Postpartum Services

Much like pregnancy, the postpartum period or 4th trimester is a world of change for you and your body. Physical therapy can help with pelvic pain, lower back pain, upper back and neck pain. A Physical Therapist can help you relearn how to engage your abdominals and pelvic floor as you move and care for your newborn as well as when you return to exercise. Physical therapy can also help with leaking urine, pain with return to intercourse, diastasis recti (separation of abdominal muscles) - all things that can happen after having a baby.

Areas of Treatment

• Pelvic Pain

  Any pain that is caused the muscles, joint, ligaments and organs of the pelvis. It can be caused by a painful bladder, endometriosis, IBS, and constipation. It includes pain with intercourse, tailbone pain, sacroiliac pain and hip pain.

• Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP)

  Your bladder, uterus and rectum are considered pelvic organs. The pelvic floor muscles and the connective tissue within the pelvis are responsible for holding the organs in place. Sometimes, with pregnancy and delivery, the organs can “fall” or prolapse. Some symptoms of a prolapse can be feeling like something is falling out and/or pelvic heaviness. A prolapse of the bladder may also cause urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence or constipation and difficulty using tampons.

• Back Pain

  Your body changed quickly and dramatically with pregnancy and delivery. After delivery it is not uncommon to have aches and pains, specifically around your lower back and pelvis. A physical therapist can help you learn how to strengthen your body, including your pelvic floor and abdominal muscles to help you care for your little one and return to your active lifestyle without pain.

• Pain with Intercourse

  It is not uncommon to have vaginal pain with the return to intercourse in the first couple of attempts. The pain should decrease with each attempt and go away. If the pain is lingering it can be helped with physical therapy.

• C-section Scars

  A physical therapist can help with pain, tightness and numbness at your cesarean section scar. Improving the mobility around and under the scar will allow you to use your abdominal and pelvic floor muscles to be as strong as you can be to care for your child. It can also help with reducing back pain, pelvic pain, pain with intercourse and improving urinary incontinence.

• Urinary Incontinence

  There are different types of urinary incontinence. Stress, urge and mixed incontinence. Stress incontinence is when you leak urine with a laugh, cough, sneeze, running, jumping etc. Urge incontinence is when you lose urine with a sudden urge to urinate. Mixed incontinence is a combination of the stress and urge incontinence. All three can happen with a pregnancy and postpartum.

• Diastasi Recti (separation of abdominal muscles)

  As your belly stretches during pregnancy the muscles of your abdomen, known as the rectus abdominis, can pull away from the line of fascia that travels down the middle of your muscle. Sometimes when this happens it can be difficult to effectively use your abdominals to move, exercise, care for your baby, and even maintain continence. Physical therapy can help with healing the muscle and teaching you how to use your abdominals again.

• Return to Exercise

  Are you having trouble returning to exercise? Don’t know where to start? What is appropriate? Do you feel unsteady or unstable with exercise? A physical therapist can help you rebuild your core and return to exercise safely.