How to Carry A Baby Post Pregnancy

Why standing with poor posture whilst carrying a baby increases lower back pain and prevents diastasis recti from healing?

 

Me and my 3rd Daughter Beau

 

As a corrective exercise specialist and personal trainer I assess clients posture frequently. I do this by testing muscle length so I can see which muscles are long and weak or short and tight. The way we sit, stand, play and pregnancy effects our posture. If we continue to hold poor posture because of weakened core muscles it will cause problems. Poor posture and weak muscles generally equates to muscles aches and pain!

What we need to do

I try to stand level and balanced as often as I can when I'm holding my children. I know how standing on one hip and swaying forward leading from my abdominal muscles can cause back problems and prevent abdominal muscles from healing pre and post pregnancy.
I do know though as a busy mum myself just how hard it actually is to maintain good postural habits throughout the day. This is why I suggest that you aim to change a little each day and by doing this it will eventually start to make a difference.

Don't Sway your back sticking your stomach muscles forward 

You can do correct exercises post pregnancy but if you continually hold your baby with your stomach muscles pushing forward then your abdominal separation (diastasis recti: self test) caused by your pregnancy wont heal and you may even make it worse!
Have a think about what you are doing when you are standing with this poor posture: it stretches and puts strain on already weakened abdominal muscles and connective tissue potentially separating them further. You wont see the results you really want unless you change your posture and carrying technique.

Avoid Hip Hitching

If you continually stand on one hip whilst carrying baby or small children then you will weaken one side of your body whilst tightening the other causing asymmetrical imbalances. This can cause pain in your lower back, hip, knees and even shoulders!

You may even hold both these poor postures, standing on one hip and pushing your hips forward! You need to change this.

Pre and Post Natal Hormones

The pregnancy hormones relaxin and progesterone that weaken muscles and ligaments during pregnancy so that your body can adapt to a pregnancy are mostly to blame along with a growing uterus and baby!
Pregnancy hormones are still in your system 4-6 months post birth. It is these hormones that can accelerate muscle pain caused from poor posture. You may have been pain free before your pregnancy but now poor posture, muscle imbalances and pre and post pregnancy diastasis recti can cause pain. For more on Correct Posture: Click here

Try these corrective exercises:

Activate your transverse abdominal muscle (TVA) and pelvic floor muscles whilst you are lifting, changing and carrying your children. To make sure you can activate this important muscle correctly have a look at my video guide: TVA- Activate Correctly .

Stand as often as you can with your hip bones level. Place your hands on your pelvis to see if you can feel when your hips are level and see how the feel when they are not.

   Do specific exercises post birth but also make sure you think about the above points and by doing both you should recover quicker, have less pain and heal your diastasis recti!

Follow the above video and correct how you carry your babies from newborn to toddler.

 For a 12 week Post Pregnancy Exercise Program which covers ALL your post pregnancy exercise. Visit my website http://pregnancyexercise.co.nz

How to Activate Transverse Abdominal

Every women needs to activate her T.V.A-Transverse abdominal muscle and pelvic floor muscles after giving birth. This is the exercise you need to do during the first 1-10 days post birth. If you have had a ‘C’ section it is better to wait for 5-14 days before you start.

Why is it Important? 

It is important to start activating your TVA along with your pelvic floor muscles as this is the first part in your rehabilitation from your pregnancy, labour and birth.  These muscles have been severely stretched and severed (after a ‘C’ section) during your pregnancy and you have lost or have minimal neural connection to them.

If you have strong TVA and pelvic floor muscles you can hold good posture whilst you are breastfeeding, carrying and lifting your baby. It will decrease the risk of back and hip pain and reduces possible post pregnancy incontinence.

Exercising the muscles sooner rather than later will help to start to correct a diastasis recti (post pregnancy abdominal separation) ultimately leading to a flatter stomach and if you want to eventually get back into a regular exercise routine activating these muscles daily is a must to prevent injury.

Where are these Important Muscles?

• The transverse abs run from our sides (lateral) to the front (anterior), its fibers running horizontally (transverse).
• The muscle runs transverse and is the deepest of the major abdominal muscles (the others being the rectus abdominis, and the internal and external obliques).
• It ends (the muscle insertion) by joining with the large vertical abdominal muscle in the middle (the linea alba), where the fibers begin to curve downward and upward depending on what direction it has to go to meet the linea alba, and below the sternum it combines with next most superficial muscle (the internal oblique). This insertion runs down by the belly button where it passes over the thick abdomen muscle (the "6/8-pack") and all the ab muscle fibers join together.

The transversus abdominis (TVA) helps to compress the ribs and viscera, providing torso and pelvic stability. The transversus abdominis also helps pregnant women deliver their baby.

Watch my video guide to Activate your TVA's correctly

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Make sure this is the first Exercise you do after Giving Birth and do it sooner rather than later.

You don't have to engage the muscles lying down you can think about engaging your TVA and Pelvic Floor muscles during the day.

Have a look at your stomach when you are standing, sitting and when you are holding your baby and try to activate your T.V.A muscles. Draw your belly button in towards your spine, I think about either trying to zip up a pair of jeans or imagine you have a corset on and it is being pulled tighter. You should see your tummy draw in; if you can see this happening, you are activating the correct muscles. You could use a mirror to help, stand sideways and watch yourself activating these muscles.

From 1-14 days post birth this is the exercise you need to do try to think about activating your tummy muscles regularly when you are lifting, changing and carrying your baby. If you can concentrate on this for a couple of weeks post birth the connections will become stronger, the muscle strength will increase and activating these once weakened muscles will become second nature.

For a full Pre or Post Pregnancy Exercise Program have a look at my website. Pregnancy Exercise Program  and Post Pregnancy Exercise Program

When and How Can I Exercise Post a 'C' Section

It is crucial following a 'C' section that you allow your body to not only recovery from your pregnancy but also from abdominal surgery.

You have just had major surgery and depending on how your baby was delivered may also affect your recovery.

If you elected or had to have an elected ‘C ‘ section your body has not naturally gone into labour so your body may still be in shock post the operation. It still thinks you are pregnant!
Due to an elected ‘C’ you can rapidly gain fluid as your body tries to protect itself from the stress, your breast-milk may not come in as quick and your baby may struggle to latch on.

If you have gone in to labour and then had to have and emergency C section your body responds better post as it had gone into labour naturally. Your brain and body had registered that the pregnancy was over.

In the days that follow a ' C' you can be in minimal to quite a lot of pain. You unfortunately need to take many pain killers during the first 1-10 days. You should not have increasing pain from days 4-5 post you should at this stage be able to move around easier. This is normally when you are allowed to go home.

If you exercised during your pregnancy you are now at a huge advantage you will recover quicker up to 80% quicker than women who didn’t exercise.
You can use your upper body and leg strength to lift you up out of bed or a chair, avoiding using the tender, sensitive area where your stiches are.

The first exercise you need to do when leaving hospital, if you think about it and you have minimal pain.
Have a look at your tummy muscles and see if you can activate your abdominal muscles this is a very simple activation exercise.
See if you can pull your belly button in towards your spine activating your T.V.A-transverse abdominal muscle and rectus abdominal, just gently, no quick and fast pull ins. Just see if you can do it slowly. Avoid trying to contract all the way in, just a little is all you need to do. You should feel no pain. You should not be activating any other muscle or tilting your pelvis underneath you.
If you do feel any pain try the activation exercise 1-2 days later.
For more information on how to connect with your T.V.A muscles post birth go to http://pregnancyexercise.co.nz -articles

Try to do this early activation exercise each time you lift your baby up, when you change and carry them.
From 2-3 weeks post you should try to activate your tummy muscles as often as you can.
You should not feel any pain. At this stage you are ready to start a Post Natal Corrective exercise Program. Around 2-3 weeks post if exercised during pregnancy 4-6 weeks if not.

You may feel you are ready for a walk from days 10-14 depending on the exercise you did prior to birth but if you are still sore it may take another 7-10 days. It could take another 4 weeks if you are unfit from lack of exercise or bed rest.

Walking Post ‘C’ Section
Go for a small 10 minute walk by yourself not with the buggy from 2-3 weeks post if you have no pain! You can add the buggy from 4-5 weeks on the flat if you follow a rehabilitation program like the 12 week post pregnancy program I offer http://pregnancyexercise.co.nz/

This is the walking program I recommend following a C section:
Walk by yourself from day 12-21
Start with 10 minutes. If you feel ANY pain stop, try again in 2-3 days. If you have no pain you can repeat 48 hours later. Repeat the same walk time 3 times, each time leaving 48 hours between. If after the 3x 10 minute walks there is no pain you can increase your time by 5 minutes and then repeat the program. So walk now for 15 minutes every other day and do the same time 3 times. Again adding 5 minutes after every 3 walks of the same time.
Do this until you are walking 3-4 times a week for 45 minutes with no pain.
This walking program is just walking. It is not exercise and there is minimal effort required it is just a WALK.

Once you can walk pain free for 30 minutes 3-4 times a week you can try to push your baby in a buggy. If you are less than 8 weeks post take it easy and try to stay on the flat. It is a good idea if you can go with a friend so they can take over on the up and down-hills. It is hard to push your baby up-hill as this puts a huge strain on your core muscles and down-hill is just as hard as you have to try to stabilize your buggy with weak muscles. Try to avoid.

After 8 weeks you can increase your walking pace and intensity, don’t go out and walk fast for 45 minutes, you need to build slowly. Try 10 minutes at 70-75% Intensity -aerobic intensity exercise, you know you are exercising but you are not pushing yourself too hard- If this feels ok and you experience no pain try 20 minutes fast on your next walk and then try 30 minutes the following week.
You don’t need to walk hard on every walk, try to do 3 walks a week when you walk faster and at a higher intensity.

Strength Exercise over Cardio Post C section?
Your strength exercise is more important than your fitness. It is just nice to get out of the house and be pain free which you can now do if you follow the walking program.
You can and need to do a specific strengthening exercise program 3-4 times a week post a C section. If you can do this you would be back to full core strength within 14-20 weeks depending on when you start a program. A good program will decrease abdominal separation, increase core and glute strength and focus on postural muscle strengthening exercises.

The benefit of not pushing your baby out is that your pelvic floor muscles are probably ok! You still need to do your pelvic floor muscle exercises post birth as they have been weakened with the weight of your uterus.

Please feel free to comment and ask further questions. This is just a short guide.

If you want to purchase your own specific and safe post pregnancy 12 week program please contact me for a FREE 2 week Trial Lorraine@pregnancyexercise.co.nz
Remember the golden rule. You need to check with your G.P or LMC before starting any exercise program.