You just had a positive pregnancy test and you have tight hips. You want to have an easy VBAC (vaginal delivery after a c-section), but you didn’t know that there was anything that you could do to make that happen. Well, I’m here to tell you that there is. Hi, I’m Dr. Libby Trausch. I am a women’s holistic physical therapist, and I have been helping women move through their childbearing and perimenopausal years with less pain, less incontinence, more strength, easier births, and better recovery for 15 years.
What You Should Know: Tight Hips Are Normal
If you’re reading this, I know it means you’re ready to live a life that is less dominated by pain, weakness, and more vibrant, energetic and active like you deserve. So, I wanted to talk about the pelvic floor and how tight hips throughout like your teenage years or your early twenties can contribute to a more challenging ability to push the baby out and what the pelvic floor muscles have to do with it.
Women’s bodies are pretty fantastic. But if you have tight hips, for example, your hips feel tight all the time. Sex has been painful, or you leak urine and you haven’t ever had a baby, or if you’re constipated and you have a hard time getting the poop out, or if you had a c-section for failure to progress- chances are that these muscles are overactive because this is a hip muscle.
My Experience With Tight Hip Pain & a VBAC
I had a C section for failure to progress during my first delivery, and I had really tight hips and a painful pelvis for my whole pregnancy. I also had a history of painful sex and constipation. My pelvic floor muscles were not letting go for anything. During my second delivery, I didn’t work on relaxing my pelvic floor, but I had a vaginal delivery with a third degree tear. Ouch! And I gave myself a prolapse from pushing so hard. But I learned a lot from that second birth, making my third birth easy. My body delivered him because my muscles knew how to let go. I like to say my uterus just “squirted him out like a tube of toothpaste.”
I had a friend who had a baby five days after I had my second baby, with a third degree tear from my delivery. She was outside in the neighborhood showing off her baby, walking around. The minute I went outside, I just wanted to sit down because my bottom hurt so much. After my 3rd baby, which was an easy vaginal delivery, I was the one out in the neighborhood showing off the baby because my bottom felt great from an easier delivery.
You want your uterus to squirt the baby out like a tube of toothpaste and for that to happen, the pelvic floor muscles need to just melt out of the way and we can maximize the chances of that happening. So, this is what we do in physical therapy; we teach you how to let these muscles go.
3 Tips for Relaxing Your Hip Muscles
- Imagine a watermelon sitting down inside in between your legs, like your muscles would just let go and let it slide right out.
- Imagine your pelvis dissolving away to nothing, just dissolving, sinking right into the ground.
- Imagine allowing your hip muscles to just melt right off of the bone, letting everything drop down between your legs.
If you can do those three things and get yourself to physical therapy soon after a positive pregnancy test, we can check those muscles and you can get practicing regularly. Start working on letting those muscles melt down between your legs, so you can have less hip pain while you’re pregnant, less hip tightness for the rest of your life, and possibly set yourself up for an easier vaginal delivery with a faster recovery time.
Let the Physical Therapists at Breathe. Assist With Your Tight Hip Relief
This is something that I have been through, and I believe that you can do it too. At Breathe., we have helped women across the state of Iowa in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, North Liberty, and beyond with pelvic floor and hip pain. Our staff members are educated and highly-experienced, creating a welcoming environment to We’re located in Des Moines and Iowa City, but we can do virtual consultations from all over the world.
Ready to start the journey to tight hip relief, assisting your pregnancy and birth? Get in touch with our team and schedule an appointment to consult one of our physical therapists!