I don’t consider myself especially freshly postpartum anymore, but I realized recently that I haven’t been back to see my physiotherapist since a few weeks before Waverly was born. While I don’t have any big problems on the horizon, but I’d far rather be safe than sorry when it comes to things like my abdominal wall and my pelvic floor.
I am SO happy to report that everything checks out! ✅ My abdominal muscles are nice and tight together, and functioning well. My pelvic floor also appears nice and strong, and I can easily do kegels without any other muscles interfering.
Some very basic investigating showed my only lingering “issue” is that my pelvis is still mobile, as in the ligaments and tendons that loosen like crazy while I’m pregnant haven’t tightened back up to 100% just yet. While thats not super ideal, its also not surprising with my history of symphysis pubis dysfunction. Frankly, even without my history, the general rule with this is that it takes between 5-8 months before everything is back up to full strength. And obviously I don’t always give it that time. So I guess its allowed to still be a little wiggly a few months down the road. I forgive you, Hailey’s pelvis.
I’m so relieved and encouraged by all of this information! While nothing is ever guaranteed, I am in pretty decent shape in some really important ways, at least considering what I’ve put my body through over the last seven-ish years.
As our appointment came to a close, she told me very daintily, that IF it were to be the right choice for our family to go through all of this once again, and we decided to have another baby, she wanted us to feel like we could go forward with confidence 🙂 I told her we very likely would try for another, and she smirked and said she kind of figured. I love having the support of such a well-educated medical professional. She, as well as my family doctor and resident doctor have ALL told us they’re in full support of us having another, and that they’re excited for the day they hear our news. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times. We have the BEST people in the world of medicine!!
My physiotherapist is very knowledgeable in terms of womens health, and she recently started up her own women’s wellness clinic. I’d love to share her with anyone who’s in the market for a fab physiotherapist!
I just recently booked in to see a physiotherapist. I’ve never seen one before but I know that my body never really “goes back” after baby. Is there anything in particular that you would recommend to do after baby to help your abs heal and to help with pelvic floor after baby? Future post maybe?
Good for you for booking in!! In my experience, its VERY important to go to a physiotherapist that specializes in women’s health. Mine is just an amazing wealth of knowledge that really should be common knowledge, but isn’t. Without getting too in depth, I think she’d tell you to work on kegels before having your baby, but not just the standard “stop peeing mid-stream” kegel. There’s more to it that I’ve learned. I can write you privately in more detail, if you’d like 😉 I think she’d also say work on your pelvic floor before your abdominal muscles. If you work too hard on your core when your pelvic floor is still weak, they can push everything down, which is NOT ideal when your note ready to brace against it, if that makes sense. This is all just the tip of the iceberg 🙂