Does everyone need pelvic floor physical therapy after a baby?

Finding Pelvic Sanity

In short, our answer is ‘yes’. With all of the physical challenges of pregnancy, delivery and the early post-partum period, we believe everyone should get pelvic floor physical therapy. But let’s dive into why that is!

First, let’s recognize in America we are significantly behind the rest of the world with this. In many places in the developed world pelvic floor physical therapy is automatically prescribed to every single person after having a baby.

Here’s why this is so important:

1. Pregnancy is nine months of body changes. Things seem like they’re changing every day. You move differently. Your center of balance changes. You’re likely dealing with some discomfort or pain (especially if you aren’t going to a pelvic PT during pregnancy). You have increased demand on your pelvic floor for nine months. These are massive changes to the body!

2. Delivery (no matter how you delivered) is a major trauma. Giving birth vaginally is a marathon event. The body is taxed to it’s outer limits - and beyond - for anywhere from 4 hours to 2 days. And a C-Section is a major surgery!

3. Postpartum has it’s own challenges. Once baby is here, your daily life changes overnight. You’re lifting and carrying. You’re holding the baby to your chest to breastfeed. You are hoisting car seats and carriers. This often creates issues not just in the pelvic floor but in your back, hands, feet or other areas.

The vast majority of people who delivery a baby have post-partum issues like:

• Low back pain (77%)
• Incontinence (50%)
• Diastasis recti (50%)
• Prolapse (30-40%)
• Painful Intercourse (40%)
• C-Section Scar Healing (25-30%)
• General Pelvic Pain (10-20%)

Like anything else, these symptoms don’t get easier to treat the longer they are ignored. We want to make sure we’re able to resolve these before they get worse or start impacting other areas.

No matter how long it’s been since your delivery, pelvic floor physical therapy can help. You don’t have to live with post-partum issues or feel disconnected from your body!

Local to Southern California?
If you're local to Southern California, make sure to give our office at PelvicSanity (www.pelvicsanity.com) a call.

About Us
Dr. Nicole and Jesse Cozean are the founders of PelvicSanity Physical Therapy (www.pelvicsanity.com) in Southern California. The clinic has helped thousands of patients in the Orange County, CA area and hundreds from around the world with a remote consultation and Out of Town Program.
They co-authored The IC Solution and Nicole created The IC Roadmap online course to provide the most accurate, up-to-date information for those with interstitial cystitis. They run the Finding Pelvic Sanity Facebook group for a supportive online community for anyone dealing with pelvic health issues.
Nicole has also created courses and trained thousands of pelvic PTs to provide better care through her work with Pelvic PT Rising (www.pelvicptrising.com).

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And as always, we hope this has helped you find just a bit of pelvic sanity!