Thoughts on postnatal abdominal massage and binding
Friday, 30 March 2012 
17 Comments
Warning: This is a bit of a ranty/venty type of a post. I have too many thoughts floating around my head at the moment on this topic and I apologise if I couldn’t really get a coherent and concise post out of all of them.
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I think that a large proportion of the western world does not take care of new mothers.
It starts with labour – the baby is monitored closely, but very often the wellbeing of the mother is a secondary priority.
After the birth, most of the attention is on the baby. Midwives and/or doctor ask the mother some standard questions about how they’re feeling, but I don’t know any women who were offered information on: where to get breastfeeding help, where to find a night nanny if needed, where to find information on exercising… Leaflets shoved at you do not count as advice.
Looking around me, talking to mothers both online and offline, I feel that new mothers are increasingly feeling neglected, alone and as a result stressed and depressed.
Breastfeeding issues aside (I’ve written many times about the lack of breastfeeding support in England), the other big issue in my opinion is the physical wellbeing of the new mother.
Pregnancy takes a huge toll on your body. Your back aches and is probably not aligned properly by the time you give birth, your ribcage expands, your internal organs get shoved in all kinds of unnatural directions due to the growing baby, your skin stretches and your feet swell. No matter how enjoyable a pregnancy is for the obvious reason of feeling awesome for making another human being – it is very hard work on your body.
Somehow a lot of women have been ‘taught’ to accept the notion that your body will be wrecked and ‘never the same’ after you have had children.
I don’t think that this attitude should be accepted.
I believe that your body IS able to bounce back marvellously IF given the right care and support.
I didn’t gain much extra weight in pregnancy, but I have struggled a lot with my abdomen – for the longest time after giving birth to either of my kids I could not lie on my side. Whenever I did, I felt like all my internal organs were spilling out – a totally weird, creepy and scary feeling. So even though standing up I didn’t have a noticeable baby belly, beyond the surface my midriff was completely shattered.
I am now best friends with the Plank (it’s amazing how many exercises you can do in plank position :| ), but it’s taken me YEARS to not feel that I’ll spill my guts (literally) when I lie on my side. (A diet very low in gluten and sugar helps as well actually, even a tiny bit of bloating makes me feel like I’ll come undone again.)
BUT – why am I all of a sudden talking about post baby bellies?
Enter a lovely Indonesian mother of 4 children who yesterday enlightened me about how the Indonesians have done postnatal care since the 17th century. Everything she told me enforced my belief that it is possible for mothers to gain back their ‘old’ self after giving birth.
In Indonesia every new mother goes through a course of Jamu postnatal massage and belly binding.
According to a Singaporean website, The Origins of Jamu Massage, the massage:
- Helps to tighten back and tone over-stretched tummy
- Speeds up recovery afterbirth
- Helps to get rid of “Trapped Wind” in your body
- Helps to eliminate toxins and reduce water retention
- Helps to gain back your energy level
- Support your spine after birth and during breastfeeding
- Relieves body aches & leg cramps
- Helps to relieve constipation
- Speeds up shrinkage of womb
- Helps to remove remaining blood clots
- Assists and helps with breastfeeding
- Improves muscle and skin tone
- Helps to reduce postnatal depression
- Builds up your confidence
The binding is done using a cloth binder after each massage session. It further helps to support and straighten the spine and tighten the stomach muscles.
She said that it feels wonderful to be pampered in that way after giving birth and it feels great to feel supported by the binding. The binding gives relief to your back after carrying the baby for 9 months and by feeling supported by your core, you also feel emotionally better.
I listened to her and thought – why didn’t anyone tell me about this kind of massage and binding when I was pregnant?!?!?!?
And when I got home I couldn’t sleep, I kept thinking about it… Why is that not done here? Why is it not an essential part of postnatal care? Why is it not crucial here that the mother feels the best that is possible after giving birth? Doesn’t the wellbeing of the mother (both physical and mental as they’re very closely related) have an effect on the wellbeing of the baby?
At the moment I’m mad at the western world for not knowing how to take care of mothers. And I’m also mad at myself for not researching these things when I was pregnant. My baby belly is gone by now, but I will keep planking religiously because I cannot forget the feeling of being completely ‘undone’ and ‘unsupported’ by my midriff.
End of vent :)
BUT – I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this.
Have you not been as ignorant about belly massage and binding as I have been?
Has your experience of postnatal care been totally positive and you see no problem in postnatal care of mothers?
How is the situation in Estonia? America? France? Dubai? Scandinavia?
AND – do you want to come to Indonesia with me to study Jamu? :D (I totally want to learn it and set up my own postnatal care clinic).
You are forgiven, of course :)
Even modern world have some products that are suppose to help you gain your pre-baby belly. For example this belly bandit http://www.bellybandit.com/ which most probably have the same effect as binding.
That looks great. Did you midwife/doctor tell you about it though when you were pregnant??
I knew about binding as well. I did some research a few months ago about pre- and postnatal bodies (because I too am scared of loosing my precious fit form after pregnancy :S All the scary stories that women tell about saggy breasts and tummies and hips and stretchmarks…. help! WHY are they telling that to younger future moms?) and found some sites about binding and a site with before and after pregnancy photos. It wasn’t a binding site, just a site for moms to share their photos and experience (can’t remember the site adress anymore!). But I do remember that I noticed that a lot of women got their cores back with Pilates.
Since I’m not “in the system” here in France, I haven’t been able to partake in any of the post-baby benefits, but there are quite a few according to my French friends. They include free housecleaning, extra long maternity leave, and a per-kid stipend. Is it true that in England a midwife comes to your home to check up on you? If yes, then it’s the USA that is super-behind… Nothing of the sort there! In fact where in France the “baby shower” is a visit after-baby bearing gifts and food, in the US everything is about baby! But I’m with you, I think more attention needs to be paid to mother. Starting with lower Cesarean rates, continuing with mental health support and finally with getting us moms back in shape!
A very grumpy midwife came to see me once after giving birth. She checked the baby and told me to get rid of the rugs on the stairs because it’s “dangerous” :|
Kõhunaha ja -lihased saab väga hoolsa trenniga vist korda, aga rinnad küll tagasi neiulikuks ei lähe. See oli mu jaoks kõige suurem šokk.
That’s true, boobs will be smaller or larger (depending on your fate, I guess :) and not much can be done about that. Luckily my fate is to have small ones – makes running easy :)
You ask, why it’s not done here? The simple answer is, that unfortunately the NHS who is already over stretched to it’s limits doesn’t have any money left to spare to provide this sort of aftercare when they hardly have any money to save lives.
Also, as far as I recall, they don’t recommend things that they themselves don’t provide. At the same time they do give you a booklet/magazine with your pregnancy packet where are the list of people and companies (private of course) who provide night nannies, homeopathic therapies, natural healing before and after birth, osteopaths, mother and baby bonding sessions/massages etc. Also the same or similar magazines were lying around in the maternity unit in the hospital where all pregnant women where having their scan and appointments done. At least they did in the hospital I went to.
I also think that the birthing experience depends greatly on which hospital you give birth in or even more what type of person happens to be your midwife. On top of this of course, as all our bodies are different we will react differently to the birth. I’m so sorry that you had such a traumatic experience giving birth and that this has stayed with you for such a long time. I also know that you are not alone but in the same breath there must equally be the same amount of people that have an easy birth and happy memories as I did.
I’m not the NHS’s biggest fan but the service they provided me with after birth was excellent. I had two or three midwife visits at home and if they would have thought that I’m not coping or needed more help they would have come again. There was also a baby clinic where you were welcome to come and measure and weigh your baby and ask any questions you might have and all they all were very pleasant.
If I remember rightly then the mothers even had the opportunity to have one to one appointment with one of the midwives if there was something they wanted to discuss deeper. I was strongly engouraged to go join the local mother and baby groups so that I wouldn’t feel isolated. A couple of hours after she was born, the midwife told me to start exercising my stomach muscles (she told me specifically how to do it) and she reminded me about it again the following day and once more when I left the hospital! They gave me advice about the breast feeding, too. All this care and help was provided by NHS. I had private osteopath sessions before the birth in order to prepare my body and also afterwards to fix it.
I don’t know if the care would have been as good if there were more complications I suspect not. When they are providing standard care its all good but if things go wrong they may just not have enough resource to provide adequate care (though being pleasant and caring to the patients shouldn’t be affected by this).
They won’t otherwise say that the health care is like a lottery.
And by the way The Jamu massage sounds good. I would donate some money for you to open your own postnatal care clinic :)
Sorry, you said you would LOVE to hear our thought but I wrote the essay :)
Wow, a GREAT essay :) I have two theories now 1. The midwives hated me because I was a private patient 2. They didn’t tell me anything because Oliver was my 2nd (not knowing i had never given birth in uk before).
I have to say though that it is much easier to bounce back physically from your 1st child. I never felt like my organs would spill out after Oskar :|
PS. What’s the difference between osteopath, physiotherapist, chiropractor?
I definitely agree with your second theory!
Actually, I was thinking about this all night after I posted my comment yesterday and I came up with another thought; I think that everything has become so politically correct in this country that it just won’t work if the midwifes (or doctors) would themselves come up to young mothers and start talking about belly bandit or how to lose baby fat etc. They can’t really approach some overweight mum and start suggesting how she could lose her dress size or baby belly. For some people it could be very offensive. Also some mums are just so happy to have a baby in the first place that the belly that comes with it has no importance what so ever and they could feel annoyed or hurt. So, unless the mums don’t go and ask for the help and advice themselves they can’t offer you something if it won’t be politically correct to offer it to everyone…and of course they probably won’t offer something what they can’t provide anyway.
Of course if they had money they could make a list of treatments but then it would be a leaflet and you said leaflets don’t really count :)
Yes, it is a shame that all these ways to get yourself back to shape after birth are not provided free for charge for everyone but ‘going out and looking for it’ nowadays doesn’t often require much more effort than opening up your browser and doing a Google search :).. and some extra money (often quite a lot) :(
But what I do think they could and should do is to make more effort to educate PREGNANT women about postnatal depression. They should encourage women to come and seek help as soon as possible after birth if they feel down for unknown reasons or have symptoms and tell them that it is not something to be embarrassed about or something to be ashamed of. MOST IMPORTANTLY they should be offering the right kind of support and care for the mums who have taken this first step and have come to ask for help. The least the doctors can do (and many do already) is to hear them out and tell them that they are not alone; sometimes this is all what is needed.
My Grandmother was bound following her births. She lived in Scotland so it must have been a practice in the Uk which then died out. She always maintained that my mothers post baby belly was because she had not been bound post natally. I had 2 sections so I don’t know whether I would have felt comfortable with being bound.
On an unrelated note, don’t understand how someone can not be a fan of the NHS and then list the things that were done for them. I had two life threatening deliveries and my care was amazing, something that will soon be lost with NHS reforms.
Equally I could list the things that have not gone right for me and my family with NHS. As we already know the system quite well we know when to use the NHS services and when to go privately. For these reasons we also have private health cover. Generally we are quite healthy family and don’t often need to visit the doctors.
Hi, This is a great post and i feel your frustration. I was given no information about getting back into shape and was pretty much left to just get on with it. I found yoga worked after my first child so tried that again with my second, which worked but took much more effort! I agree that your body can bounce back if you have the right support, its just a shame we have to go out looking for it!
Go to France and the State will pay you 25 free session with a physiotherapist for perineal reeducation, and 25 more for abdominal reeducation.
My physiotherapist was also doing a 5-min massage after each session and it felt good.
As for the NHS, I have been so badly let down that I try to avoid them.
Don’t they come to massage your belly like every 2 hours after delivery? Here (in US) they massage it very often until you go home. They do it for blood cots though (I think). Is that massage something different about what you were writing about?
I haven’t felt the feeling of my organs falling out. That must have been creepy. I would like my belly to be more fit though…
edit: blood clots (not cots)
Hi Mrs B,
I am based in Singapore but I do overseas Jamu postnatal assignments for new-moms. So far, I have done Hong Kong, Australia and Abu Dhabi.
Lately I travel frequently to Melbourne, Australia. My clients paid for my return air-tix on top of the massage package.
I only travel overseas if I have 2 or 3 clients to share the air-tix.
FYI, I am going to Melbourne again on 9th Sept 2012 for 3 postnatal assignments.
Pls let me know if any new-mom interested in this “Specially Flown In Therapist” arrangement.
Pls check my website: http://www.sritherapy.com for more info about my profile & services. Thanks.