So, it’s been six weeks with your beautiful new bub and it’s time to see if you’re ready to move into exercising. Your health care professional will inspect any incisions you may have and the health of your uterus, ovaries and cervix. You may have some other inspection sights depending on what your delivery entailed.
Your healthcare provider will mostly likely recommend starting some deep core activation exercises. But how do you know if you’re doing them successfully? This is where attending a Pilates class comes in handy! In this blog we will clarify what happens to the pelvic floor after delivery, how to build core strength safely and which Pilates classes are appropriate for you.
What happens to the pelvic floor after giving birth?
The Levator ani (pelvic floor) muscles serve two major functions in the female body - supporting the vagina and pelvic organs and maintaining urinary and bowel continence. As women enter the third trimester and prepare for birth, these muscles become strained as they are supporting the baby’s growth and preparing for delivery. More than 30% of women who give birth vaginally will experience pelvic trauma that causes damage to this muscle group.
A vaginal birth can increase the risk of pelvic organ prolapse. If those muscles and nerves are damaged, the uterus and vaginal walls may begin to collapse into the vaginal canal. There are many factors that can contribute to a prolapse – delivery time, large birth weight and forceps/vacuum deliveries just to name a few. That’s not to say that women who don’t have vaginal births don’t also suffer from pelvic floor issues after childbirth.
If the mother has experienced a prolapse, it’s even more important to slowly and gently return to movement. Here at PPF, we have modifications ready for any mother who has experienced a prolapse so they can continue to build core and pelvic floor strength safely.
How to build core strength safely
Building back core strength is such an important part of recovery. Core strength involves the pelvic floor, transverse abdominals and the deep spine stabilisers called the multifidus. Luckily, Pilates works these muscles with every single exercise –almost without you even realising!
An exercise that is used in almost every class is Bridging. It’s a fan favourite as it requires a great deal of spinal articulation and deep core activation to execute correctly. I’ll share how I guide clients through the exercise so you can practice anywhere, anytime!
Lay on your back with feet flat on the floor. Legs and feet are hip distance apart and arms are heavy by your side. Take an inhale to prepare. Exhale and draw the navel to the spine and start to imprint the lower spine into the mat. Continue to exhale as you roll back on the pelvis and peel the spine off the mat, segmentally. Pause once the base of the shoulder blades are hovering off the mat. Hold that position and breath in. Think about drawing the sit bones together and keeping the ribs soft into the spine. On the next exhale, start to soften between the shoulder blades and begin the roll down of the spine, taking the time to articulate the best you can before relaxing at the end of the movement. Repeat 6-8 times slowly.
Which class should you attend postpartum?
This is a great question with a few different answers. It really does depend on the type of delivery you had. As mentioned previously, a vaginal birth is likely to impact the pelvic floor more severely whereas a C-section is likely to affect the abdominal wall more severely.
Matwork classes are great for any type of postpartum recovery (except if you have any contraindications from getting on and off the floor). Matwork is one of the most effective ways to build deep core strength and stability without adding load to the superficial abdominals. Matwork can also be easily modified to aid in any Diastasis recti (separation of the abdominals). A simple yet very effective Matwork exercise is ‘Femur Arcs’. This exercise is postpartum safe and can be modified as you progress with strengthening your core.
Laying on your back, feet placed hip distance apart in parallel with arms resting beside you. Gently imprint the lower back down towards the mat as much as you can without switching on the glutes/legs. Inhale to prepare, exhale to float one leg to a table top position while maintaining the imprint through the spine then inhale to float the leg back onto the ground. Alternate legs. The breath can be reversed if desired.
Note: try to keep the leg in a fixed 90-degree angle. Think of hinging from the hip joint rather than bending from the knee.
If you decide to choose Pilates to aid in your postpartum recovery, it’s incredibly important to tell the instructor any information about your body/recovery before the class begins. Even if you don’t have any major injuries, it’s important to express that you are on your postpartum recovery as you’ll most likely still need some modifications during the class. With that being said, Pilates is recommended by most health care professionals because it really works! You will fall in love with the exercises and how amazing they feel!
Wanting to incorporate pilates in your postpartum journey? Click here to read about our Mums and Bubs Reformer classes.
Click here to read PPF Instructor Emma's blog on "Loving my Post-Baby Body".
