Ask the OT: How Do I Support My Pelvic Floor While Babywearing?

Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles and tissue that sits at the bottom of your pelvis. It acts as a support system for organs like the bladder and uterus, helps to stabilize the core, and aids in bodily functions like bowel and bladder movements and sexual activity. It’s pretty common to have some pelvic floor concerns in pregnancy and early postpartum. You might feel weakness, abdominal discomfort, pressure, lower back or hip pain, or struggle with incontinence or urgency. While these issues happen to many birthing parents, they’re not something you should just learn to live with. They’re a sign that your pelvic floor needs some TLC. So, let’s talk about some things you can do to protect your pelvic floor while babywearing and in general. We'll also take a deeper look into how different carriers can help support your postpartum recovery.

While pelvic floor issues often originate from pregnancy or birth, there are things we sometimes do as new parents that can make those issues worse and things we can do to help with healing. To give your pelvic floor the love and support it deserves:

• Focus on your resting posture when sitting, feeding your baby, or standing. Try to minimize hunching, sticking your neck forward, or overarching your spine and sticking your stomach out. A neutral, relaxed stance with head, shoulders, hips, knees, and feet all in alignment is the goal.
• Be mindful of how you’re moving when carrying your baby. Bending and twisting movements can be a source of discomfort in early postpartum, so try alternatives like rotating your entire body with your feet to turn instead of twisting at the waist, and bend with your knees instead of hunching your back.
• Add in gentle, supportive movement in early postpartum. Things like 360 breathing (a breathing technique where you expand the front, back, and sides of your torso using expansion of the diaphragm with deep breaths), walking at a comfortable pace, and gentle stretches like cat cows as you feel ready are all great ways to add intentional and feel-good movement into your daily routine.

And above all, my number one tip for supporting your pelvic floor is… pelvic floor therapy! Prenatal and/or postpartum pelvic floor therapy is something every pregnant and birthing parent deserves, and if your experience is anything like mine, you’ll be able to take your baby if you need to. You might even end up babywearing them during your sessions! Which means you’ll need to pick a good, pelvic floor-friendly carrier, and hope&plum happens to have 5 great options (6 if you count our Kid Lark!).

The ring sling is one of the most pelvic floor-friendly carriers for early postpartum, as the lack of waistband helps prevent downward pressure to the abdomen. The ring sling is my top recommendation as an OT for early postpartum recovery. Some additional tips to support your pelvic floor while wearing it are:

• Be mindful of your posture. Especially when your baby grows and you begin to hip carry, do not shift all of your weight to one side and stick your hip out. This can exacerbate pelvic floor imbalances, tightness, and lower back pain. Instead, try to stack your head, shoulders, hips, knees, and feet in alignment. Rolling your shoulders back, lifting your chin, and gently shifting your hips can be a great place to start!
• Play around with switching which shoulder you carry on! Everyone has a preferred shoulder, but alternating sides can help with back pain and prevent uneven strain or tension as your baby grows.

The stretchy wrap is such a lovely and snuggly option for the newborn stage! While the stretchy wrap naturally lends itself to being a more pelvic floor friendly option due to the lack of thick waistband, there are some things we can do to make it feel even more supportive:

• If you have prolapse or are recovering from a C-section, tie off in the back instead of bringing the final pass back around to the front. This will remove an extra layer of fabric from your abdomen and decrease pressure to the soft tissue.
• Fully spread the passes across your back and shoulders for better weight distribution and comfort to help take weight off your abdomen.

What’s nice about the meh dai for supporting your pelvic floor is is the combination of the apron-style waist and the wide, wrap style straps- together, they equal better weight distribution across the back and high level of customization for more support. To make the most out of the comfort your meh dai offers:

• Make sure the waistband is worn high on your natural waist-right on the bottom of your rib cage if possible to avoid pressure on the softer parts of the abdomen.
• Really focus on removing slack from the shoulders, and spreading the passes flat and wide across your back. Crossing the straps over baby’s bottom in the front can help lift them up and take additional weight off your abdomen.
• Play around with alternate ways to finish tying off the straps! There are a lot of fun and safe ways to tie off a meh dai in a front or back carry besides the standard ones you’ll learn as a beginner. Different methods will take weight off in different ways and can add more layers and more support. 

The Sprout is a buckle carrier made specially for newborns. It has many similarities to the meh dai: an apron style waist and wide, cross-style straps that can be capped on the shoulder. These features make the Sprout another great option to minimize pressure on the pelvic floor. To optimize this:

• Wear the waistband up high on your natural waist, on the bottom of your ribs, just like the meh dai!
• Make sure your waistband is not overly tight. Tighter is not necessarily safer. The waistband should feel snug and comfortable like your favorite pair of pants, not like a corset.
• Focus on spreading the straps evenly. They should cross at your mid-back, and you have the option to cap your shoulders This will maximize weight distribution and reduce strain on your back. And the input from the straps will help give you a postural cue to stand up straighter with relaxed shoulders.

While the Lark isn’t suitable for newborns, many parents are still working on healing their pelvic floor in the 3-6 month timeframe (which is when most babies start to fit the Lark safely). The Lark fit is very similar to the Sprout, so the same pelvic floor tips go for both:

• Wear the waistband up high on your natural waist, on the bottom of your ribs.
• Tighten the waistband so it's snug but still comfortable. It should feel snug and comfortable like your favorite pair of pants, not like a corset.
• Spread the straps evenly and have them cross at your mid-back. This will maximize weight distribution and reduce strain. The mid-back cross will also serve as a gentle reminder to stand up straighter with relaxed shoulders.