The Appointment Is About You Too
By the time your six-week postnatal check arrives, there is a good chance you’ve got used to things that are still bothering you.
It might be a wrist that hurts every time you lift your baby. It might be something that started during pregnancy and never quite settled. Whatever it is, when something happens every day it can gradually fade into the background.
You adapt.
You get on with life.
Before long, you’re no longer thinking, “I should ask somebody about this.”
You’re simply managing it.
That is one of the reasons I think the six-week postnatal check matters.
It’s an opportunity to stop for a moment and think about your recovery.
By the time the appointment arrives, most conversations have been about your baby and the practicalities of caring for a newborn.
It’s hardly surprising that many women arrive at their own appointment and forget that it’s about them too.
The six-week check is one of the few opportunities to talk specifically about your recovery after pregnancy and birth.
So before you go, take a moment to think about yourself.
What’s still bothering you?
What have you adapted to?
What have you stopped mentioning?
Don’t Rely On Your Memory
One of the best pieces of advice I can give is to start a list before your appointment.
Keep a note on your phone and add to it whenever something occurs to you. If something has been bothering you for a few weeks, put it on the list.
Keep it simple.
Your job isn’t to work out what’s causing the problem before you arrive. If something is affecting you, it’s worth mentioning.
It might be a symptom that keeps appearing throughout the day. It might be something that started during pregnancy and never completely settled.
If it’s bothering you, put it on the list.
Talk To Someone Before You Go
It can also be helpful to have a conversation with your partner, a friend or somebody you trust before the appointment.
Sometimes another person notices things you’ve stopped paying attention to.
A partner might remind you that you’ve mentioned wrist pain every day for the last month. A friend may remember that you’ve been talking about your back since the baby was born.
When you’re caring for a newborn, it’s surprisingly easy to accept something as normal simply because you’ve been living with it for a while.
A conversation beforehand can help you arrive at the appointment with a clearer picture of what you actually want to discuss.
Start With What’s Bothering You
Women sometimes ask me what questions they should ask at their six-week check.
My answer is usually quite simple.
Start with what’s bothering you.
If something doesn’t feel right, affects your day-to-day life or has been sitting in the back of your mind for weeks, bring it up.
The appointment is there to discuss your recovery.
Whether it’s a symptom that started during pregnancy, a physical ache that’s affecting daily life or something that simply doesn’t feel right, it’s worth mentioning.
Sometimes You Don’t Notice Until Later
By the time women arrive at Mum & Baby Yoga, they’re often starting to move differently again.
We begin classes lying down and it’s surprising how often something that hadn’t seemed important suddenly gets their attention.
Perhaps it’s discomfort getting down onto the floor. Perhaps it’s a wrist that hurts every time they lift their baby. Sometimes it’s a problem that started during pregnancy and never completely settled.
It isn’t usually that these symptoms have appeared overnight.
More often, they’ve been pushed into the background whilst women focus on feeding, sleep, appointments and everything else that comes with caring for a newborn.
A few weeks later, when life feels slightly less frantic and they’re moving their body in a different way, they realise it’s still there.
The Six-Week Check Is A Checkpoint, Not A Finish Line
I think many women see the six-week check as a finish line.
The reality is that it’s a checkpoint.
It’s an opportunity to discuss how you’re recovering and whether you need any further support, but it doesn’t mean recovery is complete.
Pregnancy took months.
Birth happened.
Then life with a newborn began.
It’s not surprising that recovery doesn’t fit neatly into a six-week timeframe.
The appointment is there to check how things are progressing and whether you need any additional support, information or referrals.
A Final Thought
The six-week postnatal check isn’t about asking clever questions.
It’s about making sure the things that matter to you are discussed.
For many women, the appointment arrives at a point where life still feels quite new. It’s easy for your own recovery to slip down the priority list.
That’s why I think it helps to spend a little time beforehand thinking about yourself.
What’s still bothering you?
What hasn’t improved?
What have you adapted to?
The appointment may only last a short time, but it is one of the few opportunities where the focus should be on you as well as your baby.
And if you walk out of the appointment and realise a few weeks later that you’ve forgotten something, that doesn’t mean you’ve missed your chance to ask for help.
The six-week check is a checkpoint, not a finish line.
Pregnancy and postnatal yoga classes in E14, Canary Wharf, Isle of Dogs and surrounding East London areas.
Shar – E14YogaCoach
