Pregnancy and birth put your body through something remarkable. Your uterus grows to roughly ten times its size to make room for your baby to grow. Birth triggers a hormonal shift that kicks off a whole set of recovery processes. Almost like magic, your uterus shrinks back to its original size over the first three to four weeks.

Right after birth you can already feel the uterus at the level of your navel. Its upper edge should sit about a finger's width lower each day than it did the day before. If you have a midwife during the postpartum weeks, she'll keep a close eye on this.

A belly massage can support your recovery from the very first day after birth, while also helping your digestion. It aids the flow of lochia, nourishes and firms your belly skin and abdominal muscles - and, as a good massage should, it relaxes and settles you.

The postpartum belly massage brings plenty of benefits:

• It's soothing and relaxing
• It stimulates digestion
• It supports recovery and wound healing
• It helps the lochia (postpartum bleeding) flow freely
• It firms the tissue and belly skin
• It settles you mentally

Ideally your partner, a friend or your midwife can spoil you. You can also massage yourself, for example right after a warm shower on still-damp skin. Or build the massage into your day as a daily moment of self-care.

Make sure you feel comfortable and can truly let go - a belly massage after birth is deeply intimate, and you're allowed to enjoy every bit of it. Sink into this moment of calm, and come to recognise and appreciate your beautiful mum-belly, where a life grew.

Tune into yourself. Let go of any ideas or images of how your belly is supposed to look after birth. We want to invite you to accept yourself and be grateful for what you've done. That can take a little practice, which only makes the result more worthwhile.

There's no right or wrong with a postpartum belly massage. All that matters is that you sense what feels pleasant and good to you right now. Start slow and careful - the uterus can be very sensitive to touch at first. So begin with gentle pressure, and build it up a little each day.

Reach for the Ingeborg Stadelmann postpartum belly massage oil. It's perfectly matched to what your belly and uterus need. Here's a great example of a postpartum belly massage. Just take from it whatever works for you.

For gentle care of your intimate area after birth, many midwives also recommend an intimate shower, which is especially kind to sensitive skin and can support the healing of birth injuries.

How long recovery takes varies from woman to woman, by the way. It depends on several factors, such as how you gave birth and the size of your baby. What matters is that your uterus gets a little smaller each day.