A pregnancy is one of the most transformative journeys for a woman. It’s a time filled with excitement and anticipation but it also brings significant physical and emotional changes. While the miracle of creating life is awe-inspiring, the day-to-day realities of a growing bump, shifting posture and the hormonal changes can sometimes feel quite overwhelming.
The good news? There are plenty of natural and effective ways to support your body during your pregnancy to ensure a more comfortable experience while preparing for your labour and your postnatal recovery. By understanding the changes happening to your body, incorporating movement to your pregnancy, allowing yourself some time for self-care and/or expert guidance, you can take proactive steps to live your pregnancy with ease and confidence.
In this article, our women’s health physiotherapist explains the changes in your body and the action you can do to have the smoother pregnancy possible
What happens to your body during your pregnancy?
Your pregnancy brings rapid changes to your body. These changes are natural but they can sometimes create discomfort or even pain if not managed properly. Understanding what is happening during your pregnancy will help you to address these challenges effectively.
1. Posture changes and alignment during pregnancy
As your baby grows, your body’s centre of gravity shifts forward. This change will affect your balance and add some strain on your spine, hips and pelvis. Over time, it can lead to:
- Back pain due to the increased curvature of your lower spine.
- Pelvic discomfort as your body adapts to the shift.
- Muscle fatigue, especially in your lower back and legs as they will work harder to support the extra weight from you loved one.
2. Pregnancy hormonal influences on your body
A hormone called relaxin is released during pregnancy in order to loosen your ligaments and joints. This hormone allows your pelvis to expand gently during the delivery. This is crucial for your childbirth, but the secretion of relaxin can also lead to:
- Joint instability which increases the risk of pain or injury.
- Pelvic girdle pain (PGP), it’s a condition affecting up to 20% of pregnant women, it causes pain around the pelvis and the hips.
3. Pelvic floor strain during pregnancy
Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles that supports your bladder and your uterus. As your pregnancy progresses, the extra weight from your baby will stretch these muscles during the 9 months of your pregnancy. This strain can lead to:
- Incontinence during or after your pregnancy, particularly during sneezing, coughing, or laughing.
- A feeling of heaviness or pressure in the pelvic area.
4. Circulatory and legs swelling issues during pregnancy
During your pregnancy your blood volume will increase by up to 50%. This extra blood will put an extra strain on your circulatory system. Coupled with hormonal changes, this can result in:
- Swollen feet and ankles, especially later in your pregnancy.
- Varicose veins due to pressure on the veins in your legs.
Practical ways to stay comfortable and active during pregnancy
While some discomforts during your pregnancy are inevitable, there are many strategies that you can use to help your body and feel at your best during your pregnancy.
1. Focus on your posture during your pregnancy
Maintaining good posture will alleviate strain on your spine and reduce possible back pain.
- Standing: Keep your shoulders relaxed and your weight evenly distributed between your feet. Avoid to lock your knees or tilting your pelvis forward.
- Sitting: Use a small cushion or lumbar roll to support the natural curve of your lower back. Make sure your hips are slightly higher than your knees to reduce pressure on your spine.
- Lifting: don’t forget to bend your knees and not your waist when picking up objects. If you carry heavy items, hold these items as close to your body as possible to minimise any back strain.
2. Stay active with safe pregnancy exercises
Moving and exercising during pregnancy will help reduce any stiffness, it will improve your blood circulation and will prepare your body for labour. The best is to focus on low-impact, pregnancy-safe exercises:
- Walking: it is a great way to stay active without overloading your joints. You walk at fast pace if you wish to.
- Swimming: It is a very good exercises because the buoyancy reduces the pressure on your joints while you work out.
- Prenatal yoga or Pilates: 2 great type of low impact exercises, it will strengthen your core and pelvic floor while improving flexibility and balance.
- Strength training: Despite common legend, you can use light weights or resistance bands to maintain muscle tone and endurance.
3. Strengthen your core and pelvic floor muscles during your pregnancy
Core and pelvic floor muscles exercises play a critical role to support your growing baby and ensure that you have a smoother delivery.
- Pelvic floor exercises: After understanding the correct contraction of your pelvic muscles, practice to contract and release your pelvic floor muscles to build strength and control. Ideally you should do 10-15 repetitions, 3 times a day. To make sure you use the right muscles during these exercises, we recommend an assessment with a women’s health physio who will be able to guide you throughout the right techniques of pelvic floor rehabilitation
- Modified core exercises: Gentle exercises like doing pelvic tilts and side-lying leg lifts will help keeping your abdominal muscles strong but flexible.
4. Stretch regularly for mobility and comfort, a key to feel good during your pregnancy
Doing regular stretching will remove tension and improve your overall mobility in areas that can feel tight or sore.
- Lower back stretch: Sit on a chair and gently lean forward and slowly try to reach for the floor.
- Hip stretch: Sit in a butterfly position to open your hips. Be very slow and gentle.
- Cat-cow pose: This yoga-inspired movement, will help you to stretch your spine and relieve any lower back tension.
5. Improve your blood and lymph circulation to reduce the pregnancy swelling
It is important to keep your blood flowing and to reduce fluid retention, you can do so with these simple actions:
- Elevate your legs when you rest: Prop them up on a pillow when you are sitting or lying down.
- Wear compression socks: It is helpful to improve your circulation and reduce swelling in your feet and ankles.
- Hydrate regularly: Drinking plenty of water will help you flush out excess sodium and reduces swelling.
- Lymphatic drainage: Super-efficient technique that should be done by a specialist. It is a very soft massage that will drain the excess fluid from your legs. A women’s health physiotherapist specialised in pregnancy will be the best to contact to be sure to receive a treatment specific to your pregnancy and not a generic lymph drainage.
How expert pregnancy physiotherapists can support you so you feel great during your pregnancy?
Sometimes, the challenges of a pregnancy can require a little extra help. That’s where our expert care comes in play. Pregnancy specialist like our physiotherapists and osteopaths can help you to address any pregnancy-related condition and discomfort and to help to prepare your body and mind for a smooth delivery.
Pain management during pregnancy
Pregnancy manual therapy techniques relieve muscle tension, reduce inflammation and improve your body alignment while your baby is growing. It will ease any discomfort you may have or give you a relief if any condition arises
Support for pelvic girdle pain
Pelvic girdle pain (PGP) significantly impacts the mobility of pregnant women. Our pregnancy physio or osteo will provide targeted exercises, gentle manipulations and life advice on your posture to reduce the pain in your back and pelvis as well as improving your pelvic stability.
Preparation for labour
It is a must do to prepare for your labour. Our physios can guide you through breathing exercises, breath work, muscle relaxation, pelvic alignment techniques and core-strengthening routines to improve your chances of a smooth delivery.
Swelling and circulation
Lymphatic drainage massage will reduce the swelling in your legs and feet, while gentle movements can improve overall blood flow.
What should you do for yourself after your delivery?
The end of your pregnancy is the beginning of a new chapter. While being time challenging, it is important to take some for yourself and to take care of your health following your delivery. Going back too fast into sports or not addressing some postnatal conditions can negatively impact your health in the future. You will find below different ways to prepare for the ideal postnatal recovery:
1. Pelvic floor rehabilitation
Start your pelvic floor rehabilitation as soon as possible but not before 6 weeks after your delivery. You will start with an assessment of the strength of your pelvic floor muscles followed by targeted pelvic exercises that our women’s health physiotherapist will determine in regard of the results of your assessment. Pelvic floor exercises can help:
- Regain strength and control of your pelvic floor muscles.
- Prevent or reduce incontinence.
- Avoid prolapse and back pain post pregnancy.
2. Postnatal exercises
Ease back into our preferred sports and activity staring with gentle and low-impact exercises like walking or postnatal yoga. Focus on rebuilding your core strength. But before you start, we advise to have an abdominal assessment to make sure you don’t have any abdominal separation (diastasis recti). Diastasis recti must be treated before starting any kind of sports.
3. Rest and self-care
Rest is vital for your healing after your childbirth. Create a postpartum plan that includes some help from family or friends will help you to keep some time for self-care, even if it’s just 10 minutes a day, it makes a big difference.
4. Seek postnatal expert advice
Postnatal physiotherapists will inform you on all the necessary step for a good recovery. They will also help you with any specific issues like back pain, pelvic floor dysfunction or diastasis recti in order to ensure a good postnatal recovery and to avoid any conditions that could impact your health on the long run.
Pregnancy is a beautiful journey and by understanding the changes that your body is going through and taking proactive steps to support your wellness, you can make this time as comfortable and empowering as possible. Whether it’s incorporating gentle exercises, prioritising posture or seeking professional care, small actions can lead to big improvements on how you feel and live your pregnancy
More information on www.mummysphysio.com
0207 125 0262 – info@babyphysio.com