I started my kinesitherapie sessions yesterday. I am supposed to have 5 before the birth and 9 after. To me it seems normal, since I have heard a lot about it here, but I am not finding much info on it in English or on babyfit.com. Anyone else familiar with this?
Yesterday we learned about our circulation (or lack thereof) and some tips/exercises to help it. The woman also talked about how we should lay down and get back up (always via our side). She gave us exercises to work on our *things I can't remember the Dutch word and don't know the English one*. Basically the point of these sessions is to make the rest of our pregnancy and delivery easier.
What I thought was very interesting and was surprised that I had never heard of it before was Diastasis Recti. We were with about 15 ladies, all 26-34 weeks pregnant and we all had this, so it shows that it is VERY common. I had a '2-finger.'
I had heard from the regular doctor that you shouldn't do stomach exercises (such as sit-ups) during pregnancy, because you can harm the stomach muscles, but I didn't think much about that until now. If you try to do the wrong sort of exercises, you can strengthen the muscles that have pulled apart. If you do those exercises after birth before the separation has pulled/grown together, they will never fully come together and that causes the pudgy belly look which doesn't go away.
I was so glad I learned that, because I was already thinking about what stomach exercises I would do after the birth, but I don't want to be making the problem worse! I am glad I have the 9 sessions with the kinesitherapist after birth to help those muscles grow back together, then they will advise of the next steps to follow.
I've heard about that seperation of the abdominal muscles before. And that is why you really shouldn't start to resume exercising and working out until you are past 6 weeks post partum. Walking and swimming are fine, as long as your bleeding has stopped.
ReplyDeleteHere's something that my midwives made me do, and you can take it or leave it. They made me stay laying down for the first 4 days after Kaelyn was born. No walking around (except to go to the bathroom) no sitting up all the way (except to eat) and whenever you are not nursing the baby, to massage the top of the uterus (the fundus). This allowed the wound in my uterus that they placenta leaves behind to heal. I was done bleeding at 3 weeks post partum! It was amazing. With my first birth I bled for 6 weeks. With my second I bled for 8 weeks. That was all because I didn't give the inside of my uterus time to heal. It was hard laying down for 5 days, but it was well worth it! :)