Pregnancy and Postural Changes

Featuring Tamarah Nerreter, MPT, CAFC
Pregnancy and Postural Changes
Duration: 1 minute, 24 seconds

Pre and postnatally there are postural changes. Prenatally, we generally see women who are quite kyphotic in their upper thoracic spine, and quite lordotic in their lumbar spine, so the curve ends up being like an S curve, but an exaggerated S curve.

This can change a lot and alter biomechanics of their body. And because they have a changing center of gravity due to the baby's weight out front, we see a lot of different shearing forces through the different joints that can be affected in pregnancy like your SI joints, your pubic symphysis, and any of the joints through the thoracic spine.

We like to promote good posture, and that requires a good core and stability. And so this is important in training women through the prenatal and postnatal phase because postnatally there is, obviously, a lot of damage through labor, and also then through breastfeeding, the postures are not conducive to everyday life and comfort.

If we find that women are having prenatal or postnatal issues with posture, which generally across the board we do, we recommend that they go and see their local physiotherapist, and the physio will point them in the right direction.

Video Title: Pregnancy and Postural Changes

Presenter: Tamarah Nerreter, Physiotherapist, Surrey, BC

Local Practitioners: Physiotherapist