What is your favorite method for soothing mom's peri area after delivery? (ie: ice pads, tea pads, sitz bath, etc)
Take a baby diaper and open one end and fill with ice (the diaper will absorb the melted ice water). Then take witch hazel pads and lay them over the top and place on the VJ. Ice packs for a min of 6-8 hours after birth! Oh and Dermaplast spray!!
Ice pads
Sitz baths are helpful. Ice packs right after birth. Unable to bend over right away. I worked Mother baby Home Care in the Bronx for 10 years. It was great.
I personally like to use ice, tuck’s pads and benzocaine spray, after they have been up and showered the sitz bath is a great addition. Keeping them medicated with the Tylenol and ibuprofen combination for the first 24/48 hours helps tremendously as well.
Start out with good hygiene post vaginal delivery. This would include frequent urination with “pericare” ( pericare bottle, filled with plain water at a comfortable temperature. Urinate frequently, utilizing pericare bottle to rinse perineal area carefully. Blot area dry with soft cloth or towelette. Apply clean peripad with urination as needed (as you would during your period), use pericare products such as witch hazel pads, dibucaine, hydrocortisone cream, dermablast, as ordered by MD. Keep area as clean and dry as possible. Nothing to be inserted vaginally, until after postpartum visit. No sitting in water until postpartum dr visit, except for using sitz bath. Ice is good for about 24 after delivery, then switch to heat.
I find that after a few ice pads after delivery, tucks and dibucaine work best. Our ice packs are “bend/twist to activate” chemically, only last a maybe 15 minutes, and are not absorbent. Tucks pads help shrink swelling, while dibucaine (Preparation H) ointment soothes/cools perineum for added relief. You take about 3 tucks pads and place along the peri pad, then squeeze a line of dibucaine (comes in a tube) along tucks pads. The tucks with dibucaine actually touch and stay on the perineum giving better relief and allow peri pad to absorb postpartum bleeding. We also offer lavender bath salts for a nice bath the next day after delivery and send some home with patient.
Sitz baths and ice packs
Ice pads
Two pads side by side, three tucks pads lined down the middle, and then sprayed with dermaplast. Then the ice pack goes on the outside of the disposable underwear.
