You’ve made it…40 weeks later and you are welcoming your little one home. The fountain of emotions you are experiencing is overflowing with so much joy and emotion. Maybe you have a little bit of fear since your baby didn’t come with an instruction manual. And don’t be surprised if you have thousands of questions as you are navigating a new chapter of life.
One such question might be what activity is safe in these early postpartum days. Or, you could be thinking about when you can start running again. And, how about a return to lifting in the proper manner. Many times the first time we are seeing any type of women’s health provider following the delivery of our baby is 6-8 weeks postpartum. They check to ensure everything is following a normal course of recovery, they might check your pelvic floor function, and then they give a green light for “return to normal activity”. But what does this actually mean?
Returning to activity following the delivery of a child is a little more complicated than following up with our OBGYN. It is dependent on how your pregnancy went, how long labor was, the type of delivery, and any symptoms of pain or dysfunction being experienced. Research is showing the importance of maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle during pregnancy. The typical quote is “if you were doing it before pregnancy then it is safe to continue.” Although true, we must also consider what you are experiencing during your pregnancy. Are you having pain, pelvic pressure, urinary incontinence? If so, then we need to look at modifying your activity and movement patterns. If you are not regularly participating in activity, then we want to take the opportunity to safely integrate exercise. This can be a walking routine, or body weight movements directed by a women’s health specialist. By keeping the muscles active and engaged through pregnancy, we help in ensuring better muscle recovery postpartum. This allows for improved functional and integration of muscle training once baby is here. It also promotes muscle memory, meaning the muscles have better recruitment strategies even though they undergo a very significant and rapid change. This makes all activities of motherhood easier.
Next we want to look at labor and delivery. Again, being active in pregnancy helps us in labor and delivery. When we regularly apply stress to our cardiovascular and musculoskeletal system our body is better at adapting to change. When we apply biomechanical stress over time our body is better at adapting to rapid changes. This applies to labor and delivery; if we challenge our body during pregnancy through fitness and functional movement then we are better able to handle the physical demands of labor and delivery. There is decreased disruption to soft tissue, joint, and bony structures of the body, as well as less stress on baby during the labor and delivery process. If we experience less physical trauma during birth, we are then set up for recovery early postpartum.
During the early postpartum phase, exercises and activity may seem daunting. Again, we are typically at home for 6-8 weeks with baby before we see our medical provider. Your body is undergoing changes hormonally, physically, and emotionally just to name a few. However, this is a great time to implement breath work, early movement, and muscle activation exercises. These techniques can help in minimizing our stress response, promote better postural alignment, and improve muscle function for the many daily challenges of motherhood and life. Working on this early postpartum breathing and mobility can also promote a safer return to fitness/sport activity with decreased risk of injury or secondary impairment. This can mean decreased risk of prolapse, urinary and bowel issues, and pelvic pain. This can also mean better hip health, spinal health, and posture. All of this is important for returning to activity, putting you on track for a healthy lifestyle for yourself and being the role model for your little one for health and wellness.
Align With Us
Align Health wants to serve you - we want to help you maintain, or start, your active lifestyle while pregnant; we want to help in preparing you for labor and delivery; we want to help integrate early intervention and mobility postpartum. If you want more information on these services contact us today, and get going with Dr. Kristen Fogle, PT, DPT, women’s health specialist, pregnancy and postpartum corrective exercise specialist. Give us a call at 614-824-2633 or book online at https://alignhealthgroup.com/womens-health.