Struggling with pain in your wrist after holding your newborn for extended periods of time? It’s actually a common reason new mums see an osteopath.
A common post-pregnancy complaint we receive from new mums is wrist pain. Repeatedly rotating your wrists and hands in awkward positions to pick up, hold, and feed your newborn can result in pain and discomfort.
Marissa, our osteopath, shares some advice on how you can help your wrist pain and some stretches to get healing underway.
Why wrist pain common in new mums
During pregnancy, our body produces a hormone called relaxin. Relaxin creates ligament laxity throughout the body to help create space for the baby and assist with birth.
Ligaments assist with joint stability and can be a little more susceptible to injury or pain during this time.
With a newborn extra load is placed through the wrists from holding your precious little one for extended periods of time, placing the wrist at high risk of pain/injury.
Why is my wrist pain persisting?
There are many maintaining factors of your wrist pain. These can include:
- Repetitive strain from sustained postures (e.g. picking up and holding newborns)
- Returning to exercise which requires loading through the wrist after birth
- Fatigue from diminished & poor quality sleep impacts recovery
- Residue fluid retention or imbalance changes from pregnancy placing strain on ligaments/tendons in the wrist
How osteopathy can help with your wrist pain
Osteopaths are always looking for the cause of the problem. We want to know the specific reasons for your wrist pain and why it’s persisting so that we address the cause and help to reduce your discomfort.
This may include manual therapy to relieve strain and tension in your musculature and joints. In addition, you may receive stretch and strengthening advice to help address postural strain patterns.
Recommendations around adjusting your daily activities and work that may be contributing to your wrist pain may also be given such as modifying how you position your baby when feeding.
Stretches to help your wrist pain
There are a number of things you can do at home to help you overcome your wrist pain. Marissa demonstrates a few osteopath-approved stretches you can get started with to help relieve your discomfort.
Wrist Pain Resources
