First AF after baby...PLEASE HELP!!!

I remember my first cramps after my son was born. It was horrible! You can take acetaminophen to ease the pain, rest and a hot water bottle help, too. I will warn you though, after my baby, all of my periods were super painful. They are supposed to get better, but they didn´t (although I did get pregnant 6 months later, so maybe it just takes longer). I hope you feel better soon.

Ugh. When I was pregant with my first baby, my friend told me her first period after her child was horrible. I didn't believe her until I experienced it and OMG...I thought I was going to die. I read that one of your readers suggested a heating bag or pack, great idea. Just do whatever your body craves, I've found that to be a good rule of thumb. Congrats with your baby.

I'm still BFing so haven't had one yet. Actually I've only had 6 or 7 since July 2004 (in between my last two pregnancies). The first day of mine have never been comfortable but I don't remember anything particularly bad about the first one after the babies were born. All I usually did was take some pain meds, Motrin works best for me and use a heating pad. I know I've always heard to stay hydrated and avoid salt and caffeine during AF. I can't say that any of that helped me much though, the first day pretty much kept me in bed no matter what I did. My OB/GN wants me to start using Mirena because that usually gets rid of AF together but everything I've read says that it can affect BFing so I'm waiting for now. Even once I'm done though I'm still not sure about using it since I've also heard it can make AF worse at first. Mine are bad enough as it was, I don't want to make them worse. And to answer your question about them being as bad as labor pains...I've had them so bad I wished I WAS in labor so yes they can be that bad and worse! I'm really not looking forward to mine finally starting again. If I had the money and there were no other issues I can honestly say I'd rather spend from now until menopause having babies and BFing just to keep AF away!

Hi there. I just finished my first AF since having my son in January. It was aweful! I thought it was never going to end. It lasted 15 days and was very heavy bleeding. Some of the cramps did feel like labor pains. Best thing to do is take midol and drink lots of water. Try to get more rest too! Good luck.. it will go away!