Physiotherapy When Pregnant: Everything you Need to Know

Physiotherapy is an excellent way to increase strength, mobility, and flexibility, as well as to control and alleviate pain and inflammation. The good news is that even when pregnant, you can continue to attend and reap the benefits of your physiotherapy appointments. Attending physiotherapy when pregnant can help the body to undergo a smoother pregnancy and labour process by preparing the muscles and the body for childbirth. When pregnant, a physiotherapist can also help relieve common pregnancy symptoms and discomfort such as low back pain and can also help with common post-pregnancy issues such as pelvic health dysfunction.

Physiotherapy When Pregnant: Prepping the Body for Childbirth

In order to formulate a new treatment plan that is appropriate for you throughout your pregnancy, it is important and necessary that you tell your physiotherapist that you are pregnant as a first step in the process. Pregnancy can be accompanied by new aches and pains that you may have never experienced before. As a result, your physiotherapist will likely need to update or develop a new treatment plan for you based on these new symptoms. In order to best ease your symptoms and prepare you for birth, your physiotherapist may prescribe you with new strengthening exercises and stretches that you can do at home in order to alleviate your symptoms.

Physiotherapy when pregnant is an excellent way to prepare for childbirth by ensuring proper alignment of the body. Pregnancy can be hard on the body at times, and it can be even more uncomfortable if your body is still compensating for past injuries or misalignments in the joints, which can add to the discomfort of carrying a baby.

In the course of your pregnancy, physiotherapy can be of great benefit to the areas of our body we don’t think about as much, such as our posture. Pregnancy causes the body to adjust its stance and posture in order to deal with the increased pressure on the joints and load on the spine that the additional weight puts on the body. In order to maintain good posture and decrease the amount of pain in your back, you can work with a physiotherapist on strengthening areas such as your core.

Activity levels may change during pregnancy, usually due to fluctuation in energy levels. Despite this, it is actually very helpful for pregnant women to maintain some level of physical activity, such as going for a short walk or doing some strengthening exercises to maintain a healthy weight. Physiotherapy can assist you with incorporating daily exercise into your routine in a safe and healthy manner while you are expecting.

As mentioned above, it is possible that the pregnancy journey will bring aches and pains that you may have never experienced before. It has been reported that approximately two out of three women experience back pain during pregnancy, and it is considered to be one of the most common complaints. An assessment by a physiotherapist can alleviate this extremely common symptom and make your pregnancy much more comfortable and enjoyable.

Physio When Pregnant: Post Birth Pelvic Health Dysfunction

During pregnancy and after delivery, pelvic health dysfunction, which can result in incontinence, is very common. There are several symptoms of pelvic health dysfunction, including stress urinary incontinence or leakage of urine when coughing, sneezing, or exercising, heaviness in the perineum, or pain during intercourse. If you are experiencing symptoms of pelvic health dysfunction, one method of alleviating these symptoms would be to visit a physiotherapist who can work with you to rehabilitate the pelvic floor muscles, thereby reducing these symptoms.

Why You Should be Seeing a Physiotherapist When Pregnant?

When you are pregnant, you should consider going to physiotherapy for a variety of reasons. Physiotherapy is safe and highly beneficial for pregnant women and can help them to increase strength, mobility, and flexibility as well as to control pain and inflammation which are usually associated with the extra weight they have to carry around while pregnant.

Attending physiotherapy when pregnant can help you enjoy the pre and post-birth process more by preparing the muscles and body for the birth and helping to recover them afterward. A physiotherapist can help alleviate common pregnancy problems such as low back pain and pelvic health dysfunction that can lead to uncomfortable symptoms such as urinary incontinence or painful intercourse.

Final Words

Physiotherapy when pregnant can help to align the body properly and assist with posture to ensure that the body is ready for the birthing process. In addition, a physiotherapist will be able to help you ensure that you are doing light exercises in a safe and effective manner while you are pregnant in order to ensure that you are feeling your best and maintaining an active lifestyle.