Caring for Your Baby: The First 24 Hours

Nauseous

During delivery, some blood and mucus may enter your baby’s stomach. This can cause your baby to feel nauseous the first day after delivery. Your baby’s spit-up is often brown.

Don’t be alarmed if your baby has to gag or spit up. Turn your baby on his or her side or hold your baby upright.

Pooping and peeing

Your baby should have urinated within 1 day. Your baby should also have pooped within 2 days of birth.
Your baby’s first stool may be green or black and sticky. This is normal.
Change your baby before feeding.
Write down for the maternity nurse when your baby has urinated or pooped.
Girls can sometimes lose some blood due to the mother’s hormones. This is normal and will go away on its own.

To sleep

Place your baby on their back to sleep. This is the safest sleeping position for your baby.
Do not let your baby sleep on their stomach. Sleeping on the stomach increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Regularly change your baby’s head position during sleep. This prevents your baby from developing a preferred head position.
Make your baby’s bed as snug and small as possible. Place your baby at the foot of the bed, positioned low, to prevent them from sliding under the bedding.
Do not use a duvet. Instead, use a woolen blanket if necessary.

Power supply

The baby still has reserves from the womb in the first 24 hours after birth. These can be used if the baby is extremely nauseous and does not want to drink at all. However, we advise to always try to get the baby to eat.

Try to feed the baby every 3 to 4 hours, even at night
with breastfeeding this is 2 breasts about 15 minutes per breast. (If it doesn’t work, practice with your little finger beforehand, sometimes babies forget how to suck)
with artificial feeding this is 10cc per feeding for the first 24 hours. (Prepare the food by first putting 30cc of water in the bottle and then adding 1 level scoop of baby food and stirring, throw away until you have 10cc left)

If you cannot figure it out, call the maternity nurse. After 5:00 PM, call the midwife.

Temperature

Your baby’s temperature should be between 36.5 and 37.5 degrees. Hands and feet often feel a bit colder. This does not mean that your baby is cold.

Measure your baby’s temperature 2 to 3 times a day for the first 3 days. Measure your baby’s temperature with a thermometer in the anus. The maternity care can help you with this.
Do not put a hot water bottle in your baby’s crib. If you still want to use a hot water bottle, discuss this with the doctor, midwife or maternity nurse.
Make sure the temperature of the baby’s room is about 18 degrees. Beware of drafts.
There are several things you can do if your baby has a high or low temperature. The table shows what you can do.
First try 1 thing from the table. And after 1 hour measure your baby’s temperature again. Then you can try 1 thing again.
If your baby’s temperature remains too high or too low after 2 attempts, contact your midwife.

Your baby is less than 36.5 degrees	Your baby is over 37.5 degrees
Put down an extra blanket	Take away a blanket
Put on extra clothes	Take off clothes
Put on a hat or put on an extra hat	Take off your hat
Feeding your baby
Place your baby with bare skin on your own skin and cover him with a blanket. Make sure that your baby’s face always remains visible.

After giving birth with a pump

If the doctor used a vacuum pump or forceps during delivery, your baby may have a headache and feel nauseous.
Give your baby as much rest as possible.
Provide a quiet environment during feeding and changing.
Don’t have too many visitors.

Care for the mother after childbirth

Plaza Life

After giving birth, you will usually bleed. When the uterus contracts, the bleeding stops. With an empty bladder, the uterus can contract better. Therefore, try to urinate every 3 to 4 hours.
Rinse your vagina with lukewarm water after urinating, for example with a bottle or water bottle. This reduces the chance of an infection. It can also help with a burning sensation when urinating.

Rest

The postpartum period can be tough: your body is recovering from pregnancy and childbirth, you sleep less, and you often have a lot of visitors. This can make you quickly tired, forgetful or sad. Try to rest in bed for a few hours every afternoon. Also try to go to bed on time in the evening.

Stitches

After giving birth, the skin between the vagina and anus is usually thick and sensitive. If you have stitches, you may have more pain.

Try to sit on something hard, like a hard chair, a few times a day. This will prevent the skin from getting thicker.
You can cool the skin with an ice pack. For example, by putting wet maternity pads in the freezer, in a plastic bag. If the maternity pads are frozen, wrap them in a washcloth or towel.
Rinse your vagina every day while showering. This reduces the risk of infection.
If a wound is not covered, it can heal faster. It can therefore be nice to sometimes lie completely naked in bed or on a mat.
The stitches will dissolve on their own. This will take a few weeks.
If you feel that your stitches are pulling, the midwife can remove the stitches after 5 to 7 days.

Aftereffects

After giving birth, you may experience afterpains. You may experience afterpains when your uterus shrinks.
Usually, after 2 days you will hardly experience any afterpains.

Blood loss

After giving birth, you will lose a lot of blood. About as much as your heavy menstrual period.
You will lose blood for about 6 weeks. During these 6 weeks you will lose less and less blood.
Use maternity pads for the first few days. These are a type of extra large sanitary pad.
Do not use tampons.
The first day you will lose the most blood. The colour of your blood will be red. Change your maternity pad every 2 to 3 hours.
After a few days you will lose less blood. The color of your blood will change from red to brown.
The first few days you may also lose clots of blood. You will often see 1 or 2 large clots in the maternity pad. This is normal. Do you see clots in the maternity pad more often? Then call the midwife.
You may shower. Do not take a bath or swim until you have stopped bleeding.
Wait to have sex until you have stopped bleeding.

Caesarean section

If you had a caesarean section, take it easy for the first 6 weeks. Do not lift more than 5 kilos. Your abdominal muscles need to rest.
Make sure someone can help you at home. For example, with cleaning or shopping.

Food and drinks

Drink at least 2 liters of water every day.
After giving birth, it may take a few days before you have a bowel movement. This is normal.
Eat lots of fibres such as brown bread. This will make your stool softer.
Try to eat different things. This way you get all the nutrients.
When you are breastfeeding, it is important that you eat more than usual. Eat about 500 calories more per day than you are used to.
If you are breastfeeding, take 5 micrograms of vitamin D every day. You can take vitamin D as tablets or as drops.

Call your midwife immediately if you have the following complaints

You are losing a lot of blood and it won’t stop. You are losing more blood than you are used to when you are menstruating.
You have abdominal pain that does not go away or stop.
You have a fever of more than 38 degrees.
Your discharge smells.
Your stitches continue to hurt.

Why digital care?

In your digital care file you will find additional digital instructions that can help you during the maternity period. We understand that sometimes you have questions in the evening or at night and that there is not always someone available immediately. With this digital information you have access to useful tips and answers to frequently asked questions about caring for yourself and your baby at any time.
Do you want to use this? Please indicate this during the intake or send us an email, and we will arrange access for you.

Caring for Your Baby: The First 24 Hours