I have kids, of course I have pain!
What if I told you that it is not normal to have pain just because you have kids? What if I told you that it is not normal to have pain just because you are a few years older? Would you believe me?
Just because you had kids, does not mean that you should now have to be in constant pain. It also does not mean that you should have to wear a panty liner or expect to change your underwear after you have a good laugh (this is for another blog post).
Even though you are now older than before you had children, you still should not have to live a life of daily aches and pains. Yes, as we age our hormones shift, we put more wear and tear on our bodies, but we don’t have to be in pain because of it.
We experience pain to protect our bodies. If something is wrong, we feel pain so we know to change what we are doing to not cause permanent injury. However, sometimes our brains (literally, science says so) overreact and continue to tell us we are experiencing pain even though there is no threat to our physical well-being. When this happens, it is important that we inform our brain that everything is okay.
There are several ways to do this. The best place to start is to ease back on the activity causing pain and figure out why it is causing the pain. Is it the way you are moving? Maybe it is because some of your muscles are overworking and some are underworking. Maybe it is because you actually just stubbed your toe and that hurts really bad!
Being pregnant causes our bodies to change A LOT. After pregnancy, most things should change back to how they were prior to pregnancy, but not all. Some people’s bodies know exactly what to do and have no problem going back to their pre-pregnancy form (man I wish this was my case). Other bodies (definitely mine) need a little extra TLC and guidance on how return to a pre-pregnancy state.
For example, in order to have a vaginal delivery, your pelvis opens up to allow the baby to move through and come out. Sometimes the bones need a gentle touch to guide them back to being in a “closed” position. If your pelvis stays in an open position, it can cause instability and lead to pain because your brain senses something is not right.
Another example is your mid-back. During pregnancy your ribs “open” up to allow room for the baby. Then you have the baby and carry him around a lot and might be breastfeeding her. Your ribs might need some extra guidance with touch and specific exercises on how they should go back to a “closed” position and your mid-back might need some extra help to have the mobility it did prior to pregnancy.
If you experience pain that is short lived, that might mean that your body thought something was going to happen, but nothing did so you can move on and forget about it. This pain is fine. It is not harmful and does not need any intervention because, well, it is gone.
However, the pain that lasts, that causes you to not do something, or you wake up thinking about it, or you change how you do things because of it, this pain is NOT normal and NOT okay. Please seek help if you are experiencing this type of pain so you can enjoy being a parent, and you can enjoy the years as you get wiser.
