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Caring For a Mother During The Postpartum Phase Using Traditional Chinese Medicine
A sit directly affects the fetus’s growth and development,the goal during pregnancy is to support the health of the mother. In TCM, (traditional Chinese medicine), however, the maintenance of the health of the woman during the postpartum phase is also seriously considered and how well she receives care during this time will oftentimes determine her state of health in the future. Basically, older women have a more difficult time recovering from the effects of pregnancy, labor, and delivery compared to younger women although certain factors such as the constitutional strength of the woman, her state of health prior to conception and how well she cares for herself during the pregnancy can also determine how well she handles her pregnancy labor, and childbirth.
The postpartum phase, in Chinese medicine, includes the four months after labor and delivery, and the most important time to take special care is the first month. Only after the fourth month post-delivery that blood and yin are deemed to be full once more and the Chong mai, Ren, and the womb fully recovered. What can be expected to occur are occasional tendencies to imbalance, which can be mild or serious, short or long term and can especially manifest especially when postpartum conditions occur.
Considerations During Postpartum Diagnostic
Main postpartum imbalances:
• Blood stasis in the lower burner
• Uterus invaded by pathogenic cold
• Blood and yin deficiency
• Abdomen/Spleen deficiency
• Blood and Qi deficiency
Inorder to nourish the developing fetus and the placenta, the blood volume of a woman will almost double during pregnancy. The loss of blood and the effort exerted during delivery further exhaust the blood and qi of the mother. And since breast milk is produced from the same substrate as blood, breastfeeding can be equated as a continuous loss of blood. Because of all these, women during the postpartum phase are usually deficient in blood and qi. As a result,the spleen is constantly taxed (albeit temporarily) by the body’s constant demand for blood, leading to probable low production of milk, poor appetite, and poor digestion. One common symptom of Heart blood and Spleen qi deficiency is difficulty falling asleep resulting in sleep deprivation and fatigue, which in turn, can lead to postpartum depression. Hence, the need to tonify blood and qi with herbs and food and give support to the middle burner is very much recommended.
Yin deficiency is usually accompanied by Blood deficiency. Again, because of the huge demand of Liver blood and Kidney yin needed for the development of the fetus, mothers,after delivery, are usually severely deficient. This is especially true in the case of older women more so if they had problems conceiving because of issues related to kidney deficiency or poor egg quality, and those who used conception therapies such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF). Other possible issues related to yin deficiency include the inability to easily go back to sleep, insomnia with walking, profuse night sweating, and dry constipation. Yin and/or Blood deficiency may also cause anxiety, rashes, dizziness, headaches, and excessive loss of hair.
After labor and childbirth, the uterus or womb becomes blood deficient. The energy pathways known as meridians and the collaterals that pass through the uterus and lower stomach are open and left empty, which makes them prone to pathogenic cold infiltration. To prevent this from occurring, one should avoid environmental cold and wind, and foods that are cold in nature or temperature. Scanty bleeding with clotting, retention of the lochia, and stomach pain associated with blood stasis may develop due to the cold invading the uterus. Mania and extreme postpartum depression may happen from blood stasis in the uterus disrupting the Heart.
Healthy Tips for Postpartum Moms
A lot of easy and healthy tips can help mothers get back their balance and health during the postpartum phase. This phase is deemed by Chinese medicine to be a very critical part in a woman’s life and so giving time to nourish and care for one’s health post childbirth can greatly and directly affect the future of her health and well-being.
1) After delivery, a woman’s digestion tends to be become pretty weak, and due to the body’s huge demand for nutritious food in order to produce new blood and create breast milk, foods that are easy to digest, nourishing, and warm are very much recommended. Traditionally, the emphasis is on warm soups. The things that should be avoided are drinks, foods, or herbs that are either energetic in nature or cold in temperature. Fresh ginger root in small amounts used as a tea or mixed into soups can be very beneficial.
2) During the postpartum phase, it is very important for women to get lots of nourishment and rest. In several cultures around the world, a woman is given a specific rest period of about 40 days or 28 days in a moon cycle. When they start to feel stronger andin order to help improve the flow of blood and qi in their body, women should try to find time for walking or other moderate activity.
3) Moxibustion– This is a very effective TCM treatment designed to warm the uterine collaterals and the uterus. Moxibustion has proven to work extremely well for stimulating milk production, reducing the uterus back to its normal size, drying up the lochia, and treating or preventing hemorrhage. The life gate (Mignmen) opens during childbirth, allowing the infant to pass. The Mingmen then must close after delivery and get back its strength or else the Kidney qi will become deficient for a long period of time.
During a moxibustion procedure, a moxa plant is burned over the lower back or lower stomach for twenty to thirty minutes until a feeling of deep warmth penetrates the site of the treatment. The treatment is usually extremely revitalizing and relaxing and can be repeated several times, if so desired. It helps a lot if the partner or family member of the woman learns and administers moxibustion treatment on her at home.
4) In order to allow the pelvic tissues to renew and completely heal and to prevent uterine prolapse, heavy lifting should be avoided for the first four months. One should not resume heavy physical exercise or work until the fourth or fifth month after childbirth.
Herbal Prescription for Breastfeeding Mothers
The most important thing to remember is that when giving herbs to breastfeeding mothers, some of the herb constituents will also reach the baby via breastfeeding; therefore, caution should always be used. There may be a few exceptions, but the overall rule is to select herbal remedies that are considered neither too cold nor too hot, and neither too difficult to digest nor too drying. Qi depleting herbs should never be used. These include blood regulating and strong qi herbs, diaphoretics, and purgatives. Although this information can result in the limited use of herbs, all in all herbs are still extremely helpful, especially blood tonic and general qi formulas.
A mother with an emergent problem that requires the prescription of western drugs is an exception to this rule. In the case of mastitis, for example, the doctor will usually prescribe antibiotics, and Chinese herbs may hinder the need for such cold medications. If the use of antibiotics is required, herbs used as adjunct can prevent the need for high doses or long term use of the antibiotics.
The best guidelines for treating a breastfeeding woman are good diagnostics and plain old common sense. Make sure to use care with cloying herbs and support the middle burner if the woman suffers from blood and qi deficiency. If she suffers from blood and yin deficiency, do not use herbs that are too dry or warm in nature or ascending herbs. If she shows signs of stagnation due to cold, dispel cold gently and give her warmth, and stay away from cloying or cold substances. It’s always good to tonify any deficiencies as they usually are the underlying cause of various problems.
Some Facts about Autism
People with autism suffer from a developmental disability that impairs their abilities and intrinsic behavior. Autism severely degrades a person’s behavior, ability to communicate, social dynamics, and cognitive abilities. In fact, the person’s perceptive power is also affected. This is a condition in which a child is unable to respond to social or environmental conditions.
People with autism tend to interact and view the world in their own way; unfortunately, they usually are not able to share their experiences with others because of the handicap of not being able to express it in a comprehensible manner. Autistic people may experience under- or over-sensitivity to things and sensations such as colors, light, smells, tastes, touch, or sounds. The most common form of autism is ASD or Autism Spectrum Disorder, which covers an entire gamut of conditions categorized as pervasive developmental disorders. One of the more common forms of ASD is Asperger Syndrome. This syndrome tends to affect people of average or above average intelligence and these people view the world in an unconventional way. They have extreme difficulty following or adopting to a society’s accepted behavior and have serious problems communicating or speaking. Because of this, these individuals and their families usually require medical help and support to remedy problematic conditions and behavior.
Impaired social interaction is the primary aspect of ASD. Autistic people usually find it hard to control areas of interest or their activities or have difficulty interacting with peer-groups. Under different circumstances, sufferers show different types of behavior and behave in a variable way. Very young autistic children display no or very little response to stimuli. An ASD-suffering child in early stages of development may seem to develop normally, but little by little, the child will slowly withdraw itself from social interactions. These children tend to avoid eye contact with other people. A lot of ASD-stricken children have the tendency to perform certain repetitive movements, such as head-flipping, head rolling, etc. Some of them have seems to have a difficult time falling asleep and this makes their condition even much worse. These traits severely limit their capacity to focus on social activities such as games, symbols, and languages, which lowers their overall quality of life and impairs their performance.
ASD sufferers have been observed to suffer from co-occurring conditions, including ADD (attention deficit disorder), Tourette syndrome, epileptic seizures, tuberous sclerosis, and Fragile X syndrome (a condition causing mental retardation). By the time they reach adulthood, epilepsy can also be seen in about 20% – 30% of ASD-stricken children. Autistic children have been also known to feel more separated than their non-autistic peers. Autism is indeed a huge problem that hinders the normal development and growth of a person.
According to the NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health), on average, ASD has been seen in one in every 88 children eight-year old children. Other stats show that boys (1 in 53) are five times more likely to develop ASD (1 in 251) and other forms of autism than girls. These stats may be in fact, even higher since in certain cases, physicians tend to misread the symptoms associated with Asperger syndrome and other forms of autism.
Medical researchers and neurologists still do not know what causes ASD. They are trying to see if there is a genetic connection to the disorder.
Current modes of treatment, although slow to achieve positive changes to conditions and behavior related to autism, have had a great impact on the symptoms of the disorder. These modalities usually integrate multidisciplinary approaches including occupational therapy, social skills therapy, language and speech therapy, structured teaching, developmental models, and ABA (applied behavior analysis). They are all designed to uplift the conditions of the autistic person; unfortunately, these approaches have their own limitations and usually do not achieve the desired outcomes, which is to eradicate the symptoms. Drug treatments are also given to autistic people, but studies show that they have very little effect on the condition. It seems that at this present time there is unfortunately no way of curing and relieving the effects of autism. There have been cures but those are rare occurrences; not all is bad news though, since there have been a few who recovered over the course of time.