I was fine after my first two kids, why do I have all these problems now?
I know, I know, after your first, second, third, maybe even fourth pregnancy you felt fine, but now your don’t quite feel like yourself. Why now? Why are you only leaking after your third pregnancy? Why do you have back pain this time even though you always bounced back? Well, I have a few explanations.
You are older nowI know you might not want to hear it and you might not want to talk about it, or maybe your age does not bother you. No matter what, and no matter how you feel about it, you are older now than you were after your other pregnancies. Your body is constantly changing and this time around your body is recovering differently because your tissues are less elastic and recover more slowly or need a little extra reeducation and retraining.
It is all catching up with you nowMaybe you did not fully recover after each of your previous pregnancies, maybe you just recovered enough to stay below your body’s threshold. To understand this imagine your body has a threshold of 20 points. Every micro and macro injury, accident, and infection counts as a point (or sometimes more than one point). When you reach 20 points, your body makes sure you are aware of all the points. As long as you stay below the threshold, you might not notice that your body is struggling a little, but as soon as you reach 20 points your body tells you about all the problems. Your body can no longer hide and compensate for the points you have working against you. In the case of postpartum recovery, each pregnancy added a few points for you, but it wasn’t until your points added up that you noticed.
You are not just recovering this timeWith your first child, you are able to focus on yourself more and your childcare responsibilities match your recovery. Your body knows you just had a baby and most of the time is prepared to handle the responsibilities of one baby. With your second, third, or fourth child, you also have bigger kids to take care of and keep up with. These big kids are faster, heavier, and more active, but they need no less love or attention.
You are finally focusing on yourselfMany times, after having their last child is born, women finally take the time to look inward. If the pregnancy phase of your life is over, then you might be more aware of yourself and your current health. You might be trying to make more time for yourself and noticing that it is harder to do certain tasks and activities.
Questions? Reach out and ask me anything info@newjourneypt.com or schedule a free consult.
Stay healthy and well