6 Must-Do Practices Immediately After Birthing, Before Your Doctor Clears You For Exercise

At Mind the Mat, we see it as our mission to fill the much-needed gaps in medical care for women during all stages of life. We are currently working on a specialized App that will come out later this year and will take our offerings for women to the next level.   

Let's talk about the infamous six-week gap after birthing and before returning to exercise with a doctor's clearance. So many resources and energy are put into prenatal health, but post-pregnancy health is equally, if not more, important. It's worth spending time and energy on this because what you do during these six weeks will highly impact how you feel when you begin exercising, your energy levels when your child becomes a toddler and even your peri-menopausal experience. 

The six weeks after birthing are best used sleeping as much as you can, bonding with baby, eating deeply nourishing and fortifying foods, cleansing your hormones, and toning the core of your body.

Here are six must-do practices for the six weeks after birthing:

1. Drink a ton of water and bone or mineral broth to support cleansing excess hormones and lymphatic sludge. Drinking bone broth (chicken, turkey, bison, or beef) or mineral broth (if you are vegetarian) both fortifies and cleanses your system. Eat fortifying root vegetables like beets, carrots, parsnips, and potatoes for strength and stamina.

2. Rib cage breathing. Breathe deep into your belly and exhale fully to draw your rib cage in and your navel toward your spine. Do this consciously three to five times daily. This practice begins to knit your abdominals back together. You can place your hands on your ribs or the sides of your belly to feel how this works. Inhale, the ribs expand. Exhale, the ribs draw in. You can even use your hands on the exhale to draw your ribs or the sides of your belly inward toward the midline of your body. In addition, deep breath engages and tones the pelvic floor. As the diaphragm presses down on the inhale, the pelvic floor stretches. As the diaphragm lifts on the exhale, the pelvic floor contracts. Try connecting your brain to your pelvic floor. See if you can relax your pelvic floor on the inhale and contract your pelvic floor on the exhale. The more you can make the brain/pelvic floor connection, the better!

3. Infrared or oxygen sauna. These types of saunas cleanse pregnancy hormones from your body through sweat. They also can encourage milk production. Find a business or a practitioner that offers this service. I have an infrared sauna in my home massage studio for women to use after birthing. I also highly recommend Melissa McGlone, who has an oxygen sauna in her Alexandria business. Email her at beewell428@gmail.com to set up an appointment. Wherever you go, see if you can buy a package of visits and sit in the sauna once, or better yet, twice weekly until you return to exercise. 

4. Post-pregnancy specific massage. If you've had a c-section, ask your massage therapist if they do c-section rehabilitation massage. I'm a certified massage therapist through the Virginia Board of Nursing, and I specialize in prenatal and post-pregnancy massage, including c-section scar rehabilitation. You can email me at smvand@yahoo.com to set up an appointment. 

5. Joint wrapping. During pregnancy and after birthing, there are high levels of the hormone relaxin in your system. This hormone helps to make your joints more mobile for the purposes of birthing. If you decide to breastfeed, this hormone will stick around until after you ween your baby. It takes time for relaxin and other pregnancy hormones to leave your body. For some women, it can take up to a year or more. Having your joints wrapped, the way I am doing to Jordan in this video, helps stabilize your joints, stimulate your lymphatic system (your body's cleansing system), and release excess hormones into your lymphatic system to be cleansed out through your urine. While this is an ancient practice, many PTs are beginning to do this for their post-pregnancy patients.  

6. Pelvic floor physical therapy. In many developed countries, this one is a given part of a women's post-pregnancy health regiment. Pelvic floor PT within the first six weeks after birth can prevent pain during sex and incontinence as well as assist with pelvic floor tone and abdominal health. I love Dr. Carrie Pagliano. Check her out at www.carriepagliano.com.

Once you are cleared for exercise, Mind the Mat highly recommends that you do at least three months of post-pregnancy specific movement. We have a specialized six-week series for post-pregnancy moms (the next one starts on June 29th), as well as Mommy & Me drop-in classes that are designed for women after birth.