I know I might ruffle a few feathers with this post, but I have a lot of talks with newly postpartum Moms about wearing waist trainers and high-waist pants. Many women are told to wear abdominal binders, wraps, or corsets postpartum to help their core “heal” and their “abs come back together.” {Some physicians are even telling them this!} Some abdominal support garments can be helpful immediately postpartum, especially after a C-section, to help take some stress and pressure off of the abdominal fascia and healing incision as you are learning how to get up and down out of bed and resume normal daily mobility. While the garment can be worn for a few weeks, it is really important to wean out of it to facilitate your body’s healing.
Your abdomen is like a balloon with resting pressure inside. When you wear an abdominal binder, or high waist button pants like “mom jeans” it’s like taking the balloon and squeezing the middle, molding it into an hourglass shape. The pressure displaces downward, putting more stress on the pelvic floor. While we are postpartum, the pelvic floor is trying to heal (yes – even after a c-section) and putting excess pressure on it could create more imbalances and symptoms like heaviness, bulging, leakage, and pain.
REMEMBER – your core is a system made up of your abdominal muscles, pelvic floor muscles, glute muscles, low back muscles, and diaphragm. When we are recovering postpartum, we are working to support healing tissues and regain strength and balance in the whole system. When you wear waist trainers your body is getting it’s core support externally from the garment, and not from the actual muscles themselves. A postpartum recovery program, like RECOVER, helps your brain and body reconnect so that your muscles and entire core system will strengthen in a healthy and balanced way. You can continue to have back pain, diastasis recti, and pelvic floor symptoms if you don’t have that proper brain-muscle retraining.
Take the pressure off your belly and let your body heal!!
**RECOVER is a 12 week postpartum guided exercise program that includes a pelvic floor therapy consultation. Working with a certified prenatal and postpartum corrective exercise specialist and a pelvic floor physical therapist is important for your postpartum recovery and success!
Contact drsteph@empoweredwellnesspt.com to purchase your program!
