bubble_chart Concept

Postpartum body pain refers to widespread pain after childbirth.

This condition is one of the common symptoms after childbirth, and ancient medical texts have extensively discussed it. Due to the changes in constitution after childbirth, this condition is characterized by a combination of deficiency and blood stasis. Therefore, it cannot be treated as a general miscellaneous disease, hence it is specifically listed for discussion.

bubble_chart Pattern Analysis

1. Blood Deficiency︰Generalized aching pain, stiff and inflexible joints, pale complexion, dizziness and blurred vision, severe palpitations, fatigue and lack of strength, profuse lochia that is pale and thin in quality, pale red tongue with thin white coating, weak and thready pulse. The presentation includes aching pain, stiff and inflexible joints, along with signs of blood deficiency (such as dizziness, blurred vision, severe palpitations, pale and thin lochia, pale tongue, weak pulse, etc.).
2. Blood Stasis︰Generalized pain, presenting as distending pain or pulling pain or stabbing pain, with a purplish complexion and dark lips, scanty lochia that is dark in color, sticky in texture, and containing clots, or accompanied by lower abdominal pain that is aggravated by pressure, slightly bluish tongue edges, thin and greasy tongue coating, and wiry and rough pulse. The pain manifests as distending pain or pulling pain or stabbing pain, accompanied by signs of blood stasis (such as purplish complexion and dark lips, sticky lochia with clots, bluish tongue edges, rough pulse, etc.). Therefore, in treatment, for blood deficiency, it is advisable to nourish blood, warm the meridians, and relieve pain, with the modified Chen Tong San (Pain-Relieving Powder) as the prescription; for blood stasis, it is advisable to invigorate the blood to unblock collaterals and stop pain, with the modified General Pain Stasis-Expelling Decoction as the prescription.
3. External Contractionwind-cold︰Generalized body pain, stiffness in the neck and back, aversion to cold with rigidity, reduced appetite, occasional cough with expectoration, decreased lochia, intermittent lower abdominal pain, pale tongue texture with thin moist coating, and floating tight pulse. After childbirth, the joints of the body are open, and blood vessels disperse, making it easy to be invaded by wind-cold if protection is inadequate. If wind-cold spreads through the meridians, generalized body pain may occur. Its characteristics include: body pain with lumbago, discomfort in the neck and back, wandering pain in cases of predominant wind pathogen, rigid body pain in cases of predominant cold pathogen, accompanied by aversion to cold and preference for covering with clothing, floating pulse, and thin white moist tongue coating. The treatment should focus on dispelling wind and dispersing cold, activating blood circulation, and warming the meridians. The recommended formula is Five Accumulations Powder, which is highly effective.

Postpartum body pain, avoid inducing sweating. Mistakenly inducing sweating can easily lead to twitching of the tendons and vessels, reversal cold of the hands and feet, or the development of other illnesses. Even if there is wind-cold or food injury (dyspepsia) that requires treatment with Five Accumulations Powder, it is essential to "reduce it by more than half and then stop," not to use the full dose, to prevent harming the body's vital energy.

bubble_chart Documentation

1. "Miscellaneous Syndrome Records": "Postpartum excessive blood loss leads to qi depletion due to blood consumption, failing to expel stasis, which instead multiple abscesses the meridians, blocking the joints. At this time, aversion to cold with fever, swelling or pain may occur. Physicians, unaware of the cause, generally attribute it to wind-cold stagnation. Medications are either for dispersing superficies or for promoting digestion, unaware that blood becomes more deficient due to dispersion, and qi becomes weaker due to digestion, leading to deteriorated pattern in various ways, and the tendency of disease becomes critical. Whenever I encounter this condition, I urgently administer Ten Major Tonics Decoction to greatly nourish qi and blood, ensuring the smooth flow of nutrient-defense qi within and outside the meridians, and the accumulated stasis in the meridians and collaterals naturally dissipates without the need for aggressive expulsion... If one only focuses on expelling stasis without addressing the root... there is no chance of survival... Neijing says: 'Yingqi does not follow, counterflows in the flesh.' Now, if stasis does not follow and blood counterflows in the striae and interstice, it is a clear sign that Yingqi does not follow, which is the definitive evidence of this syndrome."