I kid you not, peeing after baby was the single worst thing about postpartum recovery for me.
If you’ve come upon this post in a desperate search (painful urination postpartum perhaps?) well, I’m guessing it’s not all fun and games for you either. Postpartum recovery is hard in general, and sometimes it seems like peeing is the hardest.
I swore that when I was all recovered and back at blogging, I would write the helpful postpartum stuff I couldn’t find online anywhere while I was healing and googling.
Related: How to Heal Faster Postpartum
Related: The Complete Postpartum Care Kit Checklist
Googling things like how to pee postpartum without crying (or feeling like you’d rather give birth all over again), and how to pee after giving birth with stitches.
12 times per day.
Because you are drinking enough water to sink a ship. Because you are trying to make breast milk. Even though you don’t want to… because it will make you have to pee. And peeing makes you cry.
Let’s face it… the postpartum period is unlike anything else you’ve ever been through before. It is glorious and amazing – you finally have your baby and you are totally in love. And it is overwhelming. It is messy. You have open wounds. You feel like @#$%.
No? Just me?
(I didn’t have terrible awful damage either – I did get stitches two days after delivering when everything had already started to heal a bit, and I think that made it all a little worse.)
You’ve got your peri bottle, and you’re being a good girl and using it every time you pee – right? If you’re a lucky lady, the peri bottle alone might be enough to get you through those trips to the potty.
But that thing didn’t help me one bit and if anything it hurt worse than the peeing. I HATED that bottle. I used it – being sure to keep everything rinsed clean helps to prevent infection – but I HATED it.
Take heart- each day that goes by is a day closer to throwing the peri bottle in the garbage and taking pain-free-peeing for granted once again.
Even if this tip doesn’t help you out, at least I can commiserate with you on this, and it’s always good to know you’re not alone – right?
Related: 8 Things that Totally Shocked Me About Postpartum Recovery
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How to pee postpartum (with minimal pain)
I tried all. the. ways. to pee that I could think of. I even tried peeing in a bathtub with a few inches of water in it to TOTALLY water down the pee. Which didn’t help one bit. (If you’re judging me for how gross that is, you’re not in nearly enough pain to be reading about how to pee better after giving birth.)
(I know some women have had success using a spray like this to numb the area a little before peeing, but this stuff isn’t available in our area and I figured by the time Amazon delivered it to me, I would be mostly healed.)
It took me a few days to find the thing that did work – you can do this RIGHT NOW if you’re having a lot of pain while peeing after giving birth:
Sit a little further back on the toilet, and lean ALL THE WAY FORWARD (I seriously rested my forearms on the ground but if you aren’t that acrobatic, a low stool placed in front of you might be helpful ) – so your bum is up in the air and the pee is falling forward and down instead of running over your body.
If you’re still a little shaky from delivery, standing up in the bathtub so the pee falls STRAIGHT down works pretty good too.
Basically, don’t let the pee touch you.
You’d think this would be easy to come up with, but my brain was full and I’m just sharing in case yours is too. Maybe it was the drugs, but it took me DAYS of crying while I peed to finally give this a try. Or maybe it’s the fact that we generally don’t have to try to think of ways to prevent pee from touching us.
Either way, this made a huge difference for me!
And how long does it sting to pee after giving birth?
I know you’re wondering when this will end – so let me assure you, it does end. For me, after the birth of my first, it was terribly painful to pee postpartum for a full two weeks. (Sorry that’s not great news!) After the birth of my second, it only hurt to pee for two days or so.
(If it still hurts to pee 2 weeks postpartum, it’s a VERY good idea to bring it up with your doctor and have him check you out.)
So – unfortunately, “how long does it hurt to pee after giving birth?” is one of those questions with no real solid answer because all situations are different. It’s definitely something you should ask your dr, because it really is related to how much damage you sustain downstairs, and how fast you heal postpartum.
If you have tears or stitches, it will hurt for longer. (Again, you can try something like this before peeing to see if it helps!)
If the pain starts getting WORSE as time passes, (or if you’re still searching “hurts to pee two weeks postpartum”) I would go directly to the dr. It never hurts to have a checkup, and this could be a sign that infection is brewing.
The end.
(You’re welcome.)
Did you find peeing after birth painful? Do you have any other tips for dealing with the pain of peeing postpartum?
Update – over the past 5 years, this has been one of the MOST POPULAR posts on this site. There are thousands and thousands of women every single day who are struggling with peeing after birth and how to pee after giving birth with stitches.
It seems like postpartum stinging while peeing is NORMAL – even if they don’t tell us about it before hand! (Maybe we wouldn’t sign up for childbirth if they did LOL.)
Related: How to Take An Effective Postpartum Sitz Bath
Related: Remember Mommy, This Too, Shall Pass
You might also like: The 7 Things I Regret Missing Out On In Baby’s First Year
I’m literally crying typing this because I just cannot tell you how thankful I am for stumbling upon your article. It got so bad for me that I ended up in the ER with them having to empty out my bladder with a catheter. That was NOT fun. Looks like I actually have a yeast infection and tore my urethra. But of course they don’t tell you these things besides, “it might sting a little when you pee.” Uhhhh I wish it just “stung.” Anyway, this needs to be taught at all hospitals. Thank you for the suggestion I would’ve never thought about this even though I tried everything else you could possibly imagine. Xoxo
I had the same problem where peeing was just excruciatingly painful…I actually had a few anxiety attacks over it and was just so frustrated. Absolutely nothing worked but I came up with an idea. It’s going to sound weird but this was my lifesaver! I decided to make a funnel with a plastic water bottle and I would put the small end right on my urethra and it worked almost zero pain. I would like to mention there was no damage to my urethra so that’s why it worked all the damage was around it and right next to it… also make sure you sanitize the bottle really well if you going to try it but really it was the best relief!
God Bless You !!! I just had a VBAC and had two tears: a second degree and a first degree and ohhh did it burn when I peed. Nothing helped and then I was so desperate that I searched online for any tipp that would help because that bottle didnt do anything for me either. I read the post and thought it would be impossible to work but the next time I used the washroom I gave it a try . I cried from happiness that it worked and now I can drink as much water as I want and dont need to dread using the washroom. I can go on and on but my point is … THANK YOU!!
Standing up in the tub to pee is what helped me! So much less painful that way.
I delivered and I tore both forward and backwards. I’ve been doing this peeing forward thing too… and I too did the trying to pee in the tub thing… so when I read that I didn’t feel as alone. Nobody will understand my amount of pain I thought. But clearly you did. Thank you so much.
Thank you. That is all I can say. Thank you.
You my friend are a genius. Thank you.