Are you excited to welcome your new baby home? While a child is a blessing, pregnancy isn’t always a walk in the park for many women. It often brings physical challenges, like morning sickness and pelvic pain. Worse, this discomfort can sometimes linger into the postpartum period! Fortunately, managing pelvic pain in pregnancy isn’t something you have to do alone.
At College Park Physical Therapy, we want to help you focus on what matters–preparing for and bonding with your baby. Whether you’re pregnant or postpartum, the last thing you want to do is worry about pelvic pain.
Today, we want to explore why you might experience pelvic pain during pregnancy–and share what our Olathe, KS, and Overland Park, KS therapists can do to help. Keep reading to learn more!
What Causes Pelvic Pain During and After Pregnancy?
If you’re pregnant and experiencing pelvic pain, you aren’t alone: it’s actually one of the more common complaints. Part of the reason for this is that it can have several different causes, including the following:
Hormonal Shifts
- During pregnancy, hormones help prepare the body for childbirth by loosening ligaments around the pelvis. While helpful for delivery, these loosened ligaments can lead to less support around the pelvis, often resulting in pain.
Pelvic Girdle Pain
- This condition occurs when the joints connecting the pelvic bones become misaligned or overworked, creating pain in the lower back, hips, and thighs.
Diastasis Recti
- As the baby grows, the abdominal muscles can stretch and separate. This separation, known as diastasis recti, can contribute to weakened core support, placing more strain on the lower back and pelvis.
Postpartum Strain
- After birth, it takes time for the body to recover and adapt. Carrying and lifting a newborn, especially while breastfeeding or feeding in certain positions, can add stress to an already tender pelvic area.
A Personalized Approach to Managing Pregnancy-Related Pelvic Pain
Physical therapy is an effective approach to managing pelvic pain in pregnancy and the postpartum period. Our team will take the time to assess your condition and determine which of the above causes contributes to your discomfort–and then create a personalized program to address it.
What sort of treatments can you expect? While every plan is different, we generally include the following:
Pelvic Floor Therapy
- The pelvic floor is a group of muscles supporting the bladder, uterus, and other pelvic organs–and pregnancy can impact it in ways that contribute to pelvic pain. We’ll guide you through specific exercises to strengthen and relax these muscles, alleviating pain and improving pelvic stability.
Manual Therapy
- In some cases, hands-on techniques can provide immediate pain relief. They can also help improve muscle function, reduce stiffness around the pelvis, and ease tension in the lower back.
Core Strengthening
- Strengthening the core muscles–the muscles around the abdomen, hips, and lower back–provides essential support for the pelvic area. We’ll show you through exercises that safely build strength, taking the load off stressed areas and reducing pain over time.
Movement Education
- We can also teach expectant and new mothers safe movement strategies, like how to lift, bend, and carry the baby to avoid additional strain on the pelvic area. These techniques help prevent injury and discomfort by focusing on safe, efficient movement patterns.
Reading To Start Managing Your Pelvic Pain?
Pelvic discomfort doesn’t have to interfere with the joys of motherhood–and managing pelvic pain in pregnancy doesn’t have to be challenging, either. Our Olathe, KS, and Overland Park, KS physical therapists offer practical, safe solutions to reduce discomfort, restore strength, and improve overall function.
If you’re experiencing pelvic pain, schedule an initial assessment with us today!
