Sweating after childbirth

It happens that women begin to complain that they sweat after giving birth, although nothing like this has happened to them before. There is a reasonable explanation for this phenomenon, because the hormonal system has undergone serious changes and it will take some time to return to normal. Sometimes, not only hormonal imbalance causes increased sweating (hyperhidrosis), but other alarming symptoms that need to be dealt with are also connected. [1]

Causes of the sweating after childbirth

Pregnancy is accompanied by a sharp drop in the level of estrogen, the female sex hormone. After childbirth, there is a gradual return to the original state, which becomes the main cause of sweating. It takes on average from several weeks to two months to restore the hormonal background.

Another factor is fluid accumulation, which is common during pregnancy. During childbirth, the main volume of amniotic fluid departs, and water-salt metabolism is restored. Sweating is one of the mechanisms for getting rid of the remaining in the body.

After childbirth, women produce milk, at this time there is also a high level of the hormone prolactin, which contributes to increased secretion of sweat glands. During lactation, this lasts longer than in non-nursing mothers. [2]

Risk factors

Factors that increase sweating include the emotional stress associated with childbirth, the heavy physical exertion required to care for the baby, chronic sleep deprivation, and worries about the newborn.

Excess weight gained during pregnancy, depression often becomes a risk factor for increased sweating.

Pathogenesis

Sweating is a natural process of thermoregulation of the body, in which the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system plays the main role. It secretes neuromodulators, which, once on the sweat glands, trigger certain biochemical processes and signals that ensure the secretion of fluid.

To maintain its various functions, our body must be within the temperature range of 36.6º-37ºС. Blood enters the human skin, passing through numerous capillaries, cools and returns through the venous system to the vessels, the heart. This is made possible by perspiration.

Symptoms of the sweating after childbirth

After childbirth, a woman notices that she began to sweat more during the day, not only her armpits, but also her legs and head sweat. Sweating at night is especially alarming; she can wake up in completely wet pajamas. The first signs sometimes make themselves felt with chills, suddenly a wave of heat or cold rolls over.

Complications and consequences

Severe sweating after childbirth usually goes away on its own, when the organs and systems involved in childbearing return to their previous level. Hyperhidrosis can be a consequence and complication of infections, mastitis, inflammation of the uterus, postpartum depression.

Diagnostics of the sweating after childbirth

Usually, sweating after childbirth goes away on its own, but if after two months the symptoms do not disappear, you should consult a doctor. The presence of other manifestations, such as fever, fever, bloody vaginal discharge, hardening and soreness of the chest, excessive fatigue, pain and burning during urination, dizziness, fainting.

In this case, you will have to undergo a general therapeutic examination, pass general urine and blood tests, blood biochemistry, a vaginal smear for sowing at the gynecologist, and others, based on the doctor's assumptions.

Instrumental methods help to make an accurate diagnosis, in case of ailments and sweating after childbirth, these can be ultrasound, MRI, CT, radiography of various internal organs.

Differential diagnosis is carried out both between diagnoses related to the reproductive organ, mammary gland, urinary system, and the patient's psyche.

Treatment of the sweating after childbirth

There is no specific drug treatment for hyperhidrosis. Even those few drugs that can reduce sweating (sedatives, tranquilizers that reduce the activity of nerve fibers, botulinum toxin injections) are unacceptable for a nursing woman.

But what to do with severe sweating after childbirth, how to deal with it? There are a number of rules that will help you get through a difficult period. They are as follows:

• maintain a cool microclimate in the room, control humidity, ventilate, this will benefit not only the mother, but also the child;
• wear cotton underwear and use the same bedding;
• do not try to lose weight by depriving yourself of good nutrition;
• eat at least 4-5 times a day, using dietary products and methods of their preparation in the diet;
• drink plenty of fluids (up to 2 liters per day) to restore water balance;
• walk more in the fresh air, avoid stress, relax and get enough sleep;
• carry out regular hygiene.

Vitamins

In the diet of the mother in the postpartum period, you need to include foods rich in various vitamins and minerals, and for faster recovery, choose a vitamin complex with the help of a doctor, which would contain vitamins A, E, C, D, group B. A special role in the normalization of the nervous systems play vitamins B6, B12, as well as folic acid. The multivitamin complex Elevit Pronatal fully meets all the requirements for pregnant women and after childbirth.

Physiotherapy treatment

An effective physiotherapy method to overcome sweating after childbirth is a contrast shower, applied several times a day. The hardware includes iontophoresis, the action of which is based on the effect of a weak electric current on the sweat glands.

Alternative Treatment

Alternative methods of treating excessive sweating can come to the aid of a woman, from which one should choose safe ones for external use, because when taken orally, they get to the child with mother's milk and can harm.

To wipe sweating parts of the body use:

• soda solution;
• chamomile infusion with soda;
• a decoction of oak bark (a tablespoon of raw materials is poured with a glass of boiling water and infused for half an hour);
• field horsetail is combined with alcohol in a ratio of 1:10, placed for several days in a dark place. Before use, it is diluted in half with water;
• freshly brewed green tea;
• lemon (cut into slices).

Homeopathy

In the fight against sweating, homeopathy uses the method of influencing the sympathetic parts of the central nervous system responsible for the thermoregulation of the body, by bringing its reaction back to normal. Herbal extracts with a sedative, astringent effect are combined with mineral ingredients. Among them are Acidum fluoricum, Gepar-sulphur, Carbo anim, Pulsatilla, Silicia, Natrum muriaticum and others.

The appointment should be made by a homeopathic doctor, taking into account many individual factors, forms and manifestations of hyperhidrosis, as well as breastfeeding, if any.

Surgery

There is a surgical method for the treatment of hyperhidrosis - sympathectomy. Its essence is that under general anesthesia in the chest, a puncture is made in the armpit, where a tube with a video camera at the end is inserted. Through 2 other punctures, instruments are introduced, with the help of which the sympathetic trunk is crossed.

Other types of surgical treatment may be associated with underlying diseases, the consequences of which are excessive sweating.

Prevention

Moderate physical activity, plenty of air, positive emotions, good sleep, which other family members will help with, are the best preventive measures to help overcome a postpartum unpleasant symptom.

Forecast

For the most part, excessive sweating after childbirth disappears, the state of the body returns to its previous limits, stress decreases, life is systematized, if we are not talking about a serious diagnosis.