Antenatal Physiotherapy

Antenatal physiotherapy is a specialised clinical discipline focused on preventing, assessing, and treating pain caused by musculoskeletal issues and pelvic floor dysfunction during pregnancy.

While general physiotherapy treats standard joint or muscle conditions, antenatal physio accounts for key physiological changes such as altered weight distribution, ligamentous laxity caused by hormones, and changing core stability as your baby bump grows. Early assessment and intervention can prevent minor aches from escalating into severe, activity-limiting conditions.

As your bump grows, your weight distribution changes placing extra demand on your joints, tendons, and muscles. At our Norwich clinics, we regularly treat:

• Back pain: Pain in the lumbar spine or upper back caused by changes in your posture and pelvic position. 
• Pelvic Girdle Pain (PGP): Discomfort or sharp pain at the front or back of your pelvis.
• Sciatica: Irritation of the sciatic nerve, causing shooting pain, numbness, or tingling down the buttocks and legs.
• Hip pain: Aches along the outer hip joints or groin, often worsening while lying on your side at night.
• Stress incontinence:  Unexpected bladder leaks when coughing, sneezing, or exercising.
• Urge incontinence: The feeling of urgency and needing to rush to the toilet, often accompanied by leakage. 
• Carpal tunnel syndrome: Swelling in the wrists pressing on the median nerve, leading to numb, tingling fingers.
• Coccyx pain (Coccydynia): Sharp or aching pain at the base of the spine, particularly noticeable when sitting.
• Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction (SPD): Pain specifically localised over the pubic bone at the front of the pelvis.
• Rib pain: Pressure and strain around the ribcage as your growing baby occupies more space.

Understanding why pain occurs during pregnancy can make it much easier to manage. Your body undergoes remarkable alterations, including:

• Hormonal relaxation: The hormone relaxin increases ligamentous laxity to prepare the pelvis for birth. However, this extra laxity can cause joint instability and pain. Your muscles then need to work harder to stabilise your joints leading to muscular aches and strains. 
• Shifted centre of gravity: As your baby bump grows, your weight shifts forward. To compensate, you may arch your lower back, placing more strain on the lumbar spine and pelvis. 
• Abdominal separation (Diastasis Recti): As your uterus grows, the two sections of your abdominal muscles in your stomach stretch apart. Without proper management, this can reduce core support and contribute to back pain.
• Pelvic floor strain: Carrying the growing weight of your baby increases downforce on the pelvic floor muscles, which can lead to weakness, tightness, or incontinence.

While these physiological changes are a natural part of growing your baby, living with the pain they cause doesn’t have to be. Recover Physio’s specialist women’s health team can work with you to create a tailored treatment plan for a comfortable pregnancy.

Your initial appointment is a thorough session designed to understand your specific symptoms and goals.

1. Subjective Assessment: We discuss your medical history, your pregnancy journey so far, daily activity levels, and symptom triggers.
2. Objective Movement Screening: We evaluate your posture, spinal alignment, gait patterns, and joint movement.
3. Core Evaluation: We safely check for diastasis recti and assess the function, coordination, and strength of your core muscles. 
4. Targeted Testing: We conduct specific clinical tests to establish an evidence based diagnosis. 
5. Personalised Treatment Plan: Together, we establish a realistic recovery roadmap tailored to your pregnancy milestones.

Back pain is a common and normal condition affecting half of all pregnancies. At Recover Physio, we use evidence-based, safe, hands-on techniques paired with simple home exercises to treat it. While all back pain treatment plans are unique, they typically include:

• Manual therapy: Soft tissue therapy to release tight muscles and restore movement. We use different positioning during pregnancy to ensure you and your baby are safe and comfortable. 
• Tailored exercise plans: Personalised exercises designed to safely build core, glute, and back strength.
• Ergonomic guidance: Practical advice on sitting at work, getting in and out of the car, and lying comfortably in bed.
• Support belts and bracing: Expert fitting recommendations for pelvic support belts to offload strained joints when walking.

Alongside pain relief, pregnancy physiotherapy is also about preparing your body physically for labour.

• Identify optimal positions for labour: Learn active birth movements and positions that open the pelvis and relieve strain.
• Breathing & relaxation: Master breathing techniques that assist during contractions and keep your pelvic floor relaxed during the early stages of birth.
• Pelvic floor awareness: Developing proper conscious control allows you to relax these muscles effectively during the second (pushing) stage of labour.
• Peroneal massage: We teach all our pregnant ladies the correct technique and timing of completing peroneal massage to reduce the risk of peroneal tears during delivery.

Your rehabilitation journey doesn’t end at delivery. Postnatal care focuses on helping your body recover safely.

Rehabilitation typically extends into the fourth trimester with early postnatal assessments that screen for diastasis recti recovery and pelvic floor integrity. To ensure you rebuild strength safely without overstressing recovering tissues, your therapist will design a gradual, structured return-to-exercise plan while providing targeted therapy to manage any lingering postnatal back, wrist, or pelvic girdle pain.

Learn more about postnatal physiotherapy here.