3 Effective Ways to Alleviate Back Pain from Breastfeeding: Beyond Stretching
Breastfeeding, chest feeding & pumping can take a toll on your body. The positions you put yourself in and the length of time you are in them can really wear on your back. If stretching isn’t helping you here are 3 other ways to really put the breaks on back pain from breastfeeding.
Posture awareness
Paying attention to your posture for greater than 50% of the time will make a big difference in how your body feels. At first this means using props, like pillows under the arms and behind your back and a stool under your feet to support a more aligned posture. Then working on supporting this posture through mindfulness and intentional breathing.
Your breathing is interconnected with your deep core, so using your breath as the catalyst for activating your core will help. The goal is to train the pelvic floor & abs to find a proper length after being stretched during pregnancy & birth. By expanding your ribs on inhale this keeps the abs from ballooning outward, while not tensing the pelvic floor for fear of everything falling out or peeing yourself. Then intentionally following your exhale with a bottom up contraction starting in the pelvic floor and working up through the abs until the ribs are back into resting position.
As you practice this breathing in an aligned posture you are teaching your deep core how to support your spine in a more ideal posture. Remember it’s the amount of time & frequency you spend in an awkward posture that stresses out the joints and muscles, that may already be stressed out from doing extra work as you heal. So spending more time in a posture that doesn’t stress out your body while practicing to support it will ease aches and pain.
Not only do you want to help your muscle support your posture you also want to ensure they are not holding tension to stay there. Doing a body scan once you are set up in whatever position you are in at the moment and letting go of the muscle that is holding. Take the time to relax and breath.
Thoracic Mobility
In addition to posture bringing more movement to the tight spots can help ease pain. However focusing on just stretches may not be enough. During pregnancy your respiratory diaphragm was pushed further under your ribs as your baby grew. Plus, your lengthening belly and change in center of gravity shifted your spine alignment. This does not automatically return after giving birth and sometimes can become worse from compensations.
Doing targeted thoracic mobility exercises that improve rib expansion for breathing & stretches tight muscles from the inside out can feel amazing while improving spine alignment.
[As an aside, when I say alignment I don’t always mean out of the joint or dislocated, but pulled away from ideal which puts more wear and tear on the joint and can alter movement]
Here are 3 thoracic mobility exercises to begin with:
Rib breathing lying on your side with gentle compression on your ribs
Twisting through your mid back while lying on your side with one hand behind your head and squeezing a pillow between your knees
Cat/cow focusing on rounding through the tightest spots
Midback Strengthening
To compliment your posture & thoracic mobility you also want to build strength through the more superficial posture muscles in your midback. Strengthening these muscles helps lengthen the tight chest muscles and then supports a better shoulder and spine alignment. The tricky aspect of these is making sure you are using the correct muscles while maintaining good rib positioning.
These exercises to beyond just strengthening your miback, they also have you working on posture, breath and core awareness all in one!
To get this to happen you have to be very intentional of your speed and range of motion. The slower you go through a “smaller” range will actually help you progress faster. What this looks like is moving through a shoulder range where you can control your rib positioning while exhaling. Then gradually increasing the range as you gain more control & strength.
The rib positioning you want to maintain is stacked over your pelvis without flaring to the front. Find the range you are able to do this with the bottom up breathing from the posture section as you move your arms through the exercise and master that before moving on. The other important piece to consider is you are using your shoulder blade muscles to provide the shoulder movement. Start the movement with your shoulder blades without clenching muscles and always with your exhale.
Here are 3 exercises to strength your midback:
Half kneeling rows
Half kneeling reverse flies
High kneeling sliding your arms up a wall
As you master these without resistance you can add bands for more resistance, always staying within the range and speed you can control the position of your ribs.
Being consistent with these tips is the key to success. And as always speak with a PT who is trained in pregnancy and postpartum for more individualized suggestions, which you can do by clicking this link!
*Not medical advice. Always discuss with your doctor before starting new exercises