a 'milk' suppressant in pregnancy). Some women do not ovulate until they quit breastfeeding (though they MAY STILL have a period).

They say you can expect the first period from 6-9 weeks post partum if you aren't breastfeeding 'exclusively'. So I'm not sure where you will fall. With my first I got a period 4-6 weeks after birth though it probably wasn't fertile (didn't matter to me at the time, I wasn't with the father anymore).

I'm feeling the twinges of 'fertility cycle too', I do keep track of my fertility via natural methods (cervical position and mucous) and so I've been noting those things for the last week. I did have a "maybe ovulation' day about a week or so ago, and my period would be falling in the next few days if I'm still regular (I was with the first baby). We'll see if I just 'almost' ovulated or if I actually did

 

[missjess]

I've been having lots of discharge too but after i've had my period (like the last few days)

 

[Holldoll]

I'm still bleeding and having lots of discharge, Toria, so I'm sure it's completely natural.

BTW Marge, how do you know so much about all this stuff?

 

[luckyme225]

I bled on and off with lots of discharge in between until about 7 weeks, it was a bummer.

 

[Deise]

I finally stopped bleeding just a week ago and then I had this almost black, tar like stuff come out the other day (TMI! Youshould have seen the look on my face!). Im starting to feel some commotion in my ovaries just today, so maybe something is happening since I was sort of breastfeeding all along..

 

[AquaDementia]

Your period is probably on its way Deise. After the dark discharge I got mine and it lasted only 4 days! Go figure.

 

[Margerle]

I'm still bleeding and having lots of discharge, Toria, so I'm sure it's completely natural.

BTW Marge, how do you know so much about all this stuff?

Well, I have always been extremely interested in human physiology and became an EMT in highschool. I worked in hospitals and nursing homes through college.

I was actually a biology major in college, before I decided to go into Economics halfway through. I had intended to be an OB but Econ tripped my trigger too .

I still have a deep fascination with the human body (especially reproductive/pregnancy/child) stuff. I had my first daughter when I was 21 and was in a position a lot of young women were in when things are happening to the body that are weird and amazing... so I asked lots of questions and talked to lots of people in the field.

Since the internet, it's been like going to school again. With this latest pregnancy I've been able to read loads of research articles that were just too hard to go to the library to look up. And with my limited background in biology and physiology, I can pretty well weed through the crazy answers that we sometimes find when we "google". For the most part Google is NOT our friend (when we're pregnant), but there is some wonderful and amazing information if you're able to discern the crap from the good stuff.

The sad part is, the good stuff is sometimes 'coded' in medical talk, and can be quite foreign to most people. When answering questions on here or commenting I try to decode the medical talk at the same time infoming about the terms and helping people understand the systems for themselves rather than just give a canned answer like most docs/medical people do.

It is a rare and wonderful thing to have a doc answer a question in detail without making you feel like a plebian - so if you have one that will talk to you and give you good answers - you keep them!

Anyway - that's the skinny on me

 

[ayshahudson]

It's normal hunny, i had it for about 15 days... it's really gross
I also feel like my period is on its way, but I've felt like that for 2 weeks now

 

[clairebear]

i love marges posts they explain everything xx