Having a baby is a life changing event in many ways. Move Well will empower you to understand what going on in your body......
Elle X
Having a baby is a life changing event in many ways. A whole new way of living yours and your families lives. With all the joys that come with having a baby you can also be left with on going pain and annoying symptoms that have seemingly come from nowhere.
How scars create compensations in your body
When your tummy is cut open for your C section, be it a planned or unplanned, you body goes into over drive internally trying to heal the wound. Your brain and body see the wound as danger, and rightly so! Harking back to caveman days where the main aim of your brain was to lay down scar tissue wherever it can, to heal you up so you don’t get eaten by a sabre-toothed tiger. Your brain wants to keep you safe, its main priority is NOT your muscles working correctly to give you a balanced posture. Life carries on and you have to continue to do things to give your body the stability and mobility it requires. This is often where compensations from scar tissue can creep in.
Think of scar tissue like an old school fuzzy pictured TV. The scar tissue creates a disturbed message pattern from the muscles to the brain then back to the muscles. This mixed message does not allow the muscles to fire as they should when asked. By using a form of muscle testing – Neuro Kinetic Therapy (NKT3) – you can find out how well the muscles are working in relation to the scar. Let me explain:
By touching the scar gently and repeating the muscle test you can see if the muscle begins to function as it should. The touching of the scar is like touching the aerial of the fuzzy tv and the picture becoming clear. By touching the scar or the tv aerial you have just allowed the message to pass from brain to muscle and back to the brain again. Hopefully allowing the muscle to work as they should. Now I’m not saying you walk around touching the scar all day everyday. This is where I advise you get in touch with a NKT 3 practitioner and preferably an Anatomy In Motion (AIM) practitioner. They will be able to give you specific scar work followed by full body movement work to retrain your brain to work the joints and muscles as it should.
Body compensations and pain are not only seen with C section scars, it can apply to any scar be it an episiotomy, tummy tuck, breast enhancement or reduction, back surgery or knee surgery.
Scars really are important to assess when looking for the root cause of a person’s pain.
Common compensations the body can create from C section scars:
- Lower back pain – pelvis becomes anterior tilted – very dipped in the lower back
- Flat feet or pain in one or two of the feet
- Pain between the shoulder blades
- Diastasis Recti – gap vertically in the middle of your belly where the abdominals have not re-joined
- Pelvic Floor issues – incontinence
If you are reading this post identifying with the symptoms or pain or you want to have you scars tested please feel free to get in contact and see how we can help you. If you are part of a mums group and would like to set up a test and treat scar workshop it would also be great to hear from you too.
At Move Well we are very proactive in helping to empower you when it comes to learning and looking after your body.
Until next time …
Knowledge is absolutely power but only when ACTION is taken
Elle x