Baby Wearing
Let’s Chat Baby Wearing!
We talk to our patients all the time about baby wearing because it’s an awesome way to keep your little one with you while you get things done. We understand you would rather spend the your time watching your baby sleep or play but realistically… you have to get stuff done around your house and go run errands to keep everything running smoothly in your life. From a physical therapist’s perspective, there are two big tips to make sure you are doing this ergonomically correct and safe.
Tip #1: Posture
During pregnancy, your body carries the baby’s weight in front which causes your hips and shoulders to translate back causing an exaggerated “sway” back to offset the weight. Once baby has been delivered, that “sway” back posture can stick around for too long. A “sway” back postural alignment means that the ribs are in a flare position and the pelvis is tilted forward. This is usually caused due to core weakness.
Let’s start with the ribs. Ribs are very important for our breathing. When we inhale, the ribs expand and open up like an umbrella. When we exhale, the ribs come down and depress. For proper rib positioning during posture, we want the ribs to be in a slightly depressed position to create stability in the upper abdominal region.
Moving onto the pelvis. What we tend to see with this type of posture is that the pelvis is tilted forward during pregnancy and then continues following delivery. If you picture your pelvis in this position like a bowl of water then the water would be dumping out the front and towards the toes. This is not ideal. We want to achieve "neutral pelvis” which means that the pelvis is tilted more towards the rib cage and then there’s no dumping of water (hypothetical).
Now let’s put these two together! Bringing the ribs down and the pelvis up will create the perfect stability system for the core, pelvic floor, low back, and diaphragm. Once you can achieve this postural alignment… then we (as clinicians) feel more comfortable that your body with be safer to baby wear.
Tip #2: Schedule
Create a schedule for baby wearing. We don’t recommend that the first time that you baby wear postpartum is for a 6 hour stint. What we tend to see is that new mama’s feel the pressure to get things completed (whether at home or work) which drives them to strap baby on and wear for too long and too early in their postpartum journey. This can potentially be harmful to your body causing symptoms like low back pain, vaginal pressure, spotting, etc. Think of it like this… you haven’t been on a run in about 9 months but decided that you want to go run 5 miles all of a sudden. What do you think your legs will feel like? Probably like “WOAH LADY. What did you just do to me?”. Well, that is what your core system potentially could be saying after jumping the gun on baby wearing for too long. Be realistic with yourself and set timers. Maybe only start for 30-60 minutes the first time then increase is segmentally based on your symptoms and your comfort level.
Moral of the postpartum story with baby wearing:
1 = Create a stable environment for your core and pelvic floor with correct posture
2 = Have a schedule to allow your body to get used to baby wearing appropriately
-Morgan Clark, PT, DPT