There are many happy reasons to enjoy the month of May. Most importantly, May is about mothers and includes one of the most special days of the year – Mother’s Day.
Moms bring life into the world and Mother’s Day is that special day where we all thank our moms for all they do. Women experience extreme physical and mental challenges during and after the birthing process. Too often women’s health is overlooked following this beautiful and exhausting time period.
During pregnancy, complications can occur including lower back pain, pelvic floor dysfunction, and postpartum depression. Most mothers don’t realize that many of these dysfunctions can be successfully treated by a trained doctor of physical therapy. Physical therapy can not only help prevent and treat these common women’s health dysfunctions, but also help safely transition a mother’s body back to her previous lifestyle without injury.
Physical therapy may offer some new mothers protection, both during and following childbirth, against postpartum depression (University of Melbourne’s Physiotherapy Department). Researchers found that women who had participated in an eight-week mother and baby physical therapy course that also incorporated parenting education, demonstrated a 50% reduction in risk for preliminary symptoms of postpartum depression. What’s more, the researchers found that the physical therapy benefits persisted a month after the course had ended.
Almost 8 out of 10 Americans suffer from lower back pain. A woman’s body undergoes extreme physiological changes during pregnancy, such as increased tissue laxity and alteration of pelvic alignment. Pregnant women are more susceptible to back pain both during and following childbirth. Low back pain may result from deep pelvic muscle imbalance, the lumbosacral junction, SI joint, or from pelvic malalignment. Additional pain may be the result of the pregnancy and post-operative procedures such as c-sections.
Physical therapy has been proven to be very effective in diagnosing and treating the sources of low back pain in women during and following a pregnancy.
Physical therapists are movement specialists as well as experts in exercise and fitness. Following pregnancy, abdominal weakness and dysfunction is common and may lead to spinal injury and pelvic dysfunction. Following childbirth, women often exert excessive stress to the abdominal muscles too soon. This stress can lead to separation of the abdominal muscles and cause more serious injury. By working with a physical therapist, an appropriate PT training program can be developed to help transition you back to the recreational activities, exercise, and sports that you enjoy while helping to reduce the risk of injury.
Moriarty Physical Therapy is a premier physical therapy center run by doctors of physical therapy located in New York’s Hudson Valley. To find out how physical therapy can help diagnose and treat mothers before, during, and after pregnancy, contact Moriarty Physical Therapy at (845) 454-4137 and set up a free exploratory visit!
You can also see our full list of services on our services page at https://moriartypt.com/services/
