Groin Pain After Delivery

It’s been a few weeks since you gave birth to your adorable babe.  It’s been a total whirlwind of bliss melted into exhaustion but recently you got your groove and are feeling more like yourself.

But there’s a lingering present that greets you after you get out of bed every morning.  The smoosh of the covers and warm bed has always been alluring, where you used to stretch lazily to greet the day - each and every morning - instead, you are attacked by a sharp pain in your groin that can drop you to the floor.  It showed up with your first baby at around 35 weeks and went away with birth. 

The second pregnancy, you were greeted by this familiar pain around 5 months and hobbled around feeling like lightning shocked your crotch for the remainder of pregnancy.  Most groin pain that is deep and to the bone thankfully disappears immediately after birth.  But this time hoping for respite from giving birth, this pain has lingered.

One of the most overlooked causes of postpartum groin pain is “help” during birth.  One of the participants at your birth got a little extra trying to assist you in trying to hold your legs back - a bit too far.  During birth, sometimes it’s a marathon of helping a babe hit earthside and contorting to get your baby to contort through your bony pelvis requires a change of movement of your legs. 

Sometimes in the excitement of birth - those holding your legs, a student, a partner, or a friend tries to “help” by pulling back your legs to the point of overload and inadvertently sprains your groin without you even really knowing as the focus (and pain at the time - is distracting you elsewhere. 

Classic presentation for someone who has fallen victim to this is a woman who literally cannot put her pants on or has to crawl up the stairs. 

How can you prevent this?

1. Have a talk with who is going in with you to bear in mind your ligaments and tissues are a bit more stretchy from a hormone called relaxin.  Having your legs up for hours and then cranked back beyond its normal physiological range of motion frequency results in a ripping or overstretching of your undercarriage. 

2. Before your birth - make a conscious effort to incorporate 10 minute “mind-breaks” to load a YouTube video or other gentle stretching video to get that area looser and more pliable.  If you have a little at home, include them for some adorable fun stretching together!

3. If you are still having pain, make sure you find a prenatal chiropractor or PT to help you get your PSD under control prior to birth by working on this area to make sure you are the most aligned and flexible as birth is akin to a sport!

For more information, check out my book, What You Don’t Expect When You’re Expecting or my website for links to helpful DIY care plans and printables to empower you to work on this yourself to get you back to your best self!

Check out whatyoudontexpect.com to learn tips for not only pregnancy sports medicine care, but also what you can do both before and after your birth to help yourself get through this.