'Vagina ice pops': New father recommends frozen condoms to ease mother's pain after childbirth

Postpartum pain can be horrendous for some women

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Post-birth pain is not something people talk about often, but many mothers will be be able to testify to its existence.

After labour, most women experience pain, swelling and soreness of their vaginas, which is highly uncomfortable to say the least.

However one man has shared an inventive solution that eases his wife’s pain: essentially, vagina ice pops.

Writing on DAD, new father Martin Wanless explains how he fills condoms with water and freezes them before giving them to his wife.

“Filled with water and frozen, they’re the perfect shape to rest in between new mum’s legs and ease a bit of pain and swelling,” he explains.

It wasn’t actually Wanless’ idea though: “Don’t believe me? This is actually a thing. Shortly after giving birth in hospital, my wife was taken to a fridge full of frozen condoms,” he says.

The technique may sound strange, but many new mothers swear by it.

Certified nurse-midwife from Virginia, Katie Page, for example, recommends frozen condoms for easing postpartum pain too: “Fill up a condom with water, tie the end and freeze it to make a tube of ice. Wrap it in a clean, cotton T-shirt.

“It fits really nicely against the perineum,” she says.

As well as stocking up on condoms - albeit not for their original usage - Wanless recommends dads invest in a piles cushion (“essentially a rubber ring”), a breast pump and bath salts for their partners.

For her part, Page suggests new mothers sit in baths with added herbs or oatmeal, put soaked black tea bags in their knickers and dab sensitive spots with a medicated witch hazel cooling pad to ease pain.