Returning to Exercise After Birth

You don’t have to ask us twice about how exercise is extremely important to our physical and mental health. However, if you’ve just given birth, you need to take a pause and check in first with a women’s health physiotherapist before getting too gung ho trying to return to your pre-pregnancy body.

We get it! After delivering your little bundle of joy, the feeling of being loose and untoned can drive some women mad; especially if they were fit before pregnancy. But here’s our word of caution: returning too early to sport, running, or other high-impact activities may weaken your pelvic floor and cause long-term bladder and bowel issues; or even worse, pelvic organ prolapse (where the pelvic organs drop below the vaginal wall). And no one wants that.

During pregnancy, the ligaments supporting your pelvic floor become lengthened from the weight of the baby bearing down for the last few months, as well as all that pushing you just did. By properly rehabilitating the pelvic floor muscles after birth, then you ensure that those ligaments return to their normal position.

If you add high-impact activities without first getting your pelvic floor muscles in order, then those ligaments can be overstretched and weakened, leading to an increased risk of pelvic organ prolapse, something that can occur often without warning.

A women’s health physiotherapist can help assess the tone of your pelvic floor and then give you progressive abdominal bracing and pelvic floor exercises. You can then expect to take 4-6 months before returning to your normal activity levels.