Thanks to the many who replied privately and to the list about the mom with
severe afterpains.

For the record it's worth noting that I got two different kinds of replies.

The ones to the list mostly said something like, "This level of discomfort
and duration sound abnormal -- send her to get checked for a placental
fragment."

This mom's milk is in OK and her lochia seems fine, so I tend to doubt that
she's retained a fragment, but I am no hcp and if she is still cramping badly
in another day or two I will certainly suggest she go back to that unhelpful
midwife.

However, NB that the *private* replies I got mostly said, "Oh, I have such
sympathy, that's exactly what happened to me, nobody ever believes it, it was
worse than labor and lasted two full weeks!   Tell her to crank a maximum
dose of ibuprofen around the clock!"

So it may be that more moms are having monster afterpains than we hear about,
especially folks in hospital practices, who don't seem moms past the first
couple of days

Finally, in addition to the reminders about ibuprofen (which had been my
first-line suggestion to the mother), Pat Gima suggested Ca-Mag, which I have
passed along, and someone else (Heidi?  sorry, forgot to note) suggested an
herbal solution -- she said "maybe cramp bark and arnica, any of our resident
herbalists know?"

So my f/u question is:  Anyone know about the helpfulness of cramp bark and
arnica here?   I know of homeopathic arnica -- are we talking herbal or
homeopathic here?   Comp medicine folks, can you help me out?

Thanks again to all for quick responses -- the mom feels a little relieved, I
think, just to know that a lot of people have heard of this and they all
think that lots of ibuprofen is fine :).

Elisheva

             ***********************************************
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