File this also in the category, “No, Sherlock”
Pregnancy is the most traumatic condition the human body endures, a new Michigan University report states.
It’s harder than running a marathon even, according to the study which compared a post partum body’s recovery to an injured athletes’s recovery.
The researchers used MRI equipment that is usually used for sports industries and examined the full scope of trauma that a woman’s body experiences during childbirth.
Those images from their observations showed that close to 25% of women had fluid in the public bone marrow or fractures similar to those athlete often suffer. The results revealed that 41% of women had pelvic muscle tears.
These tears explain why your body takes longer than the typical and traditional 6 weeks recognized as the average recovery period.
“We have this thing where we tell women, ‘Well, you’re six weeks postpartum and now we don’t need to see you—you’ll be fine.’ But not all women feel fine after six weeks nor are ready to go back to work, and they aren’t crazy,” University of Michigan School of Nursing associate professor Janis Miller told Mom.me, “Women with pelvic injuries often feel like something isn’t right, but they don’t understand why and can’t get answers from physicians.”
Such injuries can lead to bladder issues and organ prolapse. And no amount of Kegel exercises can fix that.
There are lessons in these findings for doctors and women. Physicians should not use a cookie-cutter approach when accessing post partum recovery and giving women the all-clear to return to pre-pregnancy activities; and new moms too should be aware they need more time to heal and not beat themselves or rush it.
h/t Mom.me
Continue reading more about recovery in HuffPost Parents UK.