Your cesarean birth may have been scheduled or unplanned, but recovery can be confusing! If you’re lucky, you receive some guidance on how to enhance your healing, such as by doing scar mobilization. Or maybe your provider automatically gives you a referral to pelvic floor physical therapy since a cesarean birth is major abdominal surgery.
But unfortunately, more likely is you receive almost no guidance on what to do other than walk around and don’t pick up anything heavy.
Let’s explore three ways you can actually support your healing after a cesarean birth!
1) Scar Desensitization
The first thing you can do after birth is scar desensitization. Scar desensitization introduces different types of stimulus to your incision site to help reset the neuromuscular connection.
How scar desensitization works is that by introducing different types of stimulus, it overwhelms the system to reset itself.
Scar desensitization can help with numbness and with sensitivity!
How can we approach scar desensitization?
For the first three weeks, focus AROUND the incision site, using different fabrics and materials. This could include cotton balls, silk fabric, or even a makeup brush.
Touch the skin around the incision site to introduce different stimuli.
After three weeks, you could slowly move onto the incision site depending on how your incision site has healed externally.
2) Scar Mobilization
After scar desensitization to reset the sensation at your incision site, we can focus on mobilization techniques to help the connective tissues lay more organized after injury.
After trauma, the fascia tends to get “sticky” and adheres to other tissues and muscular layers.
Remember, that during a cesarean birth, 7 layers are cut through; 6 of which remain postpartum (the amniotic fluid sac is removed during birth)! These six layers can stick to one another during the healing process.
These adhesions can affect our function! Remember that our body works as a kinetic chain; movement in one area (or lack of movement) affects another area. When I reach my arms overhead, I can feel a pulling sensation down my torso into my hip flexor.
But adhesions can cause layers to “stick” preventing this smooth glide of layers during functional movement.
You may feel pulling or tugging in your lower abdomen, or even low back if there are adhesions at your C-section scar. This is where scar mobilization can help! And it is beneficial even if you are YEARS postpartum!
Typically, mobilization can be done AROUND the incision site starting around 3 weeks, then gradually onto the scar around 6 weeks.
Learn scar mobilization techniques and tissue healing timelines in our C-section scar mobilization course and webinar! Casey Backus, physical therapist and C-section mom x2, teaches this webinar using both her professional and personal experience to support your healing after birth.
Our scar mobilization course and webinar can be bundled with our 16-week c-section specific recovery fitness program!
We created our c-section recovery program with physical therapists and tested it with in-person clients to help you return to fitness after birth!
Begin Your Healing Journey After A C-Section Birth!
- 3 Hours of On-Demand Videos
- C-Section Scar Mobilization Webinar
- 16-Week Fitness Program: 4 Workouts Per Week
- Lifetime Access of Program
3) Splinting and Abdominal Support
In addition to techniques to support your scar healing to optimize overall function, we can also add external support to help with sudden changes in pressure during those initial weeks of healing.
Splinting is a technique where you press firmly against your incision site with a soft object or even your hand when you’re about to sneeze, cough, or even laugh.
Splinting applies external pressure against your scar to help counter the sudden increase of internal pressure. If you don’t splint, coughing or sneezing can be really painful!
If you pushed for a long period of time before your cesarean, you may also find splinting against your perineum can be helpful for comfort, as well!
Bonus: Belly Band Support
Another technique is to wear an abdominal support band to apply gentle compression externally.
When wearing a belly band, we want to ensure the band is loose enough that your abdomen can expand freely. If you find that there is a restriction when you’re breathing or you feel an increased pressure downward on your pelvic floor, the band is likely too tight.
We are looking for very gentle compression to add some external support.
You should only need to wear a band for a few weeks at the most, and do not wear it 24/7!
One of my favorite belly bands to give to my cesarean clients is the belly band from Its Bodily. Bao Bei also has some great postpartum support options that also include perineal support!
Support Your Recovery
Typically, we receive pretty minimal guidance on how to approach recovery postpartum. And then add on a cesarean birth that requires a bit more support—also with minimal guidance.
As we approach recovery postpartum, we can focus on our cesarean scar healing with desensitization to reset the neuromuscular connection and mobilization to align the tissues more optimally for function.
Additionally, we can add external support to our healing incision site with splinting and an abdominal support band such as a belly band or binder.