This Common Mistake Is Why So Many Moms Continue to Experience Back and Pelvic Pain

Who do so many postpartum moms continue to experience back and pelvic pain or discomfort well beyond the early postpartum period?

They’re all making this very common mistake: caving into the lower back. 

This happens when your lower back is arching too far forward and often the curve of the lumbar spine is very pronounced.

This pattern is especially true in the later stages of pregnancy and postpartum when mom is carrying the weight of the baby on the front side of her body and it feels good to counterbalance that weight by pushing out your pelvis/hips. 

But this puts a lot of pressure on the lower spine, not to mention the pelvic floor and core muscles. This is why a lot of moms complain about lower back pain, lack of core strength, or even feeling disconnected from their bodies.

Even more importantly, it affects your breathing!

As a new mom who's perpetually in a state of discomfort, here's why your breath is the most underutilized tool you have for pain management:

When the back, pelvic floor and core muscles are tight, there isn’t much room for deep breathing.  When you’re consistently taking shallow breaths this actually amplifies your body’s stress state. This means that your nervous system can get stuck in a high stress mode.

When our bodies are consistently managing high stress states, pain feels more pronounced resulting in discomfort, more compensation patterns in your movement, pressure in your pelvis and lack of freedom to move well in your body.  

And nothing feels worse than you’re trying to manage the never-ending household chores, but nothing you do takes away the nagging back or pelvic pain.

This is why so many moms continue to deal with pelvic floor and core issues long after the postpartum period - because all of these muscles are tight from overcompensating for your caving into your back. 

Now I could tell you to straighten your spine or un-tilt your pelvis or even engage your core more, but holding or bracing these areas isn’t going to help you move freely either. 

This is where most moms get stuck. They turn to overexercising or pushing through pain thinking that the solution is rebuilding strength or tightening up these muscles.  But this only builds on the “core problem”.

You need to learn how to find activation without holding - and this is why I use breath. 

The real solution is learning how to use breath to find activation in your muscles without tightly holding them because that tightness is only going to perpetuate the discomfort and the body’s stress response.

Breath is movement and activation so when you use breath properly these muscles actually support your back, calm your nervous system and help your body move better. Resulting in feeling less tension, less discomfort in your back and pelvis, more strength in your core muscles and more capacity to be a mom.

And when you learn how to intentionally use your breath, most of the issues that you’re trying to solve with MORE exercise or more doing, actually solve themselves.

Unfortunately, most women, especially in the tender postpartum months, are not taught or equipped with the proper knowledge, technique and awareness of how to use their breath intentionally for healing and the way that their body needs to be supported during that time.  

This is why my new course, Breathe Your Blueprint, walks you through the basic principles of how using your breath properly can help ease pain, improve posture and build strength from the inside out. 

So if you're looking to make back pain a thing of the past and start feeling stronger in your daily life, access Breathe Your Blueprint today.