Health Tips for New Mothers from a Physical Therapist
Bringing a new life into the world is an incredible journey, but it also comes with significant changes to your body—many of which aren’t talked about enough. As a new mother, you might experience aches, pains, or challenges that leave you wondering, “Is this normal?” While some postpartum symptoms are common, that doesn’t mean you have to accept them as your new reality.
I’m Lauren Masi, Doctor of Physical Therapy and Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist. I’m also the owner and Clinical Services Director of Bay Area Physical Therapy and Lafayette Physical Therapy. Today, we’re going to talk about some health tips for new mothers from a physical therapist.
Changes in Your Body Are Common, but You Don’t Have to Live with Them
I feel like Western medicine sometimes fails us in letting us know what to expect when we become pregnant, during delivery, and after birth. There are many different challenges women can face during the postpartum phase especially, which is why sometimes you’ll hear it called “the fourth trimester.”
It’s important to remember that recovery can be different for different women. I know a lot of people go to their family and friends for advice, other women who’ve had children already, which is fine and dandy. However, sometimes they’re going to be a little bit biased to what they experienced. And I want everybody to know that not all experiences are the same.
Even within the same woman, different pregnancies can be different. Changes in your body are common, but you don’t have to live with them, and you don’t have to let them linger.
Just Because Something Is Common Doesn’t Mean It’s Normal
You also have to realize that some things might be common but not normal. For example, you might’ve started to experience some incontinence either during your pregnancy or postpartum. If you leak a little bit, that’s not necessarily normal. It’s common for a lot of people, but it’s not normal. You weren’t leaking before, and you certainly don’t have to leak now just because you were pregnant.
Additionally, everybody’s particular case is different. How your delivery went can have a big bearing on how your postpartum recovery goes. And even if your delivery went fine, we have to look back at what your body just went through. If you’re having any specific pelvic floor issues, maybe even pelvic pain, that can be expected; but it should get better over time.
Normally, a quick rule of thumb is this: it took you nine months to be pregnant and grow that baby. Give yourself at least nine months after birth to get back to feeling like your old self.
Postpartum Posture Can Lead to Pain
You have to recognize all the changes that your body went through during pregnancy. Your breasts might have gotten larger, and they might still be larger. If you’re breastfeeding, that can definitely change what your upper body posture is like and weigh you down a little bit.
Also, you’re now holding a little newborn. Everything’s in front of you. When you’re breastfeeding or holding a bottle, your shoulders are rounding forward, and you’re always looking down at the baby. So it is common, although not necessarily normal, for you to have upper back and neck pain.
You might also start to notice some wrist and hand pain. It’s very common to get tendonitis postpartum, as you’re doing all these new fine motor tasks, little intricate things with these little bodies; and you’re holding and gripping more.
Your Hormones Can Also Impact Your Postpartum Recovery
You might be having lower back pain, or even pain in the backside of your pelvis that can even extend to the front side of your pelvis, right on that pubic bone. These are things that can happen because of all the motion and laxity that occurred during pregnancy and during delivery for you to allow that baby to come into the world.
Another thing to be aware of is that if you continue to breastfeed or pump milk, your hormones will cause your body to remain lax during that whole postpartum period as well. Obviously, most of us like to be able to provide those nutrients to our child.
So give yourself some grace in knowing that, if you’re choosing that path, it might be a little bit harder for your body to stabilize postpartum and get back to your old self.
How to Safely Return to Your Exercise Routine
Based on your delivery, your doctor will usually clear you to return to your normal activity level around the six week mark (or eight weeks if you had a C-section), provided you have no complications. That’s when you can start getting back into your strengthening and workout routines.
“Start” is my keyword. Don’t jump right back in at a hundred percent the minute you’re cleared. That can actually cause some trouble as well. I say that because one of the most common mistakes I see with women is doing too much too soon after birth.
Why You Should Start Slow When Returning to Exercise After Birth
Your belly muscles, your pelvis, all those ligaments have been stretched out to accommodate your baby. We have to return them back to their normal length and tension. It’s important that your ligaments start to kind of stiffen up again postpartum to be able to mitigate the pressures that you exert during exercise. (For more information on that, see our previous blog post about breathing during exercise.)
Your body wants to mitigate pressures, and if you don’t, you can experience diastasis recti, which is the splitting down the middle of your abdominal muscles. That is something we want to avoid and that can be avoided through proper training, controlling your breathing appropriately, strengthening the abdomen, and strengthening the pelvic floor. We certainly can help guide you with that in physical therapy.
Stretching and Strengthening Can Help Prevent and Reduce Pain
Other ways that we can help you prevent pain is with stretching and good posture. If you are in a very forward, rounded posture for feeding and holding your baby, you might need to do some stretches for your chest. You’ll want to open and stretch your pecs, and we can show you various ways to do that in our clinic.
Then, strengthening between your shoulder blades is also important. All those postural strengthening muscles are tied together (which we’ve talked about in a prior blog); and we want to make sure that we start rebuilding you building block by building block.
You Can Prevent Some Pain by Caring for Yourself
One thing I will say is, if I’ve caught you early in your postpartum phase, you should use pillows and boppies to help support your baby’s weight so you can hold them up closer to you. This will make it so you don’t have to use that forward posture so much or be crouched over all the time.
At the end of the day, what’s most important is to take time for your own self-care. Get back to your usual activities, take some walks, get outside, and drink a lot of water—especially if you are breastfeeding or pumping so that you can maintain your milk supply for baby. But you have to take care of you before you can take care of your little one.
Reach Out to Bay Area Physical Therapy for Expert Support
If you need any help getting back on track during your postpartum phase, please reach out to Bay Area Physical Therapy today. And for more information, check out some of our other blog posts on: how pregnancy affects your body, the importance of pelvic floor health, and massage therapy.