Postpartum is not an easy journey. We can feel awkward in this foreign body that no longer houses our baby and left with this void and a core that we are unfamiliar with.
It can help to think of postpartum like having an injury. It takes time to heal! Everyone heals differently and not on the same time frames. Sleep, nutrition, stress all matter and contribute to the healing process. It can be hard as we may compare our time line to someone elses. More than anything be kind to yourself! It takes time, just like an injury, we don’t expect it to heal overnight.
Often there is shame, insecurities and pressure to ‘get your body back’ to pre baby state as quickly as possible. As I reflect on my postpartum body and journey thus far, I have a few musings! It’s a humbling, frustrating and empowering process.
Pregnancy is temporary, postpartum is forever
Firstly, your body knew how to adapt and change to grow a human being (or 2 or 3.. ). Our bodies are clever, strong and resilient. Pregnancy is a shock to the system, it isn’t a minor thing. Often compared to a car crash in your abdominal and pelvic area. You gave birth to a human whether by vaginal or cesarean. Each have their own pros and cons and challenges in recovery, and then handed a brand new baby to care for 24/7! I was hung up for a while that I wasn’t able to deliver vaginally and felt my body let me down, which is silly.
Secondly, every BODY and experience is different. No 2 bodies are the same or experience the same things in pregnancy and postpartum. Baby sizes vary, genetics vary, 2nd and 3rd babies may not be like the first. You may have had a condition that constricts you to bed rest. You may have had a traumatic birth or a wonderful birth. Hormone fluctuations are no joke! Your baby may sleep well or one that doesn’t 😴. It’s hard work! Your body changes and brain changes. Be kind to yourself, you can’t compare yourself to what you see on social media.
Lastly, letting go of an idea or identity that you have of prebaby. It’s a great time to step back and look at basic form and function and relearn good movement patterns. You can be stronger! You might not be able to bounce immediately back into where you were. Maybe your middle isn’t as flat as it used to, mine isn’t! It could take weeks, it could take years.
Pregnancy creates compensations
Furthermore, pregnancy can take a toll on the body whether you are fit or not. Loss of strength in your midsection, pelvic pain, prolapse, peeing with pressure or impact, scar tissue, tearing and more. Recovery may happen quickly for one, and it may take a lot longer for another depending on the pregnancy, birth and more.
Your ribs change, belly expands, every women will have some sort of an abdominal widening. You may have compensation patterns that arise as the baby grows in size. Pregnancy can exacerbate underlying issues and create some new ones!
Compensations are a part of rehabilitation to help you be able to do life. The body is clever.
Compensations aren’t totally bad, they help you do life and keep moving if you get injured. However, keeping compensation movement strategies will drain you and cause more issues down the road.
Pregnancy, for instance, can exacerbate underlying issues. Having a baby is alike a car crash to your core and center. It’s a rehabilitation process. If you have a knee surgery, you wouldn’t be advised never to walk, same with pregnancy and post partum. It’s a new and different body that needs more awareness to unravelling underlying patterns.
Using breath, movement, finding strength and progressively load and load more from there.
The challenge is to find out what functional inefficiencies you may be using. Inner weakness can be masked by outer bracing. Many brace, breath hold, gripping neck, tucking bum as their core strategy. Notice where you might be bracing.
Build a strong Foundation
Start with the foundations, by connecting to your center, understanding your breath strategy and find any inefficient movement patterns that are no longer necessary. Add movement and strength to see what happens. I have some great clips on my youtube page you can find out more about this.
If you had a knee surgery, you wouldn’t be advised to not use your knee again, or not to walk. Same thing with pregnancy, you take time to heal, rehab, rebuild and get your general fitness back and then principles of progressive overload and specificity, then load more and more.
Loading is good for muscles, tendons, and bones and should be an integral part of all rehab and training. Loading externally with weights is a great option, but you can get plenty of great loading just by using your own body and internal strength!
You may have to start back at ground zero, but with some consistency, awareness, and a bit of grit, you can be stronger than before!
Aesthetics is important for many, but ideally you FEEL good, healthy, and making choices that are right for YOUR body and ideally you don’t wee when you sneeze or do high impact things. Let’s celebrate the amazing feat your body has accomplished! Don’t fear movement, you are not broken, you are resilient and strong.
I am grateful and feel empowered to this amazing body that grew my babe.
Let’s normalise postpartum bodies! Are you ready to find your way back to fitness after a baby? Postnatal yoga is a great way to connect back to your core and reconnect. Find out more here.