The body we have as child is remarkably different to now, no? When we are children we live inside our “child body”. And when we go through puberty that body of ours changes, in lots of ways! The beauty of hormones. We don’t expect once we’ve gone through puberty that we can wish our childhood body back. We know it doesn’t work that way. We move only forward in our bodies. Unidirectional growth.

When we spend the best part of 9-months growing another little body inside our own body, we must accept that there are changes that will happen in our body. Magnificent changes. Our blood volume increases by 50%! Our breasts can produce milk. We grow a sustaining nutrient force to feed our baby and keep out nasty things while they grow. All this in 9-months, inside our own bodies. Our bellies rapidly grow, and our muscles stretch to accommodate this growth. Our bodies are changed. And just like when we went through puberty, we can’t go back to having the body we once had before we grew another little body.

Once our body finishes growing our new little person, we then give birth. No matter which birthing option we have, vaginal or belly birth, we still had to endure our bodies changing, and the weight of carrying that little body and all its accessories around.

So, what do we do with these amazing new bodies of ours? First, we let them rest. Adequately. Horizontal rest, as often as we are able too. I realise this is tricky especially if it’s not our first child, but the more horizontal resting we can do in the early days after birth, the less stress we put through our recovering tissues – our pelvic floor muscles, fascia, and abdominal muscles. Horizontal rest isn’t doing nothing. I guarantee you’ll be up as often as your down looking after that new little body you’ve created. Taking the time to let your tissues rest is just as important as progressively loading them back up to make our bodies feel strong again. But after a marathon, we rest.

As a pelvic health physiotherapist, my purpose is to guide you and your body back to wellness, in whatever form that might look like to you. My postpartum cardinal rules, however, always include bladder and bowel management. No matter how you delivered, the most stressful thing we could do to our pelvic floor in this time is allow ourselves to be constipated. Our tissues are already tired and trying to heal from all the weight and stretching of our pregnancy. Add to that straining on the toilet, our poor tissues don’t get the adequate chance to recover! So, in your early days, if you have space for only one thing, ensure your bladder and bowel are functioning well – and if they aren’t, reach out for help sooner rather than later.

My second cardinal rule is scar management. If you have experienced any tearing in the vulva or perineum, regardless of if you required stitches, we need to keep that area clean and dry to allow healing. I highly recommend Sitz baths in this time. If you’ve never heard of them, google it! Sitz baths are basically a warm salt bath for the perineum a few times a day, especially after opening your bowels, to help keep your healing tissue clean. Patting dry afterwards to keep the area dry, allows best healing down there.

If you had a belly birth, you will have a scar across the lower portion of your abdomen. Whilst your scar might not feel that big, there’s plenty of layers of tissue beneath the scar that were also cut or torn open and stitched back together. As your body is healing, we want to ensure that all those different layers of tissue heal separately from each other, to ensure the scar can move well without feeling tight or restricted. This takes time to heal, but gently stretching through our scar or performing scar massage can be really helpful. Speak to your physio about the best way to do this for your body.

At some point you’re going to feel adventurous and excited to leave the house! Walking can be a wonderful way for us to get some fresh air, stretch out our legs, and maybe get the baby to sleep! But walking is sometimes not as easy as it seems. It’s consistent movement, with no resting, against gravity. Sometimes this can make our pelvic floor feel heavy. So just as we want to progressively build back into strength exercises, we also want to build back into walking, respecting the tissues and their capacity.

Now that’s not to say we can’t start an exercise program in the early days if we’re up for it! But the focus should be on connecting with our new bodies, learning to breathe with all the space our diaphragm now has again! Connecting with our abdominal muscles which have been somewhat dormant for the last 9-months. And movement! Moving our bodies in all the different ways that we couldn’t quite do with that little body growing in our tummy. If you’re not sure what this looks like for you, see a pelvic health physiotherapist.

So, this is what the first 6-weeks in your new body might look like. Of course, every birthing body has a slightly different story to tell, so we make sure this journey is as individual to you as your body is. Have compassion for this new body of yours, and if something worries you or doesn’t feel right, reach out for help, no matter what stage you’re at.