C -Section Recovery – why it’s more than just the scar……

Last week a certain post went viral (well in my world anyway) on social media. It was a video of a simply made felt book illustrating the layers involved in a C-section (click here for the idea credit)

What the short video clearly demonstrates ( in a non scary way) is the intricacies of the procedure; skin, fat, fascia. connective tissue of the abdominal muscles, peritoneum (what even IS that?**), the uterus and the amniotic sac are all cut before the baby is reached.

When a woman returns from hospital, she can see the external scarring but the level of healing happening beneath is hugely under-estimated. As the video made so clear, healing is happening on a very deep level and as scar tissue is created there is a potential for adhesions to form which can lead to a pulling or lack of co-ordination of the other muscles of the core (pelvic floor, back, even the way the woman is breathing).

There are so many take homes from that simple video. A starter for 10 is that it should be a sharp awakening in understanding that post an abdominal birth, the woman needs time to heal.

She needs to be nourishing her healing tissues with AMAZING nutrients.

Once she has an externally healed scar, she needs to be thinking about getting the tissues around the site mobile, the fascia sliding and gliding (hydrated and mobilised). I truly believe that any woman who has experienced abdominal scarring needs to get soft tissue therapy to prevent adhesions impacting her future function and movement and …

FINALLY, when she is ready to exercise, she needs to be considering the activation of her entire core… that includes her pelvic floor (and YES, that has been stretched by her pregnancy and the C-section procedure will still have affected the connection to those muscles) before she starts to consider loading, lifting, and adding impact to her workout.

I love the image below from Burrell Education that demonstrates how the rest of the body can be affected by abdominal scarring. Remember – work can be done, education is out there and help is at hand.

Women’s Health Physios can assess the function of your pelvic floor, there are soft tissue therapists out there with learning in scar tissue therapy and all Holistic Core Restore® coaches are equipped with the education to get you moving again.

Check out this page if you are interested in working with me to get you moving with confidence post C-section

**Peritoneum – a membrane that covers the inside of the abdominal cavity and abdominal organs