Many women remember that after giving birth they were invaded by uncontrollable tremors or chills. Those tremors after childbirth that are related to the pale skin of the moment and that are phenomena of variable duration (a few minutes or a few hours) are perfectly normal.
They do not represent a bigger problem than not being able to control these small seizures, or any complications. There are several physiological mechanisms that try to explain these phenomena:
- The decrease in blood supply at the peripheral level produced during childbirth, which causes paleness and cold and tries to compensate with tremor.
- If received epidural anesthesia, hypotension (lowering of blood pressure) may occur, which would also cause tremors.
- The bleeding vessels of the deciduous or spongy mucosa of the uterus, which are entry doors for germs, that cause a bacteraemia that is accompanied by tremors and chills.
- The passage to the bloodstream of trophoblastic tissue (which helps the embryo to adhere to the uterus) and fetal blood cause tremors and chills.
- It is also possible that tremors are favored because microembolisms of amniotic fluid occur.
I can say that in my two births I received epidural anesthesia, however only in the first I felt those strong tremors. For more blankets that I put on in the two hours after delivery, I kept feeling cold and trembling. However, in my second birth I have not had tremors. It could be because the dose of anesthesia for my first delivery was much higher at the end of caesarean section.
In any case, these tremors and chills that many women have immediately after giving birth They are normal and pass by themselves within a few hours, without interfering in contact with our baby, which we can take and breastfeed in the first few hours. What we can do in the meantime is to cover ourselves with blankets to reduce those tremors.
