Healing Strong: Why Everyone Post-Cesarean Should Visit a Pelvic Floor PT

Bringing a new life into the world is an incredible feat, and for many women, this journey includes a cesarean birth. While focus often shifts to newborn care, remembering to prioritize your own recovery is crucial. Although it is a very common procedure, cesarean surgeries require appropriate attention to heal fully. Partnering with a pelvic floor physical therapist after your cesarean section can make a significant difference in your healing, comfort, and long-term well-being.

Your physical therapist is an expert in musculoskeletal function and will work with your healthcare team to provide safe and collaborative care during the postpartum period. They can guide you through the unique aspects of cesarean recovery:

• Incision and Scar Management: After a cesarean birth, attention to the incision is vital. While the incision typically heals in about 4-6 weeks, a pelvic floor physical therapist can help you understand the scar healing process and initiate scar tissue massage once the incision is well-healed. This can reduce pain and improve tissue mobility. Even very gentle superficial massage can be effective in reducing scar pain and improving mobility.

• Pain Relief and Mobility: Many women experience discomforts like low back pain and pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy, and these can continue postpartum. Physical therapy offers strategies to manage and relieve these pains. Your therapist will help you regain functional mobility, teaching safe ways to get in and out of bed, chairs, and cars, as well as how to manage basic daily activities like showering and holding your infant, all while supporting your incision. They can also address other musculoskeletal pains, such as those in the jaw, arms, or neck, that might arise from labor positions or pushing.

• Core and Pelvic Floor Rehabilitation: Even with a planned cesarean birth, your core and pelvic floor muscles undergo significant changes. Exercises like diaphragmatic breathing and gentle core activation can be started early in your recovery to aid bowel motility, lymph flow, and muscle length/strength. They will also address diastasis recti abdominis (DRA), a common separation of abdominal muscles, through targeted exercises.

• Empowering You for Being a New Parent: Beyond physical recovery, a physical therapist provides vital education. Your therapist can empower you with knowledge about good body mechanics for lifting and infant care, preventing constipation, and managing intra-abdominal pressure – all crucial for your long-term well-being. This is a great time to revisit your goals as a new parent and develop a plan for success - whether that's having the strength to chase your kids on their bike in a few years or run your next marathon!

A planned approach to recovery, with the guidance of a pelvic floor physical therapist, ensures you are not just healing, but healing strong and confidently for the demands of new parenthood. Send me a message or give me a call to learn how pelvic floor physical therapy can help you!