| After the Baby: Where Did Your Get Up Go? No | | | | of your feet. And if you leave them to heal on their |
| sooner have you birthed your new little bundle, but | | | | own, you could be left with permanently flat feet, and |
| there's someone hollering in your ear to get off your | | | | a painful back out of alignment. One thing is for sure, |
| duff and walk, walk, walk. Those are the same people | | | | the longer it takes you to heal, the longer it will take |
| who proffered advice during your pregnancy about | | | | you to lose those extra pounds and get back to being |
| eating right, not eating too much, and the need to | | | | the strong, active woman you want to be. So besides |
| continue exercising until the day you check yourself | | | | rest (when you can get it), what can you do to help |
| into the hospital. As far as I can tell, those people have | | | | your body heal faster and offset some the of the |
| never had morning sickness around the clock for | | | | strange and unexpected side effects of pregnancy |
| four--yes, four--months! When the only things that | | | | and birth? Three Ways to Heal Faster and Get the |
| would push the nausea back down to a bare-able | | | | Spring back in your In-Step If you want to speed the |
| queasiness for a little while were heaps of mashed | | | | healing process, feel stronger and stand on your own |
| potatoes (the dehydrated version work the best, by | | | | two feet sooner, try these three things. 1. Sleep on a |
| the way) and the saltiest saltines you could wrap your | | | | firm mattress and use a pillow that is just thick and |
| chubby, little, toxemic fingers around. Nor have they felt | | | | pliable enough to support the natural ark in your neck - |
| the back pressure and overall discomfort that comes | | | | anything softer (in a mattress) of thicker (in a pillow) will |
| at about 6.5 months. Lots of people, especially those | | | | put added pressure on your back and neck, and will |
| who have not had a baby themselves, will tell you that | | | | slow healing of your ligaments and joints. 2. Where |
| you need to get back to your regular exercise routine | | | | supportive footwear - until you lose the extra weight |
| immediately after you've delivered. Speaking on behalf | | | | from pregnancy, the combination of extra weight and |
| of my wife and many of my female patients, I will tell | | | | ligamentous laxity will continue to put pressure on the |
| you that you need to give your body a chance to rest | | | | ligaments in your feet and may make flat feet a |
| and recover from the most exhausting and traumatic | | | | permanent state. Flat feet can lead to ongoing pain in |
| ordeal it has ever (and probably will ever) go through. | | | | knees, heels and balls of feet, and so on. So don't let it |
| You also need to give your mind and body a chance | | | | go. 3. Visit a Structural Integration Rolf Practitioner - |
| to get used to around-the-clock feedings and caring | | | | During the healing process for any musculoskeletal |
| for a brand new baby. When you do begin exercising, | | | | change (from displaced disc to post partum healing), it |
| be sure to check with your Obgyn to find out if you | | | | is important to make sure the body heals in a way that |
| are physically ready. Any Obgyn worth her salt will tell | | | | brings you back to the strong, upright person you were |
| you to take it slowly because your ligaments are still | | | | prior to the trauma. As your SI body-worker, I use |
| loose due to the hormones that flooded your body to | | | | body alignment techniques established by Ida Rolf |
| enable your hips, pubic bone, and associated ligaments | | | | (Ph.D.) in the 1950s and practiced for more than 50 |
| and muscles to expand enough to allow the birth to | | | | years. I free restrictions in the pelvis caused by the |
| happen. Those loose ligaments are everywhere in | | | | trauma of birth. I slowly, ever-so-gently tip the back and |
| your body (not just in your hip and pubic areas). You | | | | spine into alignment. And I balance the arches of the |
| probably felt them when your knees sometimes | | | | feet and ease feet into alignment with knees and |
| hyper-extended while walking or when you stepped up | | | | ankles. All this together will lessen the burden on your |
| onto a curb and felt a rubberiness from ankle to knee | | | | weakened, lax ligaments and allow your body to heal |
| to hip that reminded you of the last time you stepped | | | | itself. Before you know it you will be able exercise in |
| off of a fast-moving teacup ride. Loose ligaments (or | | | | ease and comfort. And those pregnancy pounds will |
| "ligamentous laxity", as it is called) can also cause | | | | begin to fall away. |
| instability in your back and (believe it or not) flattening | | | | |