Your typical medical team during pregnancy is often a GP, a midwife, and possibly an obstetrician. While this core medical team will cover all of your basic checks to make sure you and bubs are healthy through pregnancy, they aren’t focused on treating pains or giving you a proactive plan to prepare your body for birth. That’s where a women’s health physiotherapist comes in.
There are many benefits to adding a women’s health physiotherapist to your care team during pregnancy. Here are 3 powerful and surprising ways a physio can support you during your pregnancy.
1. Pain relief & management
We treat everything from neck and shoulder pain to hip and knee pain so you don’t have to deal with it throughout your journey. One common side effect of pregnancy is Pelvic Girdle Pain (PGP) which can cause extreme pain around your pelvic area. PGP makes everyday movements difficult *as if they weren’t already with a tiny human growing in your belly*. But you don’t have to put up with PGP or any pain.
We offer manual release to alleviate symptoms in an appointment, and arm you with tips, exercises and advice to make your pregnancy more pleasurable and less painful. Learn more about PGP in pregnancy here.
2. Pelvic floor education
Your pelvic floor is one of the most important muscles to understand in pregnancy, but it’s barely talked about with your standard medical care team. As women’s health specialists, we have a deep knowledge and extensive training in all things Pelvic Floor.
In our assessments we work with you to see what ‘normal’ looks like for your before birth. If you are experiencing any leakage, incontinence, or have an overactive pelvic floor *which you might not ever know until you see a physio*, we offer exercises and advice so they don’t become an issue.
We love educating women on their bodies and especially what your pelvic floor has to go through during delivery. Too often we see clients after they’ve given birth saying “I wish I knew this before labour” when they are dealing with pelvic floor issues afterwards.
3. Birth preparation
Giving birth vaginally comes with a few common side effects, tearing of the perineum is one of them. Four out of five women will experience some level of tearing during birth. There are known factors that predispose women to perineal tears, and in an assessment, we will see if any of these factors apply to you so you can reduce your risk in the lead up to (we’re talking perineal massage) and during delivery.
We can also check how effectively you can push *because in all honesty, it doesn’t come easily to everyone*. We will give you tips to prepare you for the big day so your pelvic floor can get out of the way and create a pathway for bubs to enter the world. If you end up having an epidural and having no feeling down there, having knowledge on how to push is invaluable.
As you can see, there is so much value and knowledge a women’s health physio can add to your pregnancy and birth preparation that you won’t get anywhere else.
For us, we feel a deep sense of satisfaction when we are able to empower you with the knowledge and confidence to ask questions, get answers and have a great pregnancy and birth experience.
Book your physiotherapy assessment or birth prep consultation with one of our qualified women’s health physios today. We can’t wait to support you during this exciting time.
