How to recover fast from pregnancy and childbirth. The importance of osteopathic treatment post-partum.

Pregnancy, labour and childbirth are extremely physically demanding activities. Although they are part of a natural process, they can place the mother’s body under great strains. These, in turn, can have a profound effect on the mum’s body and contribute to the development of health issues such as pain, incontinence, depression…just to name few.

How many women out there have been told that it’s normal to be unwell after pregnancy and childbirth? And how many of you have been told that your body and health are never going to be the same after having children?

If you are like many of the mums I treat, I’d like you to know that post-partum issues such as pelvic pain, lower back pain, bladder leakage, painful breast etc.. are common but not normal and osteopathic treatment it’s highly effective in helping mums to fully recover.

I believe it’s important that we change the language dominating in people’s health: common does not mean normal. When a mum is told that her suffering is normal, we take away her right to receive treatment for her pain and we start assuming that suffering is something to put on with.

After childbirth, the body not only has to recover from the changes it made during pregnancy but also from the effect of the delivery. The passage of the baby’s head through the pelvis can cause strains and unbalance in the pelvic bones, muscles, ligaments and organs that in turn can set up a variety of problems immediately after the delivery or in the future.

Similarly, c-section, episiotomy, large tears and epidural injection can also be the causative factors of pain and general malaise in the mother’s body.

I have learned from my patients that when it comes to post-partum issues, especially of gynecological nature such as incontinence and pelvic pain, apart from doing nothing, the go-to treatment offered by the National Health Service is typically painkillers, pelvic floor exercises to do at home or synthetic hormones.

Unfortunately quite often, these are not the solutions to the problem.

If you are reading this article and you are a mum that have been offered the above treatment options and you are still suffering, get in touch, I would love to hear your story and how I can help you to fully recover.

Post-partum osteopathic treatment it’s a natural and highly effective treatment approach to help mums to recover fast from the pregnancy and delivery.

The areas of the body most commonly affected by vaginal delivery are the sacrum and the lower back.

Normally the sacrum “swings” backwards to increase the size of the pelvic outlet to allow the passage of the baby. If, for instance, the mum spends most of the labour in a reclining position where the weight is taken on the sacrum and lower back, the adaptive movement of the sacrum becomes impeded and undue strains can develop around the coccyx, sacrum and lower back.

If these strains are not corrected after the first few weeks after labour, as the mother’s ligaments return to normal after the pregnancy, the malposition of the sacrum or other pelvic bones can become fixed in an abnormal position. This can have a number consequences both immediately and in the long term. Mums often complaints of lower back pain, leaking of urine, exhaustion, just to name few symptoms.

Another example is when epidural injection is performed. Sometimes a local irritation persists in the meninges surrounding the spinal cord at the site of the epidural. Mothers often state that they can feel undue tension at the site of the injection for quite some time. This irritation often contribute to the development of headache, neck and lower back pain that can persist for months following the delivery or can develop few months following the delivery.

Osteopathic treatment helps to ease these tensions and promotes resolution of symptoms.

I quite often see ladies who have been suffering with incontinence, heavy and painful periods, knees pain, IBS, infertility etc..following a c-section, episiotomy or large pelvic floor tear.

Most often these women had assumed that the symptoms they were experiencing were “normal” or something that they had to live with. This is definitely not the case!

C section, as well as tears of the pelvic floor can often produce strong tension and torsions within the abdomino-pelvic cavities, can alter the balanced position of the bladder, colon, small intestine, uterus and its associated structures (tubes, ovaries, cervix) and give rise to many painful syndromes.

For instance during micturition (passing water) the pelvic floor has to relax to allow for the bladder to descend, after the bladder has been emptied, it has to come back up. However scar tissues from C-section or pelvic floor tear, will alter the urinary tract mechanism and “confuse “ the various reflexes controlling and guiding the whole process of urination and thus causing incontinence or other urinary disorders such as urgency and frequency.

I believe that out there, there are lots of mum suffering from unresolved / untreated problems that occurred in pregnancy or at time of delivery. I think that at the root of this, there is a lack of education available to mum on birth-related pelvic floor injury.

When I explain to my patients what is at the root of their long-standing problems, I always hear: “Why didn’t anyone tell me this after I gave birth to my child? I was left without any support at that time”

If you are a mum who gave birth to your children several years ago but you are still suffering from health issues that go back to the time of the pregnancy and delivery, get in touch, no mater how long you had the problems for, there is always something that can be done to address unresolved strains and body systems unbalances.

Over the years I have helped many women like you to regain their health and sense of wellbeing. Many of them had suffered for years of pelvic related issues that had profoundly affected their health and life. Many of these women didn’t know that their symptoms could be resolved in a natural and effective way. In my treatment approach it is my intent to help you to regain good health.

As I always say, when you feel good life become more enjoyable.

Get in touch to discuss how I can help you.

Feel free to tag friends who you know are still struggling to recover from childbirth and pregnancy and will benefit from osteopathic treatment.

Paola Pizzuto is a registered Osteopath in Edinburgh with a commitment and dedication to helping people achieve better health.

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