Welcome to the MamasteFit Podcast. In this episode, we will be exploring a topic that means so much to us- recovery after Cesarean birth! Join us as we navigate through the immediate actions to take during the first few days and weeks postpartum and uncover the unique rehabilitation strategies required as you reintegrate fitness into your life after a Cesarean birth for a successful C-Section recovery journey.
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In this episode, we discuss:
- How to begin your c-section recovery starting at birth! What are the early things you can integrate to optimize the rehabilitation process?
- The importance of scar mobilization for c-section recovery
- How can you return to fitness around 6-10 weeks postpartum? What exercises should you include to reconnect with your core?
Gina: Welcome to another episode of the MamasteFit podcast. Today, Casey and I will be your hosts as we explore the topic of recovery from a Cesarean birth. Whether you’ve experienced this journey firsthand or you are an industry professional eager to enhance your understanding of C-section recovery, this episode will dive into how we can approach the unique needs of recovery from a Cesarean birth.
Casey: Hi, this is Casey. I’m happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Gina: Casey and I gave birth about a week apart with our firsts, and so much of what MamasteFit has become started with Casey and me connecting back in the summer of 2017 in her living room, trying to figure out what it meant being a mom and how we can give back to our community in this new role. So, thanks for being here with me Casey.
Casey: Thanks for having me.
Why is C-section specific recovery important?
Why does it matter? Because a cesarean birth is a major abdominal surgery that has almost no guidance for recovery. You are sent home with a baby and very minimal instructions on how to tend to your scar and then return to functional movement. And then you’re expected to be on the same timeline as someone who had an uncomplicated vaginal birth–it’s just not the same recovery.
Gina: So let’s start with why this matters. Why does recovery from a Cesarean birth require a unique approach? Why not just treat someone who has had a Cesarean birth the same as someone who has had a vaginal birth? Casey, can you share more on why this even matters and why is there a unique approach to this?
Casey: We like to say, or like to think, that maybe we ran into the roadblock so that you don’t have to so that you can kind of learn from our original mistakes, our original approach to healing. With my first Caesarean, just as any normal guidance is given to someone who had a vaginal birth, I was approaching the exercise recovery the same way, like the breathing, the pelvic floor stuff, and the gentle core work.
And I think in my own experience, like initially I was like, oh, this is like a little bit harder than I thought, right? So, like quietly I was trying to be a little humble about it. But my athletic mindset was taking over a little bit. I’m like, no, will be fine, really. I just felt really compromised in a lot of my movement strategies. Basically, to sum it up, I just kept feeling like I wasn’t making the progress that I thought I could be making or should be making.
And Gina and I just started to put our heads together like, this feels like maybe it’s missing something. Like, maybe we need to go back and catch up on some of the fundamentals and address some of the things that are different about a Cesarean birth, and some of the tweaks that we made along the way were really impactful.
And that was kind of the start of shifting to a more C-section-specific core restoration and rehabilitative approach. So we just kind of tested it on me and that was a really cool experience to be a part of. So, it definitely matters. That’s the summary of it, is that it is different. It feels different because it is different.
And that’s not assigning any value one way or the other to the way that someone births. But we just need different things. Just like someone with back surgery needs something different than a knee replacement.
Gina: So, with both a Cesarean birth and a vaginal birth, we’re both going through pregnancy in a fairly similar way, we might even both have been laboring the same way, but the actual mode of delivery is different, and that’s pretty impactful. Like a vaginal birth, there are all sorts of different things that could happen with vaginal birth, with different types of perineal tears and trauma.
But a Cesarean birth is major abdominal surgery. And so there is something really unique about that recovery approach. As Casey said, it doesn’t put a value on either type of birth, but it does require a different approach to really help you feel more connected after your birth. So what can someone do immediately after birth to support healing after a C-section?
What does recovery look like immediately after your C-section?
The first thing is wound care! Which can be intimidating if this is your first major surgery!
Casey: Immediate stages after Cesarean birth, when in your first couple of days in the hospital, preparing to be discharged home to immediately post-surgery, one of the things for us to be aware of is the wound care piece of it. We will have somewhere around a five-inch incision in that lower abdominal region, a kind of low transverse incision.
WOUND CLOSURE:
And most likely it will have a dressing on it. And that’s just all determined by the surgeon and what they feel most comfortable closing the wound with. And so, some women may have staples, some may have sterile strips, some might have surgical glue- or a combination of all of those. And the team at the hospital will help you navigate kind of what approach needs to be taken.
DRESSING/COVERING THE WOUND:
Usually, there’s a minimal approach. You don’t really have to do much in terms of dressing changes. There’s no need to purchase any extensive supplies or ointments or salves, or anything like that because we really are, in the early days, looking for the incision to be clean, dry, and intact. And so just from that standpoint, you know, it will just depend on the provider, whether you can take a shower right away and what the instructions are moving forward.
IT’S OKAY IF IT’S INTIMIDATING OR SCARY AT FIRST:
So depending on what type of wound closure your provider chose, you might have sterile strips, you might have surgical glue, it could look different. And then there’ll be kind of an outer sort of dressing that you can expect to be changed at about 24 hours. This can be alarming, if you’ve never had surgery before, or if the Cesarean was kind of unexpected, or if the circumstances surrounding the birth were intense or scary in any way, it can be a little alarming to see that incision at first, but it’s closed in a very secure way, and so it’s okay to be up and moving around.
GENTLE MOVEMENT HELPS PREVENT BLOOD CLOTS & PAIN RELIEF:
In fact, it’s really recommended, and this is kind of my perspective from back in the hospital days, it’s really, really good to get up and move around as soon as you are cleared to do that. And it can be really scary, like, “Holy cow, I just need to stay in bed. I don’t want my guts to fall out!”
It’s very intimidating to know that you have had this major abdominal surgery. But we do know, with all surgical patients, moving and the benefits of it outweigh the risks of things like pneumonia or any kind of blood clotting that can happen after surgery. And so it is important to get the body upright against gravity and moving around.
That can also help with pain. And so getting up and planning to do some short walks, moving around, that kind of thing can really help.
PAIN MANAGEMENT TIPS:
The other thing that’s important in the early, immediate postpartum is pain management. Oftentimes you will have some residual pain control from whatever the methods of anesthesia were that you and your providers chose.
So, you may have minimal pain for the first 12 hours, could be 24 hours, might be more, might be less, just depending. But you can work with your nurse and your provider to kind of develop the right amount of pain management that works for you. And, one of the things in PT that we would always give as a guideline is that if you could think of your pain on a scale, zero is no pain and ten is emergency room pain.
If you think about keeping your pain to about a four and not letting it get higher than like a six. So you’re trying to keep that pain at a four to a six out of ten, meaning we’re not expecting to be pain-free post-surgery – that’s not a realistic expectation, we’re going to have some discomfort, pressure, pain- but that we can work to decide what pain medications, or if pain medications are appropriate for us to keep us in that window where we’re managed enough that we can move around.
And so those are just some things to think about, from my own perspective and from a pain perspective, in the very early days, postpartum after Cesarean.
Splinting: Comfort with Coughing, Sneezing, and Laughing
Gina: Some other things that we can do to support our comfort immediately after Cesarean birth is going to be splinting, which means when you get ready to cough or sneeze or laugh or anything, we’re increasing pressure within your abdominal cavity very suddenly. You can place your hand, or like a soft object such as a pillow rolled up towel against your incision.
And it kind of gives you some counter pressure or some external support to counter that increased pressure. So if you get ready to cough, just put your hand or something soft against your incision and that can help with a lot of comfort. If you had like a long pushing phase before your Cesarean birth, you might also want to put your hand or something soft against your perineum.
And so you kind of have one hand against your incision and one against your perineum to kind of counter that increase in pressure for your comfort whenever you’re coughing or sneezing or even laughing. Another thing that can be helpful postpartum for both a vaginal birth and a Cesarean birth is going to be some sort of belly band. Belly bands can be nice because they give you that external support against your incision site, so that just gives you that little bit of support that you might need.
And it’s also going to do a little bit of that splinting, or counter pressure, for you. When wearing belly bands, we don’t want them to be so tight that it’s kind of inhibiting your ability to breathe or take a full breath. You should still be able to inhale and feel your ribcage and belly expand, but you should have some support.
So it’s like this gentle compression giving you some aid. Sometimes the hospital can give you one or two. You can have your own on hand. Bodily has one of my favorite belly bands that I will give to my C-section clients, and they all say that it’s really helpful for them. The fabric feels really nice against their skin, and so it’s irritation-free.
DO YOU NEED A BELLY BAND?? IT CAN BE PERSONAL PREFERENCE!
Casey: One of the things in terms of compression or belly banding to note is that you may not know if it’s the right thing for you until you have a Cesarean birth. So, I just want to say that I had two different experiences with my first and second birth. During my first birth, I did not prefer any compression. It was really uncomfortable.
It made me feel a little bit nauseous and it just did not seem like it was the right thing for me. Second pregnancy, though, completely different story. I really felt amazing with compression. I felt like I could get up and move around. I could help care for my toddler on top of the newborn. I felt like I had more energy.
Everything just felt better with compression. So, sometimes we tolerate it and sometimes we don’t. There’s not really a great explanation, but I just don’t want anybody to panic or be afraid if they are not tolerating their belly band to think, “Oh no, something’s wrong,” or, you know, “Something’s going to happen to my belly if I don’t wear it.”
There are some physical reasons to have it, but it can also be a matter of personal preference and tolerance.
HOW LONG SHOULD YOU WEAR A BELLY BAND??
Gina: How often should someone wear a belly band if they do find it comfortable for them? Is it for like 24 hours, seven days a week? Do they wear it for the rest of their lives? Like how often should someone wear a belly band if they tolerate it?
Casey: Well, my professional recommendation would be if you have an active part of your day that you might be more upright and just navigating maybe some baby care tasks or things like that, you might wear it for an hour or two while you’re upright. But as you start to recline and to lay down the belly naturally kind of relaxes, those are times that you would want to take that belly band off.
So opting for something that’s easy on an easy off could be really nice.
Let's Talk About Scar Mobilization
Gina: So after the initial wound care, managing your pain and supporting your wound. Externally, we can also begin to focus on healing and supporting the rehab of our scar, which is going to play a big role in our overall function. So, Casey, could you break that down more?
Casey: One of the things to note, especially if you have yet to have a Cesarean birth, is that some changing sensation in terms of how your skin feels is totally normal and that can induce a little bit of panic like, “Oh my goodness, my stomach feels numb or it feels weird” is more than likely the response, and that’s okay.
There’s quite a bit of tissue that has to be navigated in order to get the baby out. And that includes cutting through the skin, which is highly vascular, meaning it has a lot of blood vessels that run through it and a lot of little tiny, what we call cutaneous nerves, which means they give your skin sensation. As we know, belly skin can be relatively sensitive.
And so it does take time for some of that sensation to return. And we can get some nerve repair around the incision. And some of that incision sensation can get better over time, but it won’t happen immediately. And so we can help it along by doing Scar Desensitization, which is a little bit of a mouthful to say that just touch your scar.
And that means to touch your scar in whatever capacity feels appropriate once, your scars are healed. So not in days, you know, 1 to 10, where you still have a relatively freshly healing wound. But as the skin starts to heal, we can practice various techniques of touching that skin with various textures. I don’t recommend switching up temperatures, so heat and cold not recommended on a new healing incision because you may not be able to detect just how hot or just how cold, and we don’t want to injure the skin, but different textures, washcloths, a silk scarf, anything- just your hands in the shower with some soapy water, various things once the skin is well healed and intact. And we break that down a little bit more in-depth in the webinar that we offer every couple of months in our Scar Mobilization webinar, really kind of A to Z on how to care for the incision once it’s healed, once you’re cleared.
And what does that mean? How can we really work with the deeper tissues to make sure that you maximize your function and your healing capacity after Cesarean?
Gina: So, in addition to our live C-section Scar Mobilization Webinar that we offer, we do have a self-paced course as well. So if the next webinar isn’t for another month or two and you want the information now, we do have a self-paced course as well that you can join to begin to focus on your scar healing, which again is a huge part of our overall function.
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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
The Importance of Diaphragmatic Breathing
Gina: The next thing that we can start doing in addition to beginning to touch our scar is we can start doing diaphragmatic breathing. And so diaphragmatic breathing is like the earliest core exercise that we can do because it involves movement of our diaphragm, with our pelvic floor, and kind of interacting with the pressure management within our abdominal cavity, in our thoracic cavity.
And so with diaphragmatic breathing, when I inhale my ribcage is expanding, which is pushing my diaphragm down and that is going to be increasing pressure within the abdominal cavity. The response as the diaphragm moves down is the abdominals and the back are expanding and the pelvic floor is moving down. So we have this increase in pressure within the abdominal cavity.
When I exhale, everything can either recoil and come up with relaxation or I can contract and activate. And so I have muscular activation that is going to be lifting the pelvic floor, bringing the abdominals and back in, which is going to kind of push that diaphragm back up. So depending on whether you want to focus on more of the lengthening and stretching or if you want to focus more on the contraction the will kind of depend on how you want your exhale to be.
And so, with diaphragmatic breathing, we can do it in multiple positions and you’re going to find one that feels good for you at this point. And so maybe we start supine, we’re laying like flat on our backs. Maybe it’s a more reclined position depending on what feels most accessible to you. Some folks find side-lying feels really good for them, and so at this point, we’re just kind of exploring movement.
There’s no set protocol, like on day one you must do this movement, etc. Every day is going to be a little bit of an exploration on what feels accessible. And so in whatever position that you choose, you’re just going to focus on inhaling to feel your back push into the couch or whatever surface you’re leaning on.
If you’re laying on your side, you’re feeling that bottom ribcage, push into the bed down below you, and then you can either exhale and just relax, or you can exhale to lift up. And then during the first month postpartum, it’s pretty gentle. So we’re like 40 or 50% with our fullest expansion with that. So I’m inhaling to like 40% expansion and I’m exhaling to like 40% contraction.
So we’re not finding our deepest inhale and deepest exhale. We are just kind of exploring the movement and feeling our diaphragm and pelvic floor move together and feeling our core move. This is the first step for us to kind of reconnect with our core after birth.
When and How to Introduce Gentle Movement
Casey: So once we begin to connect with our breath postpartum, then we can start to move into gentle mobility. And it’s important to know that we would have to be doing this anyways, regardless of the way that we birth, our body went through postural changes for nine plus months, and so it can be really normal to just be lost in your body.
And I will say for sure that’s not something that I expected to feel. I thought just a combination of my own background, my knowledge, background in sports and movement and yoga, I was like, “Well, I’m not usually disconnected from my body,” but it’s really a normal thing to feel that way, and it can be very panic-inducing when you feel like you’re moving around really like disjointed.
So a couple of things we’re going to avoid early on after C-section is being on the belly too much, being on the belly and doing kind of twisting or anything that would be like in a back bending category. So if you practice yoga, like up dog type movements, any of those things that really arched the back and would stretch that incisional tissue is not really recommended.
We go into detail on the Scar Mobilization webinar about the actual physiology of healing and what the timeline is there and why those things are appropriate at a later time and kind of what the body’s doing right down to a cellular level that would help us choose the programing as Gina has laid it out and why things are all very intentional.
And so we’re not going to do much on the belly and twisting that doesn’t feel as accessible. But if we can focus on more seated and supported positions, just focusing on finding what we call a neutral rib cage, where the front of the rib cage starts to come down, whereas in pregnancy it may have been really lifted up to accommodate for baby. So we’re just trying to find that neutral rib cage that expands really nicely over top of our pelvis, and a neutral pelvis.
Not that we have to stay rigid like a robot, because obviously the body is made to move. So there is no one perfect position but we’re just kind of starting to ease into finding our way back there. The most important thing to recall, especially if maybe you’re a higher level mover and have done maybe more competitive style movement or you’ve been more intense with your movement, is that we really are taking the time in early mobility to connect with the brain and that it’s not always that your body is weak or that we’re really trying to fire up intensely the muscles, but more so that we need to talk to the brain and kind of reacquaint the brain with this new body, this new movement, and then just redirecting the brain to remember how to control the core again after those muscles have been cut. So that’s kind of key.
Some Tips for Increasing Movement with Time
Gina: So Casey, do you have any general tips and advice for somebody in their early, like, first month after Cesarean birth?
Casey: It’s a quality over quantity thing. What I mean, from a movement perspective, is that it’s better to ask for help when you’re in those early phases where it’s most likely your movement is compensated, most likely you are using some compensated stabilizing strategies, whether it’s holding your breath or clenching your butt cheeks or bracing your belly really hard. All of those things are ways to get things done.
And so we’re all moms. We understand life is busy. You’re going to have to do some things, but quality over quantity in terms of your movement. And so really being intentional in those early days of like setting the foundation of how your breathing, how your breathing with movement starting to reconnect with the core, taking the time to do the really basic things in terms of movement and mobility so that you have a good foundation to build more intense or resistive type exercise, whether that’s in the gym moving weights, or just like in your life, moving your laundry baskets, your kids, navigating stairs, doing things like that, getting in and out of the car.
And so the overall advice is just to do less, but do it with more quality movement and more intention and attention. And, you know, just those little self checks of checking in with are you breathing, are you clenching? A lot of times the body will just create a compensation if you are moving a lot and the body will create these compensations just to kind of keep up with the demands that you are placing upon it.
And so it’s just better to go slow and move with quality and then allow the demands to increase if you can help it, if you have support, allow the demands to increase as your body is more capable and able and healed to take up those demands.
Gina: And so after the first like 4 to 10 weeks postpartum, and I would say even probably closer to 6 to 10 weeks before returning to fitness, there is a unique approach for Cesarean birth return to fitness.
The Birth of the MamasteFit C-Section Recovery Program!
Gina: And so we used to just have one program that was for everybody and the initial thought was we were all recovering from pregnancy and so we need a similar recovery and so we should just have one program for everybody. But we definitely started to recognize, and maybe it was just like a lot of frustration from Casey, that there was something missing for our C-section clients. And Casey would come to me and say, “I need something different.” And I would argue with her like, “No, we’re all healing exactly the same. We’re all the same, Casey!” She would say, “No, like, something is not…something is not right. Something’s not clicking for me. The movement is not feeling reintegrated into my body like I feel disconnected still and I shouldn’t,” and so we decided to experiment with it and we’re like, “Okay, well, let’s sit and think about what happens during Cesarean birth that’s so different from a vaginal birth.”
And the biggest difference is there is a major wound on the lower part of the abdomen. And so we have various facial lines through our body that influence how we can move our body. And one of these major lines is known as the anterior oblique sling and this is going to be severed during a Cesarean birth. And so we have this disconnection that’s happening after birth that is not present during a vaginal birth.
And so this is the unique aspect of a Cesarean birth. This is major abdominal surgery and this fascial line is being disconnected. So what we did with our C-section program was begin to really integrate a lot of movements that activated this anterior oblique sling to help with this neuromuscular connection so that the brain can recognize again, “Okay, when I do movement, I need this fascial line to work together.”
And so, Casey was a softball player and this was like a movement that kind of clicked for her again, because it was a movement pattern that she was used to playing softball during college. So, Casey, you want to talk more about how the anterior oblique movements really like clicked?
Casey: This kind of loops back to the idea that we’re not just training the body in a vacuum, we’re training the brain. And I think one of the pieces that I was underestimating was getting my brain on board with activating the movements. I kind of was maybe just taking it for granted that, “This is this exercise, I’ve done this before. I’ve done this. I could do that before I was postpartum.” And so there was just something about, I was on the ski ergometer, and it was something related to doing diagonal pulls where there was just this, literally felt like the electric connection between my brain and my body. And I thought maybe, you know, initially I’m like, “I’m just going to say something to Gina.”
Maybe this is because my brain took so many swings and played softball with that same rotational movement. And so maybe it just is something I personally am familiar with. But the more we did it and in, both directions I’m like, “No, there’s something to this. Like this is waking something up. This is bringing the right amount of demand.”
So that anterior oblique sling, it’s creating kind of a brain wake-up. I would have loved to geek out and see an MRI of what was actually going on in my brain at that time as everything was starting to connect again. And it doesn’t mean that you have to do the ski ergometer if you don’t have access to that.
But just we started to really understand that the anterior oblique sling was going to be a key component to finding that restoration of the core. Soon after that, we noticed that my diastasis had quickly started to close. So I had been struggling, still, I think at nine or ten months postpartum, with a residual separation in my abdomen, which can be really common, especially with Cesarean birth.
And so getting all of those tissues working kind of like an orchestra really helped to create demand in that tissue, which then created density in the tissue, which helped to close the separation, which helped with the aesthetic of my abdomen. And so it really was something that we understood to be like a really huge foundational piece to restoring that cabin pressure basically in the abdomen, awareness in the core after Cesarean birth.
Gina: So Casey and I began to integrate a lot of these anterior oblique sling-focused exercises. The anterior oblique sling runs essentially from your chest, it crosses your obliques and your abdomen, across the pubic symphysis (or the front pelvic joint), into the opposite inner thigh. So this diagonal sling or cross across the front of your body. And you have one that goes in each direction forming this X.
And so movements that are going to help to activate this anterior oblique sling are going to be movements where your shoulder and your opposite knee are moving towards one another, closer towards the midline. So think like rotational movements where you’re kind of swinging in one direction. There’s a lot of like acceleration that could be happening and so a lot of like sport-type movements are going to be integrating these into your obliques link.
After we developed the program, we tested it on Casey and it was really clicking for her and movement was making sense again. She was feeling more connected from mind to body. We asked our community for other folks who had had Cesareans to come and test the program with us. And so that’s one of the really cool aspects about our programming here at MamasteFit, is we have an in-person training facility and so we have people that come and test all of our fitness programs, and then we tweak it based on their feedback, and what was working for them.
And so we had all these C-section moms come to the gym and they tested out the C-section program, and all of them said, “I feel more connected like this is the first time in two years that I feel like I really can activate my core, that I feel like I’m connected to my core again.” And so it was really amazing that this concept that we kind of came up with by ourselves after Casey was experimenting with it, that it was really working for a lot of people, too.
And that’s how the MamasteFit C-section recovery program came to be. Casey and I developed it together, and then we tested it on other moms who all said, “Yeah, this, this is clicking for me. This makes sense to me.” And so with the anterior oblique sling, we’re not starting with like going outside and swinging at a ball right away.
We’re going to start with supine movements, then more supported positions from a seated position. And so we’re going to be in a really stable or supported position as we first begin to integrate this into your obliques. And maybe it’s more like isometric movements at first, like a pallof press, where you’re pushing the band out and resisting a rotational pull. And then we’re slowly adding a little bit more instability, where we’re going from a seated position to a half kneeling position to a standing position. And then we could add in more movements, such as adding in the rotational element.
So just slowly adding more to it, but remembering more doesn’t mean better. Because if we come to a point where we begin to compensate or begin to feel unstable, then the movement may not be helpful for you. And that’s something that we talk about with our in-person clients as well as the programming may be advancing. If you don’t feel like you’re ready for advancement, just kind of hold back a little bit and kind of honor your own individual journey.
Casey: One of the things that I found really neat, really effective, I thought, and just again, really intentional- and Gina is super intentional with her programing- is we do exercises where you’re like pressing a ball with one hand, and pulling a band with another and from the surface kind of appear complicated or like, what’s going on here? But the name of the game with the anterior oblique sling is really to create demand.
And so whether it’s a stabilization demand or whether it’s pulling a band to create movement, all of those things were really carefully crafted and intentional to leave the brain and the body no choice but to activate the right muscles at the right time and have to stabilize some and move others. And that’s something as a physical therapist that has always been attractive to me in the programing, is just how well thought out it is and how we’re really focusing on creating movement patterns that are healthy and stable and don’t rely on compensations.
And again, just like Gina talked about, you know, we’re not advancing movements if the body doesn’t show that it can comfortably meet the demands. And if that takes an extra week, or two weeks, maybe you’re not finishing your workouts because you maybe need to or you’re short on time, you know that there’s some flexibility in the pacing there.
Sample Progression for C-Section Recovery: The Pallof Press
Developing the MamasteFit C-Section Recovery Program
Gina: And so when we developed this concept in late 2019, I don’t think anybody else was really talking about it. I felt like it was like we started with this C-section mobilization webinar and then we started integrating more of the fitness aspect to it. And so it was really cool to be able to support this very specific community that I felt like it was almost neglected for a long time.
It’s possible that it was an attempt to diminish the significance of the Cesarean birth. We firmly believe in acknowledging the power and importance of different birthing experiences, to include a Cesarean birth. While we treat everyone equally within our rehab programs, we recognize that diverse experiences come with specific needs, and so it’s akin to following the same rehab protocol to somebody who has an ankle sprain versus somebody who has a broken femur bone.
So those are two really different experiences. And so there are similarities between those two injuries. There are similarities between the rehab needs of a vaginal birth and a Cesarean birth. But there’s also very distinct requirements of each. A C-section birth is a valid and beautiful way to give birth just as valid is about from birth, but it involves unique recovery needs.
And so we must remember that it is major abdominal surgery, an event that has significant magnitude and that deserves utmost consideration.
Casey: One of the things that’s really cool from a hindsight perspective is that we realized that there wasn’t anything out there. Having gone through two Cesarean births in 2017 and 2019, there wasn’t anything out there specific for C-sections. And in the moment, in that 2017 timeframe, I didn’t expect there to be and I don’t know why I didn’t, because, now, looking back at all of this work that we’re so proud of and really so much gratitude for the people that we know that were able to help, it kind of seems silly. Like why weren’t we asking those questions back then?
Or why was that okay that there wasn’t anything out there until we stumbled upon our own roadblocks along the way and kind of navigated it. So I think it makes us that much more proud that we were kind of navigating a new frontier way back when, in a space where there just wasn’t there wasn’t much talk about tailoring anything specifically or doing anything extra to support moms that have had Cesarean birth.
And this is not at all to minimize any specific needs that someone with a vaginal birth might have. And again, both are worthy of all the love and respect and healing. But we feel just super proud inhabiting this space where there were no voices, really, just a few short years ago. So it’s cool to see how things can change and to have that reach to help people.
Okay! Let's Recap!
Gina: So there’s a lot that we could do to support our recovery after Cesarean birth or to support the recovery of those that we love and support after birth. So immediately after a C-section, we want to be focusing on wound care, pain management, and then begin to introduce scar desensitization to reset the connection to our lower abdomen. We can also integrate diaphragmatic breathing and dental mobility to begin to move our body and asking for tons of help.
And then if you need it, adding that external support to help support your incision site. When we return to fitness, there is a unique approach for Cesarean birth recovery. A C-section is a valid way to give birth, and for many can even be life saving. And so we are thankful for this birth option, but it still is major abdominal surgery and we need to approach our rehab as such.
The anterior oblique sling is severed during a C-section birth, and so focusing on reestablishing this neuromuscular connection is huge as we rebuild after birth, which is why we include such a huge emphasis on it within our C-section recovery program. If you are recovering from a C-section, we hope to be a resource for you. We offer our C-section Recovery Fitness program that incorporates all of these components and more to support your recovery after birth.
Our program’s creation was a collaborative effort involving Casey, a highly skilled physical therapist and a community of C-section athletes like yourself. They played a vital role in testing our programs to ensure its practicality and credibility. It’s rare to find programs specifically tailored to this population, let alone those extensively tested with actual clients. What sets us apart is our unique offering of perinatal fitness training exclusively designed for this population, along with in-person training for prenatal and postnatal clients.
All of our programs undergo continuous refinement based on invaluable feedback and performance from our in-person clients.
Casey: As with anything in the science world, the research is starting to catch up. And in this scar mobilization webinar, I’ve shared some recent studies that kind of show to us that our fellow scientists and researchers are taking an interest in outcomes after Cesarean birth, and specifically looking at things like chronic pain, hospital readmissions, things like that in terms of wound healing and patient experience, overall outcomes in terms of rehab, specific programs for Cesarean birth to include scar mobilization and how those outcomes we see are far better than no intervention at all for moms with Cesarean birth, which we know was kind of the standard just a few short years ago.
Gina: So thank you for joining us today and listening to this episode. If you want more support throughout your pregnancy, join our prenatal fitness programs and childbirth education course. If you need more support after birth join our postpartum fitness programs and education courses. If you’re a professional, we offer both worker and fitness trainer courses. You can learn from us and earn CEU’s. Explore all our courses on our website at MamasteFit.com
Postpartum Recovery Programs
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
Recover after birth with our mini postpartum fitness program! Workouts are 15-20 minutes in length so you can squeeze these in FAST! Workouts include warm up, strength workout, and mobility cool down.
- 12 Week Program
- 15-20 Minute Long Workouts
- 64 Training Days
- Teambuildr App Access