“POSTNATAL EXERCISE”

INTRODUCTION:- Postnatal exercises are important for you to

regain the strength of your abdominal muscles, after the birth of your
baby as strong muscles help prevent lower back injury, prevent
abdominal organs from " dropping forward" through lack of support
and help you to regain a flat stomach.
DEFINITION:-
POSTANATAL PERIOD:- it refers to the time from termination of
pregnancy till 42 days
EXERCISE:- it is a physical activity that is planned, structured and
repetitive for the purpose of conditioning any part of the body
The objectives of post-partum exercises are:
1) To improve the muscle tone which have stretched during
pregnancy and delivery, the
abdominal and perineal muscles.
2) To teach about the correct posture to be maintained while
getting up from the bed and practice correct principles of lifting
and working.
IMPORTANCE:-
Improve circulation
Strengthen pelvic floor muscle
Prevent backache
Strengthen the tummi muscles
BENEFITS OF EXCERCISES:-
1) Reduce the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and
cancer
2) Reduce high blood pressure, high cholesterol
3) Reduce body weight, depression, anxiety and improves
psychological wellbeing
4) Builds and maintains health muscles, bones and joints
IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO BE CONSIDER
WHEN BEGINNING EXCERCISES:-
1) Wear loose supportive clothing
2) Environment-stable environment
3) Nutrition-do not exercise on full stomach
4) Safety- don’t excercisealone in the dark
5) Low impact exercise is preferable during postnatal period
PRINCIPLE OF EXERCISE:-
1) FREQUENCY
2) INTENSITY- mild to moderate exercise are recommended
3) Duration- 30 min of exercise per day
TYPES OF POSTNATAL EXERCISE:-
1) Foot and ankle exercise
2) Pelvic floor exercise-kegal
3) Pelvic tilting exercise
4) Abdominal breathing
5) Head and shoulder raising
6) Leg raising
7) Knee rolling
8) Hip hitching and leg shortening
1) FOOT AND ANKLE EXERCISE

 Keep knees relaxed for both exercises

  Bend and streach ankles vigorously up and down for
30 sec
 Circle both feet 10 times in each direction
 Repeat theses exercise frequently

2) PELVIC FLOOR EXECRCISE:-

 Pelvic floor muscle are stretched during pregnancy

and child birth
 Strong pelvic floor muscles are essential to prevent
leakage of urine when sneeze or cough, for enjoyable
sexual intercourse and to give complete control to
bowel
 Strong muscles will also help prevent developing a
prolapsed womb
 Can do this exercise standing , sitting or lying
 Pull the area around vagina up and down
 The contraction should be held for 10 sec (to a count
of 6 and repeated up to 10 times
  The exercise should be continued for 2 -3 monthes
 This exercise is especially important if mother have
stitches
 It help to improve the circulation and will help to heal
quickly
3) PELVIC TILTING EXERCISE:-

 Lie on firm surface with kees bent and a comfortable

pillow beneath the head
 Pull in your tummy (inhale, while exhale flatten the
back)
 Press the lower part of back down flat
 Hold for several second and repeat
4)ABDOMINAL BREATHING:-
 This is to strenthenthe diaphragm
 Taje a deep breath, raising her abdominal wall and exhale
slowely
 To ensure correct method ask to keep one hand on chest
and one on abdomen
 while inhaling the hand on the chest should remain
stationary
 repeat the exercise five times

5)HEAD AND SHOULDER RAISING:-

 ON the day 2nd postpartum day lie flat and raise both
head and shoulder off the bed and lower them slowely,
increase gradually
6)LEG RAISING

 Begun on the 7th post partum day

 Lying down on the floor with no pillows under the head
 Point toe and slowely raise one leg keeping the knee
straight
 Lower the leg slowely
7)KNEE ROLLING

 This is to strengthen the oblique abdominal muscles

  In back lying with knees bent, pull in the abdomen and
roll both knees to one side as far is confortable ,
keeping shoulders flat
 Returns knees to upright position and relax the
abdomen
 Pull in again and roll both knees to other side
 Perform 10 times
8)HIP HITCHING OR LEG SHORTENING

 In back lying with one knee bent and the other knee
straight
 Side the heel of the straight leg down word thus
lengthening the leg
 Shorten the same leg by drawing the hip up towards
the ribs on the same side
 Repeat up to 10 times
 Change to the opposite side and repeat
WARNING SIGNS
 Increased faligue
 Muscle aches and pains
 Changing the color of lochia- pink to red
 Heavier lochia flow
 Lochia starts flowing again after it had stopped