Post Partum Physical Health: Do’s and Dont’s

• If you had an episiotomy, make sure you are recovering well. Take plenty of rest, Let the stitches air dry. You can use witch hazel water (available in pharmacies) every time you use the toilet after cleaning the area with water, you can even add it to the maternity pads.  
• Regularly check your stitches, contact your doctor if you have any concerns.
• Do not get into exercising immediately, wait for at least 6-8 weeks, and then if the doctor gives you clearance and if you feel alright you can start with walks.  
• If you are a caesarean mum, make sure your stitches are recovering well and you are taking plenty of rest and having painkillers regularly. Wear comfortable panties and, if breastfeeding, find a comfortable position to feed your baby (e.g. lying down).
• Do not carry your baby all by yourself all the time as it will put pressure on your stitches. Get help if you can.   
• Remember your body took 9 months to change, so relax for some time before trying to go back to your pre-pregnancy weight. Your body needs to recover from the childbirth which could take a couple or several months to recover from just the outer body stitches. 
• When you are ready to feel like starting your fitness journey start with recovering and rehabilitation exercises.
• Do your kegel exercises from the day you can move your pelvic muscles and your vaginal muscles are ready.   

Links to some exercises videos to help:  

Pelvic Floor Kegel Exercise After Delivery

Post Pregnancy Pelvic Floor Exercises

• Check the gap of the Diastasis Recti (this is muscles in your abs, and the tummy muscles separate to give space to the baby). Get it checked by a doctor at your 6 weeks check-up.  It is essential to take care of this as it can lead to some other complications.  

See some videos for help:  

Check the gap yourself (always better to get it checked by doctor, physio or nurse):  

How to Check for Diastasis Recti Ab Separation After Pregnancy

How To Check Abdominal Separation

Exercises:  

Breathing exercises to help heal DR:  

Diastasis Recti Breathing Exercises

Some other videos to do the exercises for reducing the DR separation: 

Mommy Tummy Workout Diastasis Friendly Exercises (BYE BYE BABY BELLY) 

15 Minute Diastasis Recti Repair Workout—Postnatal Core After Pregnancy

Diastasis Recti Exercises – Physical Therapy Diastasis Repair Exercises

Mummy Tummy | Heal your diastasis recti (abdominal separation) with these 5 moves

• Always go slow with exercises and avoid crunches, plank, back bending, upper body twists or any exercises where your tummy will have a bulge or has a coning effect. As this type of exercise will increase the Diastasis Recti (DR) gap and it could lead to other troubles like lower back pain, urine leaking (stress incontinence), tummy bulging, and worst case it could lead to hernia (where organs can poke out of an opening).  

 

“Mummy tummy” affects most women POST PREGNANCY. Yet no one talks about it.

There’s surprisingly little research on diastasis recti, which affects at least 60 percent of postpartum women.

DR separation is very under reported side effects of pregnancy, but it happens to most of the women during and post pregnancy and should be treated properly.  

• You can slowly start getting back to fitness once you feel confident and get doctor’s clearance. You can start by just walking. It’s the best exercise. Some of the youtube channels can help you with this:  

A birth doula speaks about postpartum exercising video:  

Postpartum Exercises for a Better Recovery | Birth Doula

TA breathing:

When you get clearance from doctor to exercise:

If you want to exercise with your baby, some suggestions are below:  

18 Minute Mommy and Me Full Workout—Workout to do with baby of any age

Full-Body Mom & Baby Workout 🔥 Mommy & Me At-Home Postpartum Workout with Baby

Pelvic floor exercises:  

Post Pregnancy Pelvic Floor Exercises

After C-Section:

• Make sure of the posture when carrying baby around. If using slings/carrier or carrying baby on your shoulders, make sure that your pelvic and back is in neutral and tummy pulled in. When picking up baby from floor, bend your knees and not just bend your back. See the below link to check how to pick up a baby while maintaining the posture:  

How to hold a baby without hurting your back

• Below pic from bodyfabulous is a good guideline for pregnancy recovery