Women often find coping with the appearance of their post pregnancy body more difficult than dealing with the nine months of pregnancy, advises Dr. Abaz Sosic, an obstetrician for Bradford Regional Medical Center in Bradford, Pennsylvania. Start getting back to your pre-pregnancy body by starting a light exercise routine two weeks after your c-section. Consult your doctor prior to starting any form of exercise.
Recovery
It takes six to eight weeks for your body to recover from a c-section. Even though you look good on the outside, you still have a lot of healing to do on the inside. For the first two weeks of your recovery, focus mainly on taking care of yourself and your baby. Do not try to do any kind of housework, including the dishes or laundry. Monitor yourself for signs of infection or complications, such as redness, pus-like drainage, tenderness, swelling or warmth in the abdominal area, advises Sosic. He goes on to state that you should not lift anything heavier than your baby for at least the first six weeks after surgery. While exercise may aid your recovery, too much can impede it or cause you injury.
Abdominal Strengthening
Abdominal exercises will help strengthen your abdominal muscles and help return your belly to pre-pregnancy shape and size. Start strengthening your abdominals by performing leg slides and lying pelvic tilts. Begin both exercises on your back. For the leg slide, start with your knees slightly bent, feet flat on the floor. Slide your foot until you straighten your leg as far as possible, then slide it back to the starting position. Repeat on the other side. For the pelvic tilt, flatten your lower back against the bed and tighten your butt muscles. Relax after 3 to 5 seconds.
When your abdominals feel strong enough, you can progress to pelvic rocking, pelvic tilts on all fours and head raises. Start pelvic rocking by lying on the floor. Bend your knees, then rock them left and right as far as possible, keeping your shoulders on the floor. Pelvic tilts on all fours require you to get down on your hands and knees; then pull your abdominal muscles in while curling your hips down.
Head raises resemble an abdominal crunch. Perform a head raise by lying on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Raise your head as though doing a crunch, but do not lift your shoulders or torso off the floor. As your abdominals strengthen you can progress to lifting your shoulders off the floor and eventually performing a full crunch. If at any time your abdominal muscles or incision hurts, stop exercising.
Kegels
Kegels help tone your pelvic floor, which will allow you to regain control over your bladder and help tighten your vagina. Perform a Kegel by contracting your pelvic floor muscles as though you were trying to stop your flow of urine and holding it for up to 10 seconds. The Mayo Clinic advises repeating this exercise at least 10 times, three times a day.
Aerobic Activity
After two weeks of focusing on taking care of your baby, eating well, getting plenty of sleep and staying hydrated, you may feel up to some light aerobic activity. Begin by taking walks around your house. Once you can sustain walking around the house for five or 10 minutes, progress to taking short walks outside or at your local gym. Continue adding time to your walk until you can sustain a 30-minute walk. Do not increase to a moderate intensity until you get clearance from your doctor.
References
- Dr. Abaz Sosic; Bradford Regional Medical Center; Bradford, Pennsylvania
- Ohio State University Medical Center: Exercises After a Cesarean Section
- Baby Center: Exercise After Pregnancy
- Mayo Clinic: Exercise After Pregnancy
