Extended Lochia

Hi,
I bled for 8 weeks straight then stopped for a couple days then bled again for another week.My Doc wasn't concerned either.The bleeding is your uterus trying to close and heal. To much strain can cause you to bleed again or more heavily. try to take it easy, give your body time to heal. My daughter is 8 months now and i had my first period 2 weeks ago.=)

For my first, I bled for 3 months!! So the doctors will not care, it is not abnormal. For my second, I only bled for 7 weeks...
Hang in there - I know it is not fun!

I think I bled for about 6-8 weeks after I had my daughter two years ago. nothing heavy or painful and I had a vaginal birth. Mine just stopped on its own slowly, like a very long, extended period!
good luck, it is annoying and more than made up for the 9 months without a period.

My bleeding lasted well into the 3rd month after my son was born by c-section. It drove me nuts, but it got lighter and lighter, and my doc didn't have any problems with it. Take your iron!

mine lasted quite a while with both my girls. According to my midwife, if you have a nice high iron level going into your labor you won't bleed as long. Mine was high a while before the birth, but I still ended up bleeding a long time. Then again... ost of the time it was just spotting.

You might want to get your iron checked, especially if you are unnecessarily tired (a symptom of anemia). Or just load up on your iron-rich foods.

Also, take your iron-rich foods and supplements without calcium-rich things. Calcium blocks the uptake of iron. So have one and then wait a few hours before having the other.

If it continues to concern you, keep checking with your doctor. Personally, I had two normal vaginal deliveries and after the second one had bleeding for almost three months. My doctor also said this was not that unusual. My mom and I both tend to be "bleeders", so everybody is different. After my first, it wasn't long after the lochia stopped that I had my period back (at three months, while nursing, ARG!).

Lochia draining longer than 4 weeks is a sign of blood stasis in the uterus. Acupuncture and appropriate herbal medicine has a great track record for treating this successfully. (If left untreated, the lochia will stop eventually, but the underlying stagnation of blood will still be there, which could cause trouble for your future reproductive health.) Check out the acupuncturists in your area who specialize in women's health issues.

I did this with my second child, my doc gave me birth control pills to stop the bleeding. I am not sure how well they worked because shortly after starting the pills I got pregnant with baby number three. My two youngest are 14 months apart. It seems that before pregnancy stopped the bleeding the pills were doing a great job, but it has been five years and I don't recall exactly how well the pills worked, they certianly did not prevent me from getting pregnant LOL Ask your doctor if they might help you, there are some brands that are safe while breastfeeding.

A midwife who is looking at the whole person and situation would probably tell you that you are doing to much. You need to rest! That sounds crazy with a 4 and 2 year old, let alone a baby but try to rest as much as possible. Did you have a 6 week check up? That would be good to do just to make sure nothing is wrong.
Hope that helps! I have had 5 babies at home and they always harp on me about resting and usually if i am bleeding longer that is the advice i get!

I bled for about 8 weeks after giving birth. I too was concerned about the length, but at my 6 week post-partum checkup my doctor said that up to 10 weeks was normal, as long as the flow was slowing down. She said to come back in if I was still bleeding after 10 weeks or if the flow increased or got bright red again. Good luck!

I also have three children and with each I bled postpartem for longer than 2 months. This last baby I had it for over three months- very annoying! But not a health concern. It wasn't as heavy as in the beginning, and it did finally just taper off and stop on its own. On the plus side, my periods don't come back while I'm nursing, even after almost two years of nursing my latest little guy.
Good luck and congratulations!

I had bleeding for months after my daughter was born but I had a very invasive c-section. I believe the reason for my extended bleeding was because I have fibroids on my uterus. My Dr. wasn't concerned and said it was because of the fibroids...which are the cause of all of my 'female' problems :)

I had extended bleeding as well. My doc did an ultrasound and guess what? Some of the placenta was still inside. The doc gave me some pills, don't remember what they were now, and that cleared it up. Check in with your doctor.

I think with my first son, I bled for about six weeks after. They were fine with that and it stopped and I was fine.

Not sure if that helps or not...

-M

I had extended bleeding, too, after my first birth. It was that the placenta did not dispell all the way and I ended up having to get a dnc.