There is a serious problem with postpartum care in America. What is it you ask? There is none! At least not the kind and amount that women should be getting after birth.
When you go in for orthopedic surgery, you’re automatically on a path to a 12-week rehab program. A program that is designed to allow for healing, proper strengthening, and recovery of the tissues, and return to normal function.
But after birth, there is nothing! I saw a post on Instagram a while back that really stuck out to me.
It was a split graphic, where one side outlined the rehab process after an average orthopedic outpatient surgery. The surgery side was divided into 4 different phases of healing and rehabilitation. It took into account the different tissue types and their healing rates. It took into consideration the importance of retraining the body and muscles to function again before returning back to normal activity.
On the other side, it outlined the rehab process after giving birth. Here’s what that one said:
Before 6 weeks postpartum: Don’t do anything
After 6 weeks: Do everything!
In the eyes of this pelvic health PT, this is a serious problem!
Pregnancy is a long 9-month journey of hormonal, postural, muscular, and functional changes. Then you birth a baby, an event that stresses your entire system causing hormonal changes, physical changes, and possibly mental changes.
It’s inconceivable that women can just rest for 6 weeks and then “bounce back” to normal functional activities and exercise.
You Need Time To Heal After Birth
After not having any medical care for 6 weeks after birth, women have one appointment with their OB and then are “cleared” to resume all normal activities. No words of caution to take it slow. To ease into activity and exercise. Just a “Hey, you’re all good now.”
But Jumping back into high-impact workouts and sports can actually harm your pelvic floor.
Remember, the pelvic floor is a hammock of muscles at the base of your pelvis that supports your internal organs. Stressing them further with exercise after having just birthed a baby can cause further weakening leading to bladder and bowel problems, as well as low back pain.
Your tissues need time to heal. For 9 months these tissues were under stress and stretched from supporting your growing baby. Then, if you birthed vaginally, they were stressed even further to allow the baby to exit.
It takes a minimum of 6-8 weeks for soft tissues to heal. That means, that at the 6-week postpartum mark, your tissues are just starting to heal enough to support you during daily movements. That doesn’t include high-impact activities.
After the 6-week mark, these tissues need re-training to be able to support high-impact workouts no matter how fit you were pre-pregnancy.
Neuromuscular connections, tissue healing, and progression of exercise need to be done over time with the proper gradual increase in stress. Research has shown that 12-weeks is the optimum time for this healing to occur and restoration of full core function.
Returning To Activities and Exercise After Birth
Working with a trained physical therapist is the best way to get started on a rehab program for your core and pelvic floor postpartum. Consistent progression of abdominal strengthening, breath work, and pelvic floor rehab are important to improve strength, function, and coordination.
Breathwork is super important when it comes to rehabbing the core postpartum. Remember, our inner core piston can get out of sync during pregnancy and we need to re-connect it. Breath work also engages the deep core muscles- the transverse abdominals and obliques. These muscles act as a “corset” to support your spine during activities reducing the risk of back pain.
Learning to breathe and engage the inner core piston is the very first topic we learn in Core+ Healing DRA. This is the foundation for everything else covered in this core healing course. Learning to engage the piston breath in multiple positions helps us establish control during functional movements.
After Foundational Work, We Need To Stress The Tissues The Appropriate Amount
After reconnecting the inner core piston and building our foundation, we then need to start adding stress to the tissues. This stress needs to be applied slowly over time. Progressing slowly and in a controlled manner stimulates the muscles and fascia to grow and strengthen.
Starting off with isometric (no movement at the joints) movements in different positions give the muscles a chance to engage without having to do any heavy lifting ( pun intended!) These initial strengthening and endurance movements are done in positions that cause less intrabdominal pressure on the core system.
These positions include:
Supine (lying on your back)
Prone (lying on your stomach)
Quadruped (on hands and knees)
As you master isometric control in these positions, we then add on compound movements to build strength. Finally, we progress to twisting and cross-body movements in more functional positions such as:
Sitting
Kneeling
Standing
This is why Core+ Healing Diastasis Rectus Abdominus is broken down into 3 phases over 12 weeks- To ensure our foundation is strong and controlled to safely progress to more challenging functional movements.
Returning To Normal Function and Exercise
Taking the time to build your foundation and slowly return to high-impact exercise reduces your risk of injury, pain, and incontinence postpartum. Taking your time and being patient reduces the risk of further damage to your pelvic floor which could set you up for future problems.
I highly recommend working with a trained physical therapist to start your postpartum journey. Someone who knows how to take you through a program and slowly build your strength back up. Now I know how crazy postpartum life can be. And how little time there can be in a day.
That’s why I created CORE+ Healing Diastasis Rectus Abdominals. This course is aimed at reconnecting your core piston and building strength over time to improve function, reduce symptoms such as back pain and leaking, and leave you feeling confident and strong in your body. Each video is only 10 minutes long which means you can fit it into your day! Whether you wake up 10 mins early, fit it in at nap time, do it right before bed, or wherever else you find time, it’s just 10 minutes so you can get in and get it done!
If you’re looking for an easy, time-efficient way to get you’re core back online and back to enjoying normal activities with your kids, join today!