Why does my 🐱 still hurt?

It’s been a few weeks since you gave birth to your adorable babe. It’s been a total whirlwind of bliss melted into exhaustion, but recently you got your groove and are feeling more like yourself.

But there’s a lingering sensation that greets you after you get out of bed every morning. The smoosh of the covers and warm bed has always been alluring. Where you used to stretch lazily to greet the day each and every morning, instead, attacks you with a sharp pain in your groin. It’s so painful that it can drop you to the floor. It showed up with your first baby at around 35 weeks and went away with birth, like a sharp sword in your wobbly bits.

The second pregnancy, you were greeted by this familiar pain around five months and hobbled around feeling like lightning shocked your crotch for the remainder of pregnancy. Most groin pain that is deep and to the bone thankfully disappears immediately after birth. But this time around with hope for that same respite from giving birth, the pain has unfortunately lingered.

One of the most overlooked causes of postpartum groin pain is the “help” you receive during birth. One of the participants at your birth got a little “extra” trying to assist you in trying to hold your legs back — and pushed them a bit too far. During birth, sometimes it’s a marathon of helping a babe hit earthside. Contorting to get your baby through your bony pelvis requires a change of movement of your legs. 

Sometimes in the excitement of birth those holding your legs — a student, a partner, or a friend — tries to “help” by pulling back your legs to the point of overload and inadvertently sprains your groin without you even really knowing (as your focus at the time is distracting you to a pain elsewhere). 

While the female body is not a delicate flower and is strong enough to handle the athletic event of birth, some of the ligaments and tendons are already overburdened and overly reactive.

Classic presentation for someone who has fallen victim to this is a woman who literally cannot put her pants on or has to crawl up the stairs. 

How can you prevent this?

1. Have a talk with who is going in with you for childbirth. Bear in mind your ligaments and tissues are a bit more stretchy from a hormone emitted during childbirth called relaxin. Having your legs up for hours and then cranked back beyond their normal physiological range of motion frequency results in a ripping or overstretching of your undercarriage. 

2. Before your birth, make a conscious effort to incorporate 10-minute “mind-breaks.” Load a YouTube video or other gentle stretching video to get that area looser and more pliable. If you have a little kid at home, include them for some adorable fun stretching together!

3. If you are still having pain, make sure you find a prenatal chiropractor or PT to help you get your PSD under control prior to birth. You’ll work on this area to make sure you are the most aligned and flexible — as birth is akin to a sport!

For more information, check out my book, What You Don’t Expect When You’re Expecting or my website for links to helpful DIY care plans and printables to empower you to work on getting back to your best self!

Check out whatyoudontexpect.com to learn tips for not only pregnancy through sports medicine care, but also what you can do, both before and after your birth, to help yourself get through this.