Congratulations on your new baby (even if it’s been a few years or decades)!
If you’re a brand new mom, your beautiful bundle of joy has arrived. Your body has spent the last nine months growing a new human and going through some huge changes! Your feet may have grown and you may be experiencing bladder leakage. Along with navigating these issues, you are carrying a new baby around and hunching over during the daily baby feedings. It is no wonder that your body has changed its form. And if you are a veteran mom , you have spent months or years caring for your baby, and your body has gone through many changes.
With all of these changes, your posture may be gravativing toward a postpartum posture – we hear moms tell us about feeling stuck or frumpy and hunched forward. This can cause neck pain and headaches, back aches, and urine leakage too – but fear not, we help women with this all the time!
What is Postpartum Posture?
Postpartum Posture is described as slumped shoulders, a sagging bottom and the neck and head being hunched forward.
See this diagram for a visual:
Common Causes of Postpartum Posture
Your postpartum posture could be caused by many factors. The most common causes are:
- Your pelvis may be out of alignment from the weight of the baby, childbirth and holding that little bundle of joy on the same hip all the time.
- Your abdominal and pelvic floor muscles have stretched throughout pregnancy and labor & delivery too of course – they often need some help to get stronger and coordinate properly again; every woman in France & Germany gets PT after every childbirth. These muscles (our core) are super important for everything we do and getting them working again is a huge game changer!
- Your ligaments have stretched and have become more relaxed during the growth of your baby.
- Your back arches later in pregnancy to make room for baby and can get stuck in that position; plus lifting that little one without full core support can often not feel so hot!
- Your neck and head are naturally getting stuck forward and hunched over with breast or bottle feeding and tending to your newborn.
These are common occurrences as your body moves into a post pregnancy state. The important thing is that you don’t want to get STUCK there as it can cause all sorts of problems from neck/back/headache symptoms to even issues with your shoulders, hips, knees and feet too! And remember how everyone talks about urine leakage postpartum? Believe it or not, posture can play a big role with that too. Postpartum posture is a familiar development yet there are a few tips to help correct and ease the strain on your body
Ways to Correct Postpartum Posture – A Helpful Video
In the following video, Dr. Megan shows you a few quick tips to improve your posture. These steps are easy to do and can provide instant relief. Focusing on a few small areas can provide a great improvement in your posture and how your body feels as you begin caring for your new baby and your post pregnancy body. While these are a great place to start, there are so many more tips and tricks & gentle & natural exercises & hands on treatment that we specialize in so we can help you make sure you don’t get stuck in that uncomfortable posture!
Some More Posture Tips:
- Try to keep your ears stacking over your shoulders as much as possible whenever you’re vertical (sitting or standing)
- When sitting or standing, try to align your pelvis vertically; you can think of your hip bones stacking over your pubic bones or your tailbone being straight up and down (instead of tucked under or sticking out)
- When sitting, try to keep your weight evenly distributed on your sit bones or just in front of them (not slouching with all your weight back on your tailbone)
- I know this one sounds strange but ‘chest up’ is a good idea (not too extremely so) but definitely not hunched over.
- If you feel like you’re totally stuck in an icky position, this is when we can especially help with our unique myofascial release and postpartum physical therapy specialties to make it easy peasy and feel great to stick to that upright posture!
Schedule your FREE Postpartum Consult Today
Our women’s health and postpartum specialists Dr. Megan and Dr. Sarah, are available to meet with you, hear your story, and answer all your questions about your unique needs and how to get you back to feeling your best!
We’d love to help give you more information about how to get on the path to better posture and feeling like yourself again (without all those leaks & aches & pains!) – simply click the button below to inquire for more information:
Afterall, life’s too short to suffer!
To your health & happiness,
Doctors Sarah & Megan and The Balance Within PT Team
262.264.8701
Balancewithinpt.com
P.S. Would you like to learn more about all things Postpartum, Pelvic Floor and Women’s Health? Then come join us for Dr. Megan’s FREE Women’s Health Workshop on October 11th at our Delafield clinic. We will be discussing common concerns with women’s health and provide you with some take home ideas to assist with your overall health and well being. Details below to sign up – we hope to see you there! (By the way, spots are very limited so be sure to claim your spot ASAP).
