Prenatal and Postpartum Physiotherapy

Pregnancy and the postpartum period bring profound physical changes and physiotherapy can support you through both. Whether you're managing pain during pregnancy, preparing your body for labour, or working to recover your strength and function after your baby arrives, physiotherapy offers a structured, evidence-based path forward.

Prenatal Physiotherapy: Support During Pregnancy

Pregnancy changes your posture, your centre of gravity, your pelvic floor, and your core often in ways that cause pain, discomfort, or concern. Prenatal physiotherapy can help with:

• Pelvic girdle pain and sacroiliac (SI) joint pain: pain in the pelvis, hips, groin, or lower back that worsens with walking, rolling in bed, or standing on one leg; a common and treatable pregnancy complaint

• Low back pain: increased lumbar load and postural shifts during pregnancy are a leading cause of back pain; physiotherapy can reduce pain and help you stay active

• Round ligament pain: sharp or aching pain in the lower abdomen from stretching of the ligaments supporting the uterus

• Pubic symphysis dysfunction: pain at the front of the pelvis that can make walking, climbing stairs, or getting in and out of a car difficult

• Rib pain and thoracic discomfort: as the uterus expands and posture shifts, mid-back and rib pain become common

• Diastasis recti: separation of the abdominal muscles along the midline, which begins during pregnancy and requires careful management of load and exercise

• Swelling and carpal tunnel symptoms: fluid retention during pregnancy can compress nerves, causing tingling and pain in the hands

• Labour preparation: perineal massage guidance, pushing technique education, optimal positioning for labour, and breathing strategies to help the body during delivery

• Pelvic floor preparation: connecting to and learning to coordinate the pelvic floor before delivery

Prenatal care at InHealth is adapted to every trimester. Treatment is safe, gentle, and designed around your current stage of pregnancy and your goals.

Postpartum Physiotherapy: Recovery After Birth

The postpartum period is an important window for recovery, whether you delivered vaginally or by Caesarean section. Manisha's postpartum care helps you:

• Assess and rehabilitate the pelvic floor: checking for weakness, tightness, coordination issues, or prolapse after delivery, and building a recovery program specific to your findings

• Treat diastasis recti: assessing the degree of abdominal separation and guiding a progressive return to load that supports healing

• Return to exercise safely: the common advice to "just wait six weeks" isn't evidence-based for active return to impact, lifting, or core loading; Manisha provides a structured, individualized clearance process

• Support C-section recovery: scar mobilization (once healed), abdominal reconnection, and graded return to activity after Caesarean delivery

• Treat postpartum low back or pelvic pain: pain that persists or begins after delivery, often from the demands of feeding, carrying, and caring for a newborn

• Address bladder or bowel symptoms: leaking, urgency, or constipation are common after birth but are not something you simply have to accept; they are treatable

• Support return to intimacy: pain with intercourse after delivery is common and treatable;

Postpartum physiotherapy is appropriate from as early as six weeks after a vaginal birth, or eight weeks after a Caesarean section earlier if you are experiencing significant pain or functional difficulties that a physiotherapy assessment could guide.