Getting back to normal after having a baby

Getting back to normal after having a baby.

Our bodies go through big changes during pregnancy and childbirth. Whilst many of these changes are completely normal and may not give us any problems, we can still feel weak in our pelvic floor muscles and abdominal muscles and lack fitness after birth.

Some common problems that women struggle with during pregnancy and after childbirth are:

Bladder or bowel leakage
vaginal heaviness
painful sex
Abdominal muscle separation (rectus diastasis abdominus, DRAM)

Please don’t feel embarrassed if this is happening to you. Come and have a physiotherapy assessment and some advice and support to help you improve these problems.

What can physiotherapy do to help?

Your physiotherapist can assess your abdominal and pelvic floor muscles after birth.
They will give you advice on exercises to start your return to activity and general exercise.
Your physiotherapist can assess whether you need to strengthen or let go of your pelvic floor muscles.
Advise upon adopting healthy habits of the bladder and bowels.
Assess what factors could be contributing to painful sex and treat them i.e., scar tissue tightness, vaginal dryness, fear/anxiety.
Improve your abdominal muscle separation and get the muscles working well again.

Gemma Barnes BSc (Hons) MSc HCPC MCSP MPOGP is our Specialist Pelvic Health Physiotherapist, here at Park Physiotherapy, and is very experienced at treating pelvic floor problems and abdominal muscle separation.

DON’T SUFFER IN SILENCE!

Additional information

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/support-and-services/keeping-fit-and-healthy-with-a-baby/#:~:text=It’s%20usually%20a%20good%20idea,midwife%2C%20health%20visitor%20or%20GP

https://thepogp.co.uk/Resources/113/exercise_and_advice_after_pregnancy

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/physical-activity-guidelines-pregnancy-and-after-childbirth

https://blogs.bmj.com/bjsm/2019/05/20/ready-steadygo-ensuring-postnatal-women-are-run-ready/

https://absolute.physio/product/reframing-return-to-sport-postpartum-the-6rs-framework/

https://absolute.physio/what-is-diastasis/

Nicola Vineyard qualified at Pinderfields College, Wakefield, West Yorkshire in 1985. After working in Mundesley Rehabilitation Hospital in Norfolk for a time, she moved back to her home in Essex.
She then started work in the East London area working for the NHS at Newham General Hospital and Barking Hospital. Here she gained a sound knowledge of all aspects of physiotherapy both inpatient and outpatients She also worked in the London Chest Hospital for a short period of time being involved with all respiratory treatments including post cardio- thoracic surgery rehab.

Nicola realised quite quickly in her career that she had a love of outpatient treatments as this enabled her to work closely with patients providing effective treatments and rehabilitation programmes. Due to her love of sports injuries she became involved with the Metropolitan Police sports Club in Essex treating the rugby and football teams. For several years she was involved with the London Youth Games, treating injuries sustained in the varied sports by the young athletes.

After working in a private hospital in London for several years she opened up her own practice in Essex in 1991 specialising in musculo-skeletal Physiotherapy and Acupuncture. The workload was varied; from sports injuries, biomechanical, muscle, joint, ligament and tendon problems to post-surgical orthopaedic treatments, treating both young and old.

She built up a close relationship with London Consultants in all orthopaedic specialisations sitting in on their clinics and attending surgery to observe operations at first hand. This enabled her to have a clearer understanding of the patients’ needs and therefore providing a more efficient and effective treatment programme.

Nicola feels a physiotherapist is like a detective. The body is wonderful, complicated and finely tuned. A physiotherapist must take a holistic approach to each individual. They must question and examine the patient thoroughly and then having all the clues in place come to a conclusion resulting in the best possible plan of treatment.
Nicola enjoys all aspect of physiotherapy but has a keen interest in acute sports injuries especially foot and knee injuries. She encourages her patients to use video imagery in clinic to help them understand good and bad postural habits and to have a record and clearer understanding of the exercises taught. She also uses taping techniques to offload injured areas as well using it to help reinforce correct postural positioning of the body both during activity or at rest.

Nicola moved to Norfolk and joined the Park Physiotherapy team in September 2016. As a member of Physio First, Nicola achieved Quality Assured Practitioner status in 2018 and continues to maintain this.