Author| Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT specialist in pregnancy and postpartum recovery and c-section scars that hurt.
Should My C-section Scar Still Hurt?
At Purple Mountain PT our patients often ask, “should my c-section scar still hurt?” We are pelvic floor physical therapists specializing in pregnancy and postpartum recovery and we have a special place in our heart for moms who birth via cesarean delivery. We offer a treatment program to optimize your postpartum recovery, take the guesswork out of what you should and should not be doing and to promote effective C-section scar healing and abdominal muscle recovery. A cesarean birth is a painful medical procedure, because it is major surgery. After any major surgery, it is best to work with a licensed physical therapist who specializes in treatment plans and rehabilitation for your particular condition. If your c-section scar still hurts after you would reasonably expect it to be fine, please reach out to get the support and treatment you need. Also, if in the early days of healing, you experience more pain than would be expected, get started with physical therapy right away. If you would like to learn more about our program to help alleviate scar pain for women after cesarean section, contact us here.
About 7 in 100 Women will have chronic C-section scar pain. The good news is that PT can help alleviate this pain.
A cesarean delivery is major surgery and you should be supported with the help of a licensed physical therapist on your c-section recovery journey. Your incision site may be the visible signs of your surgery, but your c-section scar tissue goes much deeper than the layers of skin, muscle and connective tissue. Most of us expect that this painful medical surgery will not be a cake-walk in the early days. But, very few of our patients were told they have a 7% chance of having chronic scar tissue pain after cesarean delivery. This is unacceptable and, we think, women should know that this is a risk factor following cesarean section and that physical therapy can help your pain. If you would like to learn more about our treatment to help alleviate scar pain for women after cesarean section, contact us here.
A C-Section That Has Healed Nicely Should have the Following:
- Your C-section scar should not hurt you, at rest or when moving
- You should move freely without pulling or pinching. The layers of skin, connective tissue, muscle, fascia and organ should move easily.
- The scar should be able to move freely all directions, without restrictions.
- It should not pucker anywhere along its length
- The abdominal muscles should contract, relax and be able to maintain non-bloated appearance
- You should be able to wear pants and all clothing touching it without pain.
Will Physical Therapy Help My Scar Tissue and Postpartum Recovery?
Yes. Our licensed physical therapists help women following their pregnancy and we treat all types of scars, including painful scars, c-section shelf scars, scars with adhesions, scars that underwent revision surgery and tunneling scars. We take the guesswork and uncertainty out of your c-section recovery so you’re not confused when looking at the jumbled layers of skin that are in your incision site. If your c-section scar hurts, it is telling you that something is not right and your healing process would benefit from a licensed physical therapist to develop a treatment plan to ease c-section scar pain. To answer your questions about treatment for c-section scars, contact us here.
C-sections that hurt more than expected in the first 24 hours have a greater risk of long term pain.
For some people, the first 24 hours post-cesarean are miserable. Unfortunately, data suggests that women who experience higher than expected pain levels in the first 24 hours have a higher risk of developing chronic pain from their c-section scar. Your surgeon may have done everything right, but a nerve can get sewn in just-the-wrong-way to cause ongoing pain. Or, perhaps your body experiences high pain levels following any trauma, like a cesarean birth. If you have higher than expected pain levels in the early days of your recovery, don’t delay starting physical therapy.
Your scar tissue is healing and laying down from the very first days after your surgery. If you are having more pain than expected, skilled PT can provide gentle movement based and hands-on based manual therapies to promote more effective healing and calm down your pain. At Purple Mountain PT, our postpartum physical therapists partner with you and provide whole body care that is helps calm down your pain, improve your abdominal wall integrity and strength, restore posture, resolve pelvic floor dysfunction and improve your overall fitness and ability to function. If you are interested in learning more about our physical therapy for postpartum recovery, including c-section scar recovery, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here.
What does a physical therapy treatment plan include for the healing process following cesarean delivery?
We always want to resolve any pain. If your c-section scar hurts, we will alleviate this. We are also fully trained in orthopedic physical therapy and treat all neck, back, hip, leg and feet pain.
Our treatment plans will help you resolve your pain so you can move without difficulty and have greater confidence in your body. We use a variety of treatments to help ease your pain. These will combine exercise with manual therapy. The exercises include a variety of things to enhance strength, muscular coordination, pelvic floor muscle activation, to reduce trigger points and balance your pelvis, abdomen and low back. We also include manual therapies such as specialized joint mobilization, pelvic balancing exercises, manual therapy to address muscle stiffness, scar tissue adhesions, trigger point release or visceral restrictions. If you have questions about your c-section scar, contact us here.
All scars are treated, including c-section scar tissue as well as any scar from prior surgeries or injuries.
Sometimes women who had a cesarean birth are surprised to learn that vaginal deliveries can also result in scars, located in the perineal area whether from episiotomy or tearing. We can help all types of scars by using our hands-on scar mobilization techniques, visceral mobilization and fascial release.
Our manual therapy methods also help with endometriosis related adhesions and pain. We specialize in helping people overcome chronic pelvic pain, including endometriosis. If you had a c-section and also have endometriosis we would recommend getting PT as soon as possible to optimize your visceral mobility, scar tissue healing process and bowel/bladder function. If you have endometriosis and also a c-section and would like to learn more about our treatment for both conditions, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here.
Abdominal muscle and tissue recovery is part of your treatment plan to help alleviate c-section scar pain and improve your ability to function.
We include diastasis recti abdominis and abdominal wall elongation recovery into your treatment plan to address your scar tissue. Our patients tell us that our diastasis recovery program lifts their confidence and demystifies what they should be doing to restore their abdominal wall appearance and function. Following pregnancy, your abdominal muscles are elongated and often impaired. Additionally, the linea alba connective tissue can have trouble transferring load as your move through daily movement. Part of your treatment plan will include specific and detailed assessment of the integrity of your abdominal wall to determine if you have a diastasis recti abdominis, ongoing abdominal wall elongation (from the pregnancy) and impaired abdominal muscle activity. If you wonder if you have a diastasis recti abdominis, or what is going on with your “c-section shelf” or have general questions about your c-section scar call us at 616-516-4334 or contact us here.
We customize an exercise rehabilitation program to improve your strength. Postpartum moms need to retrain their muscles and body!
To alleviate c-section scar pain, any pelvic girdle or low back pain, neck and TM joint pain, our licensed physical therapists provide whole body care. By properly assessing you and providing private, one-on-one appointments that are upto 55 minutes in length, we give you the time necessary to effectively treat your symptoms. We will also help you improve your hip and glute strength, restore your pelvic floor function and more. If you have questions about our treatment plan for postpartum recovery following cesarean section so you can optimize your healing process, please contact us here or call 616-516-4334 to learn more.
C-section recovery research found postpartum PT with a pregnancy, postpartum and pelvic health licensed PT gets you feeling better.
Do you want less pain, the ability to exercise and higher satisfaction with your c-section recovery? What’s holding you back?
Physical therapists who specialize in pregnancy and postpartum recovery have been saying for years that all women should be provided with physical therapy after giving birth. Research has shown that postpartum women who receive physical therapy have less pain and better ability to exercise. Being pain-free and physical fit are crucial for our quality of life, the ability to take care of others, to being in a good mood and to having the energy that being a mom demands. If you are interested in our postpartum PT program, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here to have your questions answered.
Which group of women would you want to be in? All of these women had cesarean delivery, they were divided into two groups:
Group 1: These C-section moms completed postpartum physical therapy and were able to get back to exercise, completed a core retraining program (abdominal muscles, low back and more), had less pain and expressed higher satisfaction.
Group 2: These C-section moms did not complete postpartum physical therapy and they had more pain, were less able to exercise, were uncertain about how to get their core to recover and felt overall less satisfaction in their healing process and postpartum recovery.
It’s an easy choice, really. Of course, we all want to be part of Group 1! All you have to do is call us at 616-516-4334 or contact us here to start your postpartum recovery program. This research found that postpartum physical therapy twice a week for six weeks resulted in less pain, higher ability to exercise and higher patient satisfaction. Why wouldn’t you prioritize this for yourself?
Each of us deserves to not have pain, to move and exercise and to feel good about our postpartum recovery.
If you are going through your c-section recovery, our treatment plans will ease your mind and provide you with customized rehabilitation that takes the confusion out of your healing process. Our treatment plans are based on your specific evaluation findings and customized to your body. If you have c-section scar pain, or any pain in your postpartum period, our pelvic physical therapy program will help you resolve pain, improve strength, restore your pelvic floor muscles and get back to the things you love. At Purple Mountain PT we implement the measures that this research found helps you: core retraining, safe and structured stretches, hands-on treatments, education in what to be doing at home. If you have questions about our treatment plan for postpartum recovery following cesarean section so you can optimize your healing process, please contact us here or call 616-516-4334 to learn more.
Our physical therapy provides you scar massage and visceral mobilization to help all of your scar tissue slides and glides better. Scar massage can help collagen remodel in a beneficial way!
Our patients tell us that the hands-on treatments they received eased their c-section scar pain, improved the appearance of their abdomen, alleviated pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms and generally helped them to feel better. We are licensed physical therapists with post-graduate training specific to pregnancy and postpartum recovery, pelvic health and orthopedic physical therapy. We help women who had cesarean section deliveries or vaginal births. You can expect to receive a variety of specialized manual therapy techniques that ease tension, help adhesions, promote normal organ mobility, improve blood flow, resolve muscular trigger points, enhance joint motion and restore postural alignment. If you labored and tried for a vaginal delivery before ultimately having a cesarean delivery, please understand that your body went through a lot of stress and strain, both vaginally to the pelvic floor and ultimately with your major surgery. For c-section scars that hurt, you can expect care directed to your whole-body, because everything is connected and tension, restrictions or tightness in one area can impair the mobility of the layers of tissue in your c-section scar that hurts or is adhered.
If you want a healthy, mobile, unrestricted scar so that you can run, push, pull, lift and move without feeling the scar, give us a call at 616-516-4334 or contact us here. We treat EVERY scar (whether it is cesarean, laparotomy, vaginal birth, hernia, hip surgery, robotic or other scar) to get the scar moving optimally and so that your c-section scar won’t hurt.
Your C-section Scar may be contributing to your bladder control problems.
Cesarean delivery requires an incision site that is very close to your bladder. You will lay down scar tissue right near your bladder. Sometimes this scar tissue causes impairment with bladder filling or emptying or can disrupt the pelvic floor muscles and how they function. You may develop urinary frequency, urgency, urge incontinence, stress incontinence, difficulty emptying or lots of waking up at night to urinate. For women who had vaginal deliveries, it is well known that pelvic floor dysfunction, episiotomies or perineal tearing can also contribute to bladder control troubles when postpartum. Our postpartum recovery treatment plan includes care for your bladder, as well. If you had a c-section and now also have bladder symptoms, such as painful filling of your bladder, urinary urgency and frequency or incontinence, to learn more about our treatment call us at 616-516-4334 or contact us here.
Your C-section scar may be contributing to your Pelvic Organ Prolapse
Because the abdomen, pelvic organs and pelvic floor are so intimately connected, any disruption to the integrity of one of these areas can impair the others. Therefore, it is possible your C-section scar is impairing the support of your pelvis and contributing to prolapse. With pelvic organ prolapse we always work to optimize all of the support structures for your organs and vagina. Scar tissue and scar pain can both lead to pelvic floor muscle dysfunction and impairments in the support of the pelvic organs. For any patient who underwent cesarean or vaginal delivery, we always assess your pelvic floor muscles, organ support structures and look for signs and symptoms of pelvic organ prolapse. Rest assured, there are many things we include in our treatment plan that help improve pelvic pressure, urinary incontinence, c-section scars that hurt, scar tissue adhesions and pelvic organ prolapse symptoms.
Many of our patients live in fear of prolapse. Someone vaguely told them that they have a prolapse, which can be scary to hear, but did not advise them on what to do about it. We will clear your mind and give you a detailed treatment plan to address your prolapse. This is our life’s work and we are happy to share it to help you. Call us at 616-516-4334 to learn more or contact us here.
If your c-section scar hurts, we are here to help you!
We’ve detailed some of the considerations we include in our postpartum recovery treatment plan following cesarean delivery and many of these also apply to vaginal birth. The early days of recovering from this painful medical procedure should be effectively managed with high quality support from your surgeon and associated medical professionals. As you progress through your postpartum recovery, you should expect your c-section scar to begin to hurt less and eventually to have no pain. Our licensed physical therapists have post-graduate training in manual therapy methods to help all types of scars. For anyone who has a c-section scar that hurts on an ongoing basis, please know that it is never too late to get help for this from one of our physical therapists. Chronic c-section scar pain is not something to be ignored. We find many women put themselves on the backburner, prioritizing their children and other people’s needs over their own needs. We also find that women tell us they are frustrated, exhausted and feel ignored when they raise complaints of their c-section scar hurting. A frustrated, tired and ignored mom is not in the best moods and not up for all the things that may be required of her. If you are feeling this way, please reach out to us because we can help you. At Purple Mountain PT, we specialize in postpartum recovery, including cesarean birth healing and vaginal delivery rehabilitation. We provide treatment both in person at our clinic in Grand Rapids, Michigan and virtually via telehealth. Contact us here to learn more about our postpartum recovery treatment plan or call us at (616) 516-4334. We help women who are in pain every day and we can help you, also. We’ve written about PT for pain here and you may be interested to read that information.
Peace,
The Journal of Women’s Health Physical Therapy published the research that showed that 6 weeks of PT following cesarean section improved pain and ability to exercise. The article is titled: Physical Therapy in addition to standard of care improves patient satisfaction and recovery post-cesarean section.
