During pregnancy there are many postural changes that can occur to accommodate your growing baby. Once you have had your baby these muscular changes can remain which can lead to pain locally and in the surrounding areas.
You may have developed weak muscles in the front of the neck, around the shoulder blades, abdominals and bottom and tight muscles around the front of the shoulders, lower back and in front of the hips. These areas are shown on the picture.
These areas of change can continue post birth due to all the lifting, carrying and feeding you now have to do. All of these are new tasks that the body isn’t used to.
You can try and help restore these muscle changes by being aware of your posture when feeding your baby whether it is bottle or breast fed. Make sure that you are sitting in a supportive chair and that you are able to sit right back into the chair with your feet on the floor. You could also put a cushion behind your back to keep you upright. Make sure your baby is close enough to you so pop them on a pillow if necessary. When you have finished feeding try and give your upper back a stretch and circle your shoulders to relax them and gently take your head from side to side to stretch your neck.
When you are pushing your baby in the pram/buggy make sure you are keeping up tall and not pushing it too far ahead of you causing you to lean forward.
Keeping active during pregnancy and afterwards will always help to keep these changes to a minimum but they can creep up on us without us being aware. At Buggyfit we work on strengthening all of the weak areas mentioned that develop during pregnancy. So if you haven’t tried it out yet then come along and give it a go.
A social outing. An opportunity to have a chat and make new friends going though similar things in life as you and with the same interest as you to get back in shape. You know the saying, ‘A problem shared......’ You may be at an exercise session but there is always time for a chat!
Come along and join us Monday, Wednesday and Friday meeting for 10.30 in front of the Pump Rooms at Pittville Park. There is plenty of free parking behind. E mail joan@mumsfit.co.uk for any other details.
