The second in osteopath Adam Wilson’s series of blogs about how osteopathy can help in pregnancy. For this blog, he focuses on events after the big day!
You’ve achieved the incredible. You’ve brought a stunning new life into the world and you’re starting a whole new chapter together. But no one ever told you how hard it could be at times right?
Sleepless nights, the crying, the nappies, the complete change in your life. And the pain. Who knew that your body could hurt so much after childbirth and why, when you need to be at your toughest, do you ache and hurt all over? More importantly, is there anyone out there who can help make your day just that little bit easier? Well yes there is.
Nature’s quirky ways sometimes make life hard.
Childbirth can cause a lot of stress to the body. The joints and ligaments around the pelvis area have to loosen, allowing the bones to shift slightly, so your baby can enter the world. But the downside of this wonderful process is that afterwards, these joints can remain slightly ‘out of place’. And that may cause you pain.
Hand in hand with the problems caused by your joints and ligaments comes the fact that the muscles around your stomach have to stretch and accommodate the baby while you’re pregnant. But unfortunately of course, they don’t just ‘spring back’ once your child is born. And that doesn’t just mean a trip to the gym. The abdominal muscles are an important part of your body, helping to support your weight and distribute forces evenly through the body. And because they are not doing their job properly in the months after the birth, it can cause increased weight bearing through the spine, and lead to lower back pain.
Did you imagine a baby on your hip or snuggled into your chest in a sling?
And did the reality match up to the dream? Babies put on weight at an incredible rate after birth! As they get bigger and stronger, carrying a new baby can become problematic. Carrying your baby on one side may seem like the answer to how to carry everything else, but if done repeatedly can also cause problems. And worse still, tightness and discomfort in the ‘baby-side’ hip and lower back are often exacerbated by lack of sleep and busy days with a demanding baby.
But it will get easier won’t it?
Repeated bending over for feeding, nappy changing and any number of other jobs related to your new baby can also have an impact on your lower back, shoulders and neck. Picking up your child, as they get bigger and older may cause strain on the muscles that support you. And as you’ve already found out, you’re picking them up (or putting them down) many times a day, which means these muscles quickly become tired and uncomfortable.
There’s a man who can help. With the pain, not the nappies.
Ok we hear you say, but I haven’t got time for any treatment or to look after myself. This baby is a 24 hour and demanding job. Well tempting as it is to put your baby and family first, a quick trip to the osteopath could go a long way to making things easier. Because the good news is that effective osteopathic techniques can help.
We can help re-balance the pelvis, which in turn helps the joints to recover their normal functions. And although recovery for abdominal muscles after childbirth can be a long and complex path, we can recommend specific exercises to re-engage and strengthen these muscles, coupled with osteopathic treatment for the lower back, to help to reduce discomfort and speed up recovery. Looking forward, relaxing osteopathic work with your back, shoulders and neck, and the areas around them, can also often help to make every-day jobs easier and less problematic. And a trip to see us, won’t take up much time.
So how about making your life just a little bit easier?
