Women's Health · Updated June 15, 2026 · 7 Min Read

6 Months Postpartum And I Was 12 Lbs Heavier Than When I Was 9 Months Pregnant… But My Doctor Kept Telling Me It Was NORMAL. Thank God I Found The Truth.

By Heather Brianton

Former Cankles Owner

My Doctors Told Me It Would Be OK

Woman with a puffy, swollen face postpartum

Two weeks. That's what my doctor said at first. I'd start dropping the baby weight in about two weeks.

When that didn't happen, he said a month. He said breast feeding makes every mother lose weight, so I'd see a difference soon. But I GAINED weight and I was hungry 24/7.

And still the doctor didn’t care! He changed the timeline to three months. Then 6 months.

Then it was “some female bodies just take longer to bounce back”. It got to the point where if I heard him say the words “bounce back” one more time I was gonna strangle him.

My feelings were just brushed aside… he didn’t care that my weird new bloated, heavy body was seriously affecting my happiness… and not just happiness, my sense of self.

I felt HUGE, like some gross blob. I'd expected the swelling in my feet and legs, the edema to naturally fade away… but it just… didn't.

Was this just my new body now?

I didn't want to go out. I didn't want to be seen. My girlfriends had “bounced back” just fine postpartum… and I was hiding myself away more and more. My feet and ankles were always swollen, my belly felt full and bloated, and I was always constipated.

I felt like a failure… like my body didn't know how to recover and be a mom properly - the most basic thing every female body should automatically do.

Everybody knows your legs and feet swell when you're pregnant… my nickname for myself was “cankles”...

… but why did I still feel pregnant 6 months after the birth? A year?

I couldn’t even get my normal shoes on my fat feet. I’ve gained weight before but buying bigger shoes made me feel awful.

The Desperate Search To Find Myself Again

Belly wraps, binders and compression wear

Desperate is the right word. It felt like I was giving everything to the baby with no time to figure out my body. I felt carved out and hollow… It was affecting my day to day happiness.

My doctor just kept waving me away and saying my body knew what to do. Meanwhile I was a year postpartum and still 40 or 50 pounds heavier than before. I've never been skinny, but I was finding it harder and harder to look in the mirror.

It was like somebody swapped my old body for this new one with the fat legs and ankles and a belly that hung over my waistband. I was terrified that this was just my new reality.

Nobody ever told me how hard the postpartum phase would be.

What if I never found my old self again?

I tried everything the experts tell you to do:

The belly wraps, the binders, all the compression wear…

… I tried elevating my legs…

… I tried rebounding on one of those mini trampolines.

And of course I tried the obvious things like drinking more water and cutting salt from my diet.

I even tried the expensive recovery massages.

But what they don't tell you is that yes, it moves the fluid from your feet and legs, but all you're doing is shifting it around. Gravity makes it settle back into those same old places after.

I eventually did find something that would have made a huuuge difference if I’d known about it before… and probably the same for you.

What's Really Happening To Your Body - The Hidden Truth The Health Care System Didn't Tell You About Having A Baby

Diagram of the lymphatic drainage system

I became an obsessive Googler. There are a TON of things I can't believe doctors don't tell us when we're pregnant.

For example you know how breast feeding or pumping can make you emotional? It’s because of something called the Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex… It's your hormones and completely natural but they just don't tell us.

And also, when you're pregnant you release a hormone called Relaxin. This hormone softens every tissue in your body to help with birth. It should naturally flush out of your system a few weeks postpartum, but for a lot of women it actually takes 6 to 12 months.

The problem with that is that it makes your body look loose and swollen. Even if you get back down to your fighting weight, Relaxin means you'll always look puffy.

But the MAJOR thing they should tell you is WHY it’s so hard to drop the “baby weight.”

The actual answer is fluid retention due to your Lymphatic system.

We’ve all heard of Edema (and got the cankles to prove it)…

… but did you know your body is supposed to flush out about a third of that extra fluid in the first 14 days after birth?

Unfortunately that doesn't always happen.

For quite a few women the trauma of giving birth, or the C section surgery, affects the body so deeply that the natural flushing process doesn't start properly.

Studies have shown this affects as many as four out of 10 postpartum mothers even though the Doctor is telling them it's normal.

And if you had a C section you may be even more at risk!⁹

The Science of Postpartum Fluid Retention

This is all being caused by your lymphatic system. Before I started researching I didn't even know what that was.

It turns out your lymphatic system is a network of pathways that move fluid to and from different areas in your body. The network is huge, something like 50,000 miles long!

It moves everything from damaged cells to waste and even fat cells and blood. It’s basically the USPS for inside your body!

When you're pregnant you've already gained something like 15 to 20 pounds of fluid… Everything from more blood to amniotic fluid to hormones and proteins.

You get edema because the lymphatic system is already struggling. That's why the fluid tends to build up in your lower legs. There's just not enough pumping power to deal with the extra workload… so it just kind of sits there.

Once baby arrives, the system should cycle back up and you should start to release the excess fluid.

Sometimes this means you're peeing all the time… Or maybe you've got the night sweats… Either way the fluid is naturally draining.

But when that doesn't happen you get the situation I was in: You're carrying 30 to 50 pounds of excess fluid and it feels like it's sucking the life out of you every day.

My Journey To Finding Myself Again

I didn't even really know what a lymphatic system was before I started this journey. I didn't even know I had excess fluid… Because my doctor kept telling me it was normal.

All I knew was that my rings were leaving marks on my fingers. I didn't recognize the face in the mirror. And my socks and waistband left deep indentations on my skin.

But the more research I did the more I kept seeing the lymphatic system mentioned.

Eventually I found out you can actually kick start your lymphatic system and create a natural flushing out to help your body get back to normal.

And it has to be natural, right? The last thing I need is another prescription.

What I actually found was research that Western medicine has been ignoring for decades. Modern Doctors and Healthcare exist to make money, not heal people.

But this is actually still pretty shocking.

There's a group of natural herbs that have long been used in traditional European medicine and also by Native Americans to naturally flush the body. And they've even been clinically studied for it.

I actually tried them myself - I have my exact results for you below.

Cleavers

Cleavers is a sticky wild climbing herb found in Western Europe and Asia. The stems and leaves and flowers have long been used for puffy, swollen, fluid-heavy issues due to its lymphatic and gentle diuretic qualities. It helps the body move excess fluid that's trapped in tissue, and ease the heavy waterlogged feeling. Scientific studies show it has antioxidant, immune-modulating, and wound-healing qualities.^{1, 2}

Red Clover

Scientific studies have proven Red clover has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities, with particular benefit in vascular areas. It’s a purple-flowering meadow plant native to Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa. It’s used for sluggish circulation, and swollen, congested tissue because it contains phenolic compounds that may help calm inflammatory stress around swollen tissue, support antioxidant protection, and make fluid-heavy areas feel less irritated and backed up.^{3, 4}

Prickly Ash

Prickly ash is the bark of a thorny North American shrub once called “toothache tree” because chewing it creates a hot, tingling sensation in the mouth. Native American and early American herbalists used it when the body felt cold, stiff, heavy, or slow to move. In this formula, prickly ash is the spark plug: it is there to warm your system, encourage circulation, and help stagnant tissue feel less stuck. That matters for fluid retention because lymph moves better when the surrounding tissue is active, warm, compressed, and well-circulated. Studies show it has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and pain-killing properties.^{5, 6}

Red Root

Red root is a North American shrub also called New Jersey tea. It’s used for swollen glands, thick fluids, and lymph congestion. Known to support lymph clearing when tissue feels heavy, boggy, and slow to drain. Scientific studies have shown it’s excellent at eliminating unwanted and harmful microbes like the ones in stagnant, excess fluid.^{7, 8}

Combining them has a gentle natural effect of restarting your lymphatic system.

At first I tried ordering them all individually from Amazon… But it was crazy expensive and I got no results because I couldn't verify the quality.

But then I found a better solution. You can actually get all these ingredients combined in exactly the right quantities and at verified quality levels from a brand named Fem+.

It's a 100% natural honey-flavored liquid… You just put a few drops in a glass of water or a cup of coffee or whatever you want, and it immediately goes to work helping your lymphatic system do its thing.

Fem+ works by:

Waking up your lymphatic system to naturally release your Edema
Flushing out the gunky stagnant fluid you’ve been holding on to since before you gave birth
Naturally unwinding systemic inflammation so your body knows it's safe to release the fluid
Allowing your body to finally begin the natural repair processes that will let you be your old self again

My Fem+ Journey - From Skeptic To Believer

After so many false starts and rabbit holes my expectations with Fem+ were low…

… after all, my own doctor kept telling me it was normal to still feel like an inflated blob so everything was fine!

But I figured I'd give it a shot - There's a 30 day “lose 2 inches” guarantee so I basically had nothing to lose.

The first week I noticed a few changes already. I no longer felt constipated, like my body was clinging to everything. I felt somehow “lighter”. It made me pee a lot, but then I realized that's one of the body’s natural ways to flush out fluid and toxins.

By week three I had to admit something pretty amazing was happening.

Here are the things that really shocked me:

1- my rings no longer felt tight by the end of the day. They were MUCH looser. When I took them off at night I noticed I didn’t have the indentations anymore..

2- My legs and feet didn't look as puffy. It was easier to get my shoes on, and my socks stopped giving me indentations too.

3- The biggest thing for me was that my waistline had definitely shrunk. I was basically living in baggy old sweatpants 24/7… but for the first time in over a year I had to cinch the drawstring to stop them falling down. Trust me nobody was more amazed than me!

4- I was actually starting to recognize the face in the mirror again. I almost cried when I realized I was starting to see my cheekbones. I don't expect to look like some supermodel but it’s so nice to have my own face back.

5- I started getting compliments. I had two different girlfriends ask me if I'd been working out. Like I had that much free time with a baby around Ha ha. But I even noticed my husband checking me out a few times!

Beyond Weight Loss- Reclaiming My Whole Life

What I didn't realize was that getting my old body back would trigger a positive cascade to really feel like myself again.

I am no longer so anxious. I'm not in my head wondering “what if” all the time. I'm sleeping better… this actually feels like the first restful sleep in a couple of years.

And I hate admitting this but I feel like I'm a better mother now too… I feel less like a failure… and a lot less guilty.

The funny thing is my husband noticed I was my old self again before I did. “It's like I have my real wife back”, he told me one evening. ”The woman I actually married”.

And he was right. I felt like I was broken before. Some kind of failure. And every time my Doctor ignored me it felt like it was my fault.

Expert insight: Why Fem+ Works

Here's exactly why this formulation has helped so many women.

STUDY · CLEAVERS
Peer-reviewed research points to antioxidant, immune-modulating, and wound-healing properties, consistent with its traditional use for puffy, fluid-heavy tissue.

STUDY · RED CLOVER
Studies associate red clover with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity, with particular relevance to vascular and congested tissue.

STUDY · PRICKLY ASH
Research indicates anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and pain-relieving properties, in line with its traditional role in stimulating sluggish circulation.

STUDY · RED ROOT
Published studies point to antimicrobial activity against the kinds of microbes found in stagnant, retained fluid, supporting its traditional use for lymph congestion.

Is Fem+ Right For Your Postpartum Situation?

Here’s who benefits most from Fem+:

You still feel puffy and swollen, especially your face, feet, legs, and belly. Your body just doesn't feel like it's bouncing back.
You want to address the root cause of what's actually happening
You prefer the natural approach to endless prescriptions and doctors who don't seem interested in actually helping you
You're looking for a simple affordable solution that takes just a few seconds each day.
You're ready to be seen again… and feel like you own your body again.

Fem+ May Currently Be Available For A Historically Low Price

Living with lymphatic issues postpartum feels like you're stuck in a body that's no longer your own.

You don't recognize yourself in the mirror, and you feel gross and heavy and exhausted. It’s a lot… especially when the new baby consumes every waking hour of your life.

With Fem+ I've reclaimed not just my old body, but my actual quality of life, and even my happiness.

If you're ready to find yourself, your life, and your happiness, why not give Fem+ a try?

It's not about adding honey flavored drops to your coffee… It's reclaiming the life you should have gotten back months ago.

Your journey back to becoming yourself again starts with a single decision. Make the right decision with Fem+

SELLING FAST. LOW STOCK. FEM+ three bottle bundle

SPECIAL OFFER FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!

The complete four-botanical formula, honey flavored, one dropper a day.
Ships free. 30-day money-back guarantee. No subscription to cancel.
The only thing you stand to lose is the puffiness.

CLAIM MY FEM+ ROUTINE →

30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
4.95★ (173,000+ Happy Customers)