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Dedicated to Women's Health |
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Congratulations on the birth of your baby! We hope the following information will be helpful to you. No heavy lifting (over 15 pounds) for one to two weeks. You may go upstairs, slowly for the first few days, then regularly thereafter. You may take tub baths after the first week. You may drive a car in one to two weeks (use your judgment). Clean your perineum with soap and water for ten days. Sitz baths are fine. You
may resume intercourse Tylenol or Motrin should be adequate for pain. If something stronger is required, we will write you a prescription prior to your discharge. Please call the office if you experience prolonged, heavy vaginal bleeding, temperature greater than 101 degrees or if you develop prolonged, severe abdominal pain. If you are going to breastfeed, please continue taking your prenatal vitamins as long as you are breastfeeding. If you are not breastfeeding, please continue the vitamins for six weeks. You may also need to take additional iron pills for the next four to six weeks. We will let you know prior to your discharge. Please make sure you use adequate birth control once you resume sex. It is possible to become pregnant before you get your first period. If you are going to take birth control pills, please start them the third Sunday after your delivery. Take the pills about the same time everyday. Use condoms or some other back-up method for the first month of pills. Expect some irregular bleeding or irregular periods for the first two to three months of the pills. If you are going to get the Depo-provera injection, you can make an appointment at the office three weeks after delivery to receive the shot. If you want to use a diaphragm or get an IUD, it can be placed six weeks after delivery. We would like to see you for a postpartum exam between four and six weeks. Please call the office in the next week to schedule that appointment. No heavy lifting (over 15 lbs) for four weeks. You may go upstairs, slowly and infrequently for one week. You may take tub baths three weeks after delivery. You may drive a car in two to three weeks (use your judgment). No douching, tampons or intercourse until your check-up. You may get the incision wet but do not scrub the area. If staples were used, they may be removed prior to your discharge or we may have you return to the office one week after delivery for removal. If you have pieces of tape across your incision, please remove them seven days after your delivery. It helps to soak them with soap in the shower on the seventh day, and then pull them off (it may hurt a little). Please call the office if you experience prolonged, heavy vaginal bleeding, a temperature greater than 101 degrees or if you develop prolonged, severe abdominal pain. If you are going to breastfeed, please continue taking your prenatal vitamins as long as you are breastfeeding. If you are not breastfeeding, please continue the vitamins for six weeks. You may also need to take additional iron pills for the next four to six weeks. We will let you know prior to your discharge. You will receive a prescription for pain medicine. After three or four days, you should be taking Tylenol or Motrin for pain relief. Please make sure you use adequate birth control once you resume sex. It is possible to become pregnant before you get your first period. If you are going to take birth control pills, please start them the third Sunday after your delivery. Take the pills about the same time everyday. Use condoms or some other back-up method for the first month of pills. Expect some irregular bleeding or irregular periods for the first two to three months of the pills. If you are going to get Depo-provera injection, you can make an appointment at the office three weeks after delivery to receive the shot. If you want to use a diaphragm or get an IUD, it can be placed six weeks after delivery. We would like to see you for a postpartum exam in three to four weeks. Please call the office in the next week to schedule that appointment. If your baby is a boy, you (as parents) will need to decide if you would like to have him circumcised. In the past, the procedure has been considered routine and most parents haven’t given it much thought. We are now recognizing that it is not necessary and in fact is considered cosmetic surgery. At the present time, the American College of Pediatrics is not recommending the routine circumcision of male infants. Today, with the exception of American and Jewish people, male infants are not routinely circumcised. In fact, every year less American infants undergo this procedure. Circumcision involves the removal of the foreskin. The foreskin covers the end of the penis, called the glans. After identifying the foreskin tissue to be removed, a Gomco clamp is placed and the skin is removed with a scalpel. There are no sutures used – pressure is applied with the clamp which prevents bleeding. There are not lines identifying the amount of foreskin to be removed. We do our best to remove the appropriate amount but it is better to err on the side of not quite enough skin instead of too much skin. Removal of too much can lead to scarring and curvature of the penis later in life. Removal of “not quite enough” foreskin is usually remedied when the boy reaches adolescence and the shaft of the penis lengthens and the glans grows, i.e. he “grows into” his circumcision. There are some conditions in which is recommended that the procedure not be performed. If that is the case, we will discuss this with you. When we perform a circumcision, the baby receives a sugary solution through a syringe before and while the procedure is being performed. This is felt to cause the release of endogenous endorphins (chemicals released internally by the baby – similar to morphine – that help to decrease the sensation of pain). In addition, the baby receives a dose of Tylenol following the procedure. The procedure generally takes only a minute or two to perform and the baby stops crying afterwards. After we have completed the procedure, we either place a small amount of A&D ointment to the end of the penis OR a gauze pad soaked in ointment is wrapped around the end of the penis. If just ointment is used, it needs to be reapplied with every or every other diaper change for the next several days. If a gauze strip is used, it is removed after 24 hours and then ointment is applied. It doesn’t matter what type of ointment is used - Vaseline, petroleum jelly, A & D ointment, Neosporin, Bacitracin, etc. but apply it liberally so the end of the penis does not stick to the diaper. The end of the penis will look red and swollen for several days. Continue applying the ointment until the end of the penis is healed. Occasionally, the edges of the remaining skin can work its way up the glans. Please make a point of pushing the skin edge down over the glans – so it looks somewhat like a mushroom cap. After 3 or 4 days it is not unusual to see some discharge around the end of the penis. Using a cotton ball soaked in warm water, wipe the discharge off. You
will also be placing alcohol on the baby’s belly button with each diaper
change. Please, DO NOT GET ANY ALCOHOL on the baby’s penis and TRY TO KEEP
THE OINTMENT OFF OF HIS BELLY BUTTON. You can’t give the baby a bath until
the cord stump falls off and the penis is healed by then. If you have any
further questions, please ask us before the circumcision. |
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Dundalk ● Baltimore ● Catonsville | Tel. 410-633-6300 | info@hoffmanobgyn.com |
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