Physiotherapy in pregnancy - 
What is involved and when should I attend?

Do you what we can work on during your pregnancy? 

Not only can we work on any of your aches and pains, we can start

assessing and discussing your pelvic floor, abdominal wall, labor preparation and

recovery strategies.

Some common aches and pains in pregnancy include:

• Lower back pain

• Pelvic girdle pain(pain across your belt line)

• Pubic symphysis pain (pain directly at the front of your pelvis)

We can assess you for this at anytime in your pregnancy and determine where

your pain is coming from, plus work on strategies to keep you mobile and pain free. 

We can also begin working on your pelvic floor after 20 weeks, provided there are no concerns

with your placenta or cervix. Things we can work on include:

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• Pelvic floor strength/relaxation/flexibility

• Pushing techniques (so the first time your asked to push isn’t when the midwife/obstetrician tells you to)

• Perineal flexibility 

• Advice on birthing and labor positions

As women’s health physio’s, we can assess your body to look for any areas of tension or restriction.  We can assess the length, strength and flexibility of your muscles, to give you advice about whether to squeeze more, relax more, stretch more etc. For a lot of women, we work on relaxation, how to push, stretching and massage of the perineum and pushing techniques.

This can be especially helpful if you have symptoms of a tight pelvic floor (urgency, frequency, painful Sex or inability to use tampons and tailbone pain).

We recommend this assessment taking place after 21 weeks, and can be done right up until you are ready to give birth.

Ideally, we recommend a session around the 20 week mark (once you’ve had your 20 weeks scan and everything looks good), and from there we can make an action plan about how often you need an appointment and what your goals may be.

The abdominal wall is a common area we work on, with many women wanting to ‘avoid abdominal separation’. While I can’t promise that that is possible (all women develop stretching of their midline during pregnancy- it’s essential for baby to grow), we can discuss how well you are loading your abdominal wall. We can also help you decide on what exercises may be beneficial for now, and what needs to be modified to keep you moving through your pregnancy and support your abdominal wall.