Pregnancy and Post Natal Care
About Pregnancy and Post Natal Care
Some of the concerns that people may see a Physiotherapist to discuss include:
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Birth preparation education
Management of pelvic floor symptoms during pregnancy (e.g., incontinence, prolapse)
Perineal massage instruction and treatment
Postural advice
Pre-Natal pelvic floor risk assessment
Pregnancy-related pelvic girdle and back pain management and treatment
Safe exercise guidance and prescription throughout pregnancy
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Pelvic floor assessment and rehabilitation
Abdominal Muscle Separation (DRAM) assessment and treatment
Guidance on safe return to exercise
Postnatal musculoskeletal pain (e.g., lower back, hips, wrists) assessment and treatment
Recovery support after vaginal or caesarean births
Scar management (e.g., perineal or C-section scars) advice and treatment
Bladder or bowel dysfunction following birth assessment
Prolapse education and management
Breastfeeding-related conditions (e.g., mastitis, blocked ducts) treatment
Pregnancy Period
Throughout the nine months of pregnancy, the incredible female body experiences significant physical and hormonal changes as your body evolves, changes shape and adapts to meet the needs of your developing baby.
Throughout this time, the clever female body instructs hormone levels to fluctuate to prepare your body to physically carry your baby, and to create a spacious womb for your baby to grow in. In doing so, these hormonal changes signal muscles, ligaments and connective tissue structures throughout your body to soften, relax and expand. As your belly grows and the load at the front of your hips increases – your abdominal muscles lengthen out. Your digestive, abdominal and pelvic organs are flattened and begin to lower to make space for your baby. Although these are all very natural changes throughout pregnancy; they still can cause a lot of load and stress on certain areas of your body that can lead to pain or dysfunction. Areas most susceptible to this are the pelvic floor, pelvis, neck, ribs, and low and mid back.
The good news is, we can help you with this!
Conditions that we commonly see during pregnancy include:
Back, neck and rib pain
Pelvic girdle pain
Pubic bone pain
Abdominal muscle separation or weakness
Carpal tunnel
Headaches
Pelvic floor concerns
We also see many women who aren’t experiencing any pain or dysfunction but want to maintain their strength and healthy lifestyle throughout their pregnancy.
We can!
✔ Complete an appropriate physical assessment
✔ Provide hands on treatment to reduce your physical pain/concerns
✔ Provide you with lots of advice and information about how to best manage your symptoms, and provide you with tips and tricks to assist you move as smoothly and pain-free as possible through the remainder of your pregnancy
Post Natal Period
We refer to the ‘childbearing year’, because it doesn’t finish at childbirth. During the post natal period, hormones are returning to their pre-pregnancy levels, and the body is recovering from pregnancy and childbirth. It is common to see some weakness throughout the abdominal muscles and pelvic floor, which may contribute to some aches and pains. Or this can simply occur due to the demands of caring for a new baby. It is important to allow the body time to heal during this stage, but we can provide a combination of guidance to help optimise your recovery, and manual treatments as required.
Conditions we commonly see during the post natal period include:
Back, neck, pelvic and/or coccyx pain
Abdominal muscle separation or weakness (DRAM)
Thumb and wrist pain
Pain after vaginal delivery, episiotomy, and/or perineal tear
Pain after caesarean section
Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP)
Pelvic floor concerns
Vaginal heaviness
Incontinence, urgency concerns (bladder and/or bowel)
Breast engorgement, mastitis and blocked ducts
Pain during intercourse and advice on returning to intercourse postpartum.
In addition to the above, Women’s Health Physiotherapist can also assist with Mastitis conditions.
Mastitis
Conservative management of inflammatory conditions of the lactating breast, including mastitis, blocked ducts, and white spots/milk blebs. Management may include therapeutic ultrasound, Lymphatic drainage techniques, preventative education and postural advice, compression and support garments.
Further referral – to a lactation consultant, or if there is no change in symptoms within 3 days, we will refer back to their GP