Oh my goodness how is it already the end of August? We’ve taken some time off of our regular weekly newsletter to soak up the magical days of summer, we hope you’ve enjoyed doing the same! With ‘back to school’ time here, I always feel that there’s so much excitement in the air of new beginnings, another “New Year’s Day” of sorts and a great time for setting goals and intentions for taking great care of ourselves so we can be our best selves for our lives, our dreams, our purpose and our loved ones.
Today continues our Women’s Health series of newsletters jam-packed with empowering education about natural solutions for sensitive and debilitating Women’s Health topics. Our goal is to inform the women we love so they can heal these problems naturally, feel great and enjoy their lives to the fullest!
Our topic today is all about… Recovery from a Difficult Pregnancy/Delivery and Gently Releasing C-Section & Episiotomy Scars. We hope this helps give you or a loved one hope that help is just around the corner! Here’s to new beginnings and to a happy, healthy fall. <3
Recovery from a Difficult Pregnancy and or Delivery
- Why is this so important? Any pregnancy causes the abdominals to stretch greatly, eventually to the point of them no longer being able to work effectively. Pregnancy also places a lot of pressure on the pelvic floor and then during the process of delivering a baby, the pelvic floor stretches even more, potentially with trauma. In many women, these muscles lose their strength & coordination after pregnancy/delivery and this can cause all sorts of problems for them.
- AMAZING Fact: Every woman in Germany and France (and other countries too) is automatically sent to Physical Therapy after EVERY childbirth. We have a very long way to go in the USA as not all OB docs have familiarity with being able to recognize when a woman would benefit from PT postpartum (hint: it’s pretty much every woman to get the core and pelvic floor stronger again to protect all of your joints, feel strong again and prevent future injuries!)
- So What Is Specialty Postpartum Physical Therapy? We typically start working together around 6 weeks postpartum, possibly sooner if you’re in a lot of pain. We perform specialized manual therapies and myofascial release as needed to release painful areas, restore pelvic and spinal alignment, teach you a progression of gentle strengthening and stabilization exercises for the pelvic floor and core, work with you on restoring proper posture and how to protect your bodies with proper positioning and techniques for breastfeeding/lifting your baby and other kids/etc. We gradually work into higher intensity and higher level strengthening the right way to help you return to whatever is important to you – whether it’s running, workouts, yoga, or just being able to jump on a trampoline without leaking 🙂
- In network PT typically only focuses on getting the pelvic floor and core to fire and getting the woman back to doing their daily activities OK (because it’s dictated by insurance and this is all that insurance will pay for). It does not address the ‘full body picture’, does not progress women back to running or working out again or other hobbies and does not address pain with intercourse (we, however, recognize how very important all of these things are to women and are sure to incorporate these items into our care since we are not bound by the constraints of what insurance deems as “important”.
- Most Women’s Health or Pelvic Floor Specialty Therapists ONLY treat that area of the body and don’t have training in Orthopedics, Sports Medicine or the Spine to address other issues. Many of these therapists are OT’s (Occupational Therapists) instead of Physical Therapists meaning they very well may have NO training in any of those other areas. Our practice is very unique in that our PT’s are experts in all of these areas in combination… meaning we help you with your whole body and are able to get you back to all of your workouts and hobbies again!
Gently Releasing C-Section & Episiotomy Scars
- The John Barnes method of myofascial release is the only method of scar tissue release that gently releases scars DEEPLY (beyond the surface level of a scar). Other methods simply strum the surface of the scar and do not address the deep tethers that ‘grow like weeds’. With our method, we gently ‘hook’ into the scar tissue with our hands and pull it into a gentle stretch, then wait for it to release over several minutes.
- With C-section scars, releasing these literally takes a ‘strangehold’ off of the abdominals and lets them fire properly again. It’s common for women with C-section scars to have a tough time properly contracting their abdominals or they even might feel a bit numb around the scar area. Releasing this in one session makes a HUGE difference and lets the abdominals ‘wake up’ and fire again. This is a game changer for patients with back pain, constipation, etc as the scar tissue ‘tethers’ often are pulling on the back and internal organs as well and gently releasing these deep layers again, is simply a game changer to feeling like yourself again.
- The same is true for patients with episiotomy scars (this occurs when the pelvic floor is cut to make it easier during a delivery to get the baby out); the pelvic floor ends up with this same ‘locked up/stranglehold’ scenario where these muscles can’t fire properly until this is released, often contributing to pelvic pain, back pain and less strength in the core/lower extremities due to the loss of the stability of the pelvis. The good news is that gently releasing these tissues is gentle, easy and makes a huge difference to improve these issues!
Most women are surprised that Physical Therapy can be helpful for these conditions, were you?
It’s really a shame this isn’t talked about more. Imagine all the things the women we love could enjoy in their lives without these annoying problems… worrying about leaking, planning their lives around the nearest bathroom, worrying about pain with intimacy with their partner, struggling with annoying hip/back/pelvic pain that limits their ability to be active… Instead, just enjoying life and not worrying about any of these things.
At Balance Within PT, we have a ton of success resolving these issues with natural treatments… No surgeries, pain meds or pads which just treat the symptoms! Just highly specialized Physical Therapy to address the ROOT CAUSE of the problem.
Bottom Line: You don’t have to live with this! It can be fixed quite easily with PT hooray!
Thanks so much for listening, I hope this helps you or a special lady in your life. Please do forward this on to someone if you think this knowledge could help, you may just change their life! 🙂
With lots of love and possibility,
Dr. Sarah <3
To your health & happiness,
Doctors Sarah & The Balance Within PT Team (Jill, Megan, Lori & Jereme too!)
