No doubt about it. Most US women, in today's managed labor craze, are victims of "medically mediated" fluid volume over load. Even healthy moms without any medications in labor, can be puffy after birth. Part of that pregancy weight gain is due to an increase in blood volume (for the plactenta etc.) Once the baby and placenta are gone, there is quite a bit more blood left for mom's heart to pump around. Some women's bodies seem to want to diminish the circulating blood volume very quickly after the birth. One quick way for the human body to lower blood volume is "third space" the fluid part into the tissues- leading to those puffy hands, feet and faces. Add to that all the Pitocin, extra IV fluids to attempt to counter act the drop in BP for the epidural, and the flush for the routine antibiotics (I won't even mention the IV fluid that regularly runs in "by mistake" at some hospitals because the LR/D5LR is not on a pump) and there are some very fluid logged mothers and babies. RPS is a great technique for anyone with edema:-) Charity, BSN RN *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html