Are you struggling with aches and pains from carrying your growing baby?


Many parents of babies and young children are surprised by the degree of back, neck, hip, shoulder and wrist pain they experience on a daily basis, caused by simple tasks like picking the baby up from its crib, carrying the baby around, lugging heavy nappy bags, nursing, and even pushing a pram. And as your baby grows, the problems can get worse.

But luckily, there are some easy ways to improve your baby-lugging technique and as a result experience much less discomfort! In this post I’ll explore some back-friendly alternatives to the regular actions that are causing you pain, to help you strengthen and care for those crucial baby-wrangling muscles.

How to carry your baby:

The market is awash with ergonomic baby carriers and slings, and there are plenty of products designed to protect your back while you carry your bub. Reading reviews and talking to other new parents can be a great way to sort the wheat from the chaff and find the perfect baby carrier for you.

But what about when you’re just carrying the baby around the house or for short distances?

Research into indigenous cultures around the world conducted by Esther Gokhale indicates that all those fancy contraptions aren’t necessary - that instead, with good posture, and making sure to use major muscle groups to support the baby’s weight, babies can be comfortably carried for long periods in ways that strengthen your muscles and also aid the child’s posture.

• For babies under 6 months of age, she recommends carrying the baby on your side without jutting your hip out, and supporting the baby’s weight using your bicep rather than your wrist or hand, with the hand palm-upwards. Keeping your shoulders open and your spine straight in this position is important for your posture and your breathing, and the palm-up hand position improves circulation through the supporting arm. Switching sides when you begin to tire will ensure that you’re not overburdening one side. This position also encourages an upright spine in the child, which will lessen your load.
• For babies over 6 months, Gokhale suggests using a cloth wrap (or conventional baby carrier if you prefer) to carry the baby on your back, distributing the weight between your shoulders and hips and keeping the baby as close to your spine as possible. As the baby grows you will need to continually readjust the straps of your carrier or the position of your sling to make sure the weight is being borne comfortably.

How to pick up and put down your baby:

Take it nice and slow while you get used to the new motions, and pay attention to which muscles seem to be working the hardest. If you’re bending to pick up your baby from the floor, use your legs rather than your back to bear the load.

• Bend your knees and squat, keeping a straight back.
• Lift up your baby and pull it close to your body.
• Straighten your knees to stand.

This will prevent your from straining your back, neck and shoulders. Since this is a motion most parents do many, many times a day, every little bit adds up.

The method for putting your baby to bed is very similar.

• Hold the baby to your chest.
• Stand with your feet hip-width apart in front of the crib.
• Bend your knees before lowering the baby in your arms.
• Tuck your tailbone and tilt the pelvis to activate your core, and avoid twisting where possible.

To pick your baby up from the crib, perform the same action in reverse.

How to nurse:

Sit in a straight-backed chair rather than slumping on the couch, and try to keep an upright spine. Placing a rolled up towel or a pillow behind you can help. Bring the baby up to you, rather than hunching to reach the baby. Pillows and other methods for propping up the baby can assist with this.

Other helpful tips:

• Regular massage or myotherapy can help you to reset your body, relax your muscles and prevent long-term pain and injury from the day-to-day strain of carrying your child. These services are not a luxury - they are a crucial part of taking care of your body, which is just as important as taking care of your child’s health!
• Stretching can make a huge difference in counteracting pain and injury as well as improving your posture and baby-carrying technique.
• Use your baby, the weight you will be carrying most often, in your strengthening exercises! These simple exercises, using your baby’s weight to strengthen your core, back and legs, are an easy and practical way to fit some exercise into your busy parenting schedule, and to make sure your body is primed for the movements it performs most often.

Let us know in the comments if you’ve discovered any other tricks or tips that work for you. And don’t hesitate - book in for regular myotherapy and massage and take care of your body! Where would you, or your baby, be without it?

Most of us may have experienced a calf cramp at some stage in our life, and no matter to what degree the pain, it's a crippling experience.  It can be caused by a lot of things like dehydration, fatigue, lack of magnesium or temperature. Also not having enough salt intake in your diet may cause muscles to cramp. And no doubt you will continue to feel the after effects of this unless you receive the the correct advice.

Sometimes a simple stretch may help to ease some of the pain and even stop a cramp from happening, however if the muscle is in need of relief consult your myotherapist.

Below is a video that demonstrates some stretches you can use to help calf pain.

• Do you ever suffer from muscle pains or stiffness?
• Do you exercise regularly / rarely / not at all?
• Is your work too light / too heavy / monotonous / one-sided?

 If you answer “YES” to any of the above questions, you can help your body by stretching!

Stretching will enable your body to perform better at day-to-day activities because the muscles are tough, strong and supple for everyday ease of function. By incorporating stretching as a part of your daily routine, you will start feeling better in your body and feel more flexible in your daily movement.

Why do muscles tighten up?

There are many reasons why muscles contract and get shorter, stiff and tight. Some common reasons include:

• Heavy work
• Hard physical training
• Poor co-ordination of movement
• Poor posture
• Lack of activity
• Injury and pain
• Monotonous and/or one sided movement

Benefits of Stretching

As we age, our muscles naturally become shorter and tighter, limiting our overall flexibility. This limitation in movement can create pain, and make you more susceptible to injuries. Did you know regular stretching can:

• Maintain or improve flexibility. Increased flexibility aids your capacity for physical movement, and improves your physical abilities.
  

• Increased range of motion in joints. This can aid muscular balance as well as freer movement and can protect from musculoskeletal injury.
  

• Improve circulation. Stretching increases blood flow to the muscles.
  

• Reduce stress. Stretching can clear stress-related tension from the muscles, and help you to relax and unwind.
  

• Alleviate muscular pain including lower back pain and neck pain. Sometimes the pain we experience in our body is due to over-tight muscles, or over-taut muscles, that are essentially taking too much load due to postural or other imbalances in the body. Stretching can reduce muscular tension, allowing the muscles to go back to a relaxed state.
  

• Decrease risk of injury. Flexible muscles with increased range of movement can decrease the risk of injury as the tendons and ligaments have more give and are better conditioned and have more elasticity.
  

• Improved posture. Muscular balance is required for good posture. Many postural imbalances are the result of muscular tightness! Regular stretching can improve muscle length and condition, as well as elasticity and range of motion.
  

• Improved athletic performance. If you are regularly active, and/or compete in sport, no doubt you are familiar with the idea of stretching. Regular stretching can assist in conditioning the muscles, enhance your recovery, as well as improve your overall technique and movement. Also, increased muscle length, elasticity, endurance, metabolism can all be experienced with regular stretching.

 
What stretches should I do?

Your Myotherapist can help you know which are the best stretches for your body. Depending on your imbalances, specific muscle stretches may be required.

When you come in for a session at inner outer health, we will be able to tailor a stretching program for you that is practical and functional, to be incorporated into your daily lifestyle. We may end up giving you one or several stretches specific to your problem/area of pain.

Here are a couple of common areas that we suggest stretching daily:

Chest Stretch (pecs):

Neck Stretch:

Happy stretching.

Women and high heels. It can be a love-hate relationship.

We love what they look like, and how they make us appear taller, sexier, our legs slimmer and our calves and butt appear firmer. They make us feel confident, sexy and fashionable.

We love the multitude of beautiful designs and colours that they come in. Open any woman’s wardrobe (or shoe-cupboard!) and it becomes apparent that we do love to own a variety of shoes including heels for different occasions that may look something like this… a few pairs of stiletto’s for evening wear & cocktail parties, kitten heels for work, pumps for that hot date, wedges to add some glamour, sling-backs for summer… the list goes on! Women do love their shoes.

The part most women DON’T love, is the feeling at the end of the day when they get home from a long day at work… or perhaps at the end of a long evening/night out!

We curse & whinge under our breath that our feet ache, we have blisters or sore knees or an aching back, or we twisted an ankle when our stiletto heel got stuck in a crack in the pavement… unfortunately high-heels are not your body’s friend. In fact, they can do a LOT of damage. (Especially, if you were to wear shoes like this. I don’t know that anyone would actually wear these…)

If you are a woman who chooses fashion over function, i.e. wearing high heels regularly, perhaps after reading this, you may decide to restrict the amount of time you wear them and leave them in your wardrobe until you have a special occasion. After all, you can choose to change your shoes when they wear out, but you only get one pair of feet, and they deserve to be loved and looked after!

Read on to learn what the true effects of wearing high heels… ladies, ignorance can be bliss, however there are some things about wearing high heels that every woman needs to know. You don’t want your feet to end up like Victoria Beckham‘s

or like any of these celebrities who have paid the price of high fashion in the form of feet deformities… it just ain’t worth the pain!

1. POSTURE. High heels shift your pelvis and spine out of alignment. They redistribute your body weight by pushing your centre of mass forward, creating an anterior tilt in your pelvis, tightening the muscles in your lower back which can lead to back pain. Depending on the height of the heel, as the height increases, so does the pressure on the ball of your foot. This extra pressure can cause foot problems, such as Metatarsalgia.

2. FOOT PROBLEMS. Extra pressure on the feet and toes can cause problems such as Morton’s neuroma which is where the tissue around a nerve in between the toes thickens, causing pain and inflammation. Bunions are commonly formed by wearing shoes that are too tight, and cause a bony overgrowth that pushes the big toe inward towards the other toes, causing pain. Hammer toes are also a common deformity caused by high heels.

3. ANKLE PROBLEMS. Not only do high heels wearing heels affect your feet, your ankles are also at greater risk for injury due to the unbalanced nature of high heels. You could also end up with a Haglund’s deformity (also called “pump bump”) where irritation over time causes a small bony growth, often caused by the pressure of pump-style heels.

4. SHORTENED CALF MUSCLES & ACHILLES TENDON. Wearing heels contacts and shortens your your calf muscles and Achilles tendon. Wearing heels often can actually lead to a permanent physical shortening over time, as the muscle fibers remain stuck in their contracted state over time. This can set you up for walking difficulties, and postural dysfunction.

5. KNEE PROBLEMS. Due to the change in overall posture when wearing heels, a greater amount of pressure is put on the inside of the knee. Over time, this can lead to osteoarthritis, by the increase in joint pressure. Osteoarthritis is twice as common in women as it is in men.

6. HIP & BACK PROBLEMS. Your pelvis and especially hip flexors (located around the top front of your thighs), are affected by wearing heels. The hip flexors are forced to work harder when you are wearing heels, and can also permanently shorten over time. This can set you up for a flattening of the natural lumbar curve in your back, increasing your risk of back pain and spinal problems.

SO… is it really worth it? Are your beautiful, precious & functional feet worth the price of fashion? Short answer: No!

TIPS FOR HAPPY FEET!

To show your feet some love and appreciation since they hold you up all day long, and take you wherever you want to go, try doing some of the following:

• Limit your use of high heels to special occasions.
• Take a spare pair of flat shoes/flip-flops with you if you can.
• Wear flat, comfortable and supportive shoes most of the time.
• Walk around bare foot when you can.
• Stretch your calves and hip flexors after wearing heels.

Also, come and see us at inner outer health for some Myotherapy to assist your body to regain musculo-skeletal balance from the effects of wearing high heels. Myotherapy can be helpful to bring back balance to your pelvis, knees, ankles and help to align your entire posture so that your feet can happily support you.

You can read more about Myotherapy here, and make online bookings here.