Pre-Natal Assessment and Education

• Usually done around the 20-25/40

• Assessment of pelvic floor function, weakness, tightness, perineal body length

• Education re: birth choices

• Empowerment to consider maternal health as part of the birthing process

• Education re: post-natal rehab

• Tailored programmes to prepare you for birth

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Pelvic Girdle Pain/Dysfunction Assessment and Treatment (including sacro-iliac, pubic symphysis, hip, back, coccyx pain and/or dysfunction)

This may occur pre- or post-natally.  There are different causes which dictate what kind of treatment is appropriate.  For some that is flexibility work, for others it's postural or strength work, some may need a support belt (we have a variety in stock), most will need activity modification.  Assessment allows us to build a programme that is tailored to your needs. 

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Post-Natal Assessment 

• Usually performed at 6 weeks post-partum to assess for pelvic floor muscle function, prolapse, pain, scar healing, abdominal separation and any other concerns that you have

• Can be performed earlier in a modified format for women with acute pain (internal or external), >3cm abdominal separation, marked incontinence, prolapse or other symptoms

• It is a much more detailed assessment compared to your 6 week check up with your GP or Obstetrician 

• From it you will either get the 'all clear', or a tailored programme to help you recover and return to the activities you love

• Approximately 48% of women will have some residual physical effect from giving birth.  This may be pelvic floor weakness, a prolapse, urinary leakage, faecal urgency or leakage, or abdominal separation.  Not all of these will be symptomatic but may become a problem when you return to exercise or sport, during your next pregnancy, or when you reach menopause.  For this reason, we recommend that every woman has a post-natal assessment to deal with any obvious issues, but also to check for any 'silent' issues so that we can prevent problems in later life

• The ladies who are at most risk of having post-natal pelvic health issues are those that have had: >4kg babies (especially if Mum is under 160cm); a long second stage of labour (>90mins); a really fast labour; an episiotomy or perineal tear; a forceps assisted delivery; their first delivery 

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Mastitis Management

​Mastitis is commonly caused by blocked milk ducts, not infection.  The symptoms of a blocked duct can mimic an infection (fever, redness, pain) but respond really well to therapeutic ultrasound.  Ideally the ultrasound is applied soon after the first symptoms appear and is augmented by techniques, such as breast massage, that we teach you to help manage the mastitis and prevent it reoccurring. For more information, please read the following blog on mastitis

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Abdominal Separation Assessment and Treatment

​Abdominal separation occurs, to some degree, in 99% of all pregnancies.  It is a normal part of the body's accommodation to the growing baby and uterus. 

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Pre-natally you often see a 'coning' or 'ridging' or 'doming' in the mid-line of the abdominal wall.  There are certain activities that you should avoid once your bump is growing.  These are written, along with more information, in our abdominal separation blog

 

Post-natally, as your hormones normalise after giving birth, your abdominal wall shortens again.  If your 'gap' is >3cm after birth we recommend that you come in for an early assessment so that we can help you optimise your recovery.  Otherwise allow yourself recovery time. The majority of the muscle recovery will occur in the first 8-10 weeks after giving birth. ​Ideally in this time, the 'gap' between the muscles will shrink back to it's previous size.  Some women don't get a full shortening of the tissues and are left with extra 'length' in the abdominal wall, others will get full recovery.  Either way, the most important thing is to reactivate your deep core muscles and then coordinate this with your functional movements.  By doing this, you can restore your muscle tone and bulk and 'flatten' your abdominals.  

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As part of your assessment we use the real-time ultrasound to look at the function of the different layers of your abdominals and use this information to tailor a programme to you.  To compliment your programme we also offer a 'Restore Your Core' online class.  

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Deep Core Retraining

• Whether or not you had any abdominal separation, it is really common post-natally for the pelvic floor and deep core muscles to forget what they're supposed to do

• If you are left with a 'bulging belly' that doesn't seem to flatten however much exercise you do, or a feeling of 'looseness' in the pelvic floor, it is highly likely that your deep core is not working automatically

• We can retrain this easily using the real-time ultrasound for feedback, a home exercise programme along with the option to join our online 'Restore Your Core' class 

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Return to Sport Assessment

• During this assessment we check you for any abdominal separation, pelvic floor muscle dysfunction or prolapse and take some very specific measurements to help determine your risk for going back to exercise or sport.  Tailoring this to your own specific goals we then build a programme to get you safely back to what you love as soon as possible

• We will also assess global function specific to your sport/exercise choice.  For example: if you are wanting to restart running, we will also assess your lower limb biomechanics, control, strength, power, endurance and running technique. We will teach you specific breath and pelvic floor coordination techniques to use to minimise the risk of leakage or prolapse

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Other Pains 

• Back, hip, knee, shoulder, wrist and thumb pains are very common during and after pregnancy

• We can assess and treat all these issues