Taking care of yourself: the postpartum period

During pregnancy, our body is constantly changing: posture, body axis, displacement of organs due to the baby’s growth, breathing, hormones, digestion, etc. As the baby grows, our body adapts. After nine months (approximately), the moment of delivery arrives and we have our baby in our arms. After nine months of a progressively growing belly, wham! Within hours, the baby is born and our belly is “empty”. What’s next? What do we do with all these changes? Does everything fall back into place naturally?

In this post, I am going to focus more specifically on the “belly”, which has undergone the biggest changes. Our abdomen has distended to make room for the baby and now has to regain its FUNCTIONALITY. Yes, I say functionality in capital letters because, although many people seek recovery for aesthetics, all should focus on recovering their functions.

In our daily lives we perform actions that require greater or lesser strength, which implies an increase in abdominal pressure. Our abdomen must be able to manage this pressure correctly. For example, lie on the floor with your knees bent and cough, what does your belly do? Does it push outward, push inward or does it do nothing? What do you think I should do? Our transversus should be activated upon exertion, as well as the pelvic floor. And not voluntarily, because we cannot be constantly thinking about contracting the abdomen and pelvic floor; they must be activated and work automatically when we need them.

After having a baby, you will want to go back to your favorite sport: paddle tennis, running, basketball, soccer, crossfit … (I do not say immediately, some may want to resume it right away, others when the baby is 9 months old, two years, …), or you will want to have another baby (not immediately!), or go hiking with your little one in the backpack. For all this, it is important to be aware of the need to recover our abdominal girdle to avoid short and long term problems: incontinence of any kind, diastasis, chronic pain, prolapsed abdominal muscles, etc.

Take care of yourself postpartum as much, if not more, than you did during pregnancy. In order to take care, it is necessary to take care of oneself.