Let’s Chat About Hemorrhage

There are actually so many nuances to hemorrhages. Soooooo many. Everything from what type of hemorrhage it is to how fast of a bleed it is to what caused it. This wide range is really hard to cover in a single post on IG or TikTok.

But!! Let me just address a couple of nuances. Not all hemorrhages are caused by mismanagement, disruption to the laboring mom, or medications/supplements/etc used during pregnancy or labor. Sometimes they just happen.

And maybe that’s a bit shocking or a bit of a hot take. But sometimes they do just happen. Even in a freebirth with no one messing with mom.
Due to the fact that there can be a variety of hemorrhages there are then several ways that it can be addressed to slow it down and stop it. Does it all have to be strong medical drugs? No!! Chat with your provider! Most midwives are 100% okay with starting as low and slow and humanly possible. Many midwives carry herbs, tinctures, and even homeopathy to help.

And spoiler. There is not a one size fits all herb or tincture to solve all types of hemorrhage.

Reasons you might see a hemorrhage: length of labor (labors that have gone on for days and day have a greater likelihood of mom’s uterus being too tired to keep contracting after baby’s born to prevent a hemorrhage, but also labors that super short can also cause high blood loss), too many clots in the uterus causing it too not contract down (can happen for several reasons), bladder too full causing uterus to not contract down, use of certain herbs to try to jump start labor, use of certain medications to try to jump start labor or keep a labor going, mom having a blood clotting disorder, taking certain medications to manage certain pregnancy diagnosis, true shoulder dystocia whether medically managed or not, lights and sounds disruptive to mom’s labor flow after baby’s out, anything that disrupts mom’s oxytocin, and so on. Which for the record. If mom is concerned about whether her baby is okay or not after baby has been born that disrupts her oxytocin. And that can happen with or without medical providers around.

Chat with your provider to get on the same page with them about what they do, why, and what you want for your care.