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Why Does My C-Section Scar Hurt Years Later?

Author| Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT pelvic health, pregnancy and postpartum specialist

Why does my c-section scar hurt years later?

Here at Purple Mountain PT in Grand Rapids, MI, we routinely help people who have c-section scars that hurt. Our clinical specialization in pregnancy, postpartum recovery and pelvic floor physical therapy gives us unique insights into those pesky c-sections scars that hurt. We work with individuals in person in our clinic and online via telehealth. Our patients comes to us throughout the lifespan and some of our patients, whose kids are no longer babies, still have C-section scars that hurt. After your healing is complete following your cesarean delivery, your scar should not hurt you, but the truth is that anywhere between 7-18% of women develop chronic scar pain from their c-section. The good news is that you are not stuck with this painful scar tissue. We are licensed physical therapists who specialize in postpartum recovery, scar tissue mobilization and developing treatment plans that optimize your healing process, calm down your pain and enhance your scar mobility. Our specialty in pelvic health, pregnancy and postpartum care, c-section recovery, visceral mobilization, bladder, bowel and pelvic organ prolapse gives us unique insights into c-section scars that hurt. If you would like to learn more about our treatment methods to alleviate scar pain, contact us here.

What can you do for a cesarean scar that hurts years later?

Cesarean scars that hurt for years can still benefit from physical therapy that provides specialized scar tissue treatments and abdominal wall and pelvic floor recovery care. We commonly work with women who have developed scar adhesions and can recollect pain in their scar for years. Our clinical experience, patient feedback, and published research have all found that using advanced fascial and visceral release techniques to old, painful cesarean scars (and any other scar) can help resolve pain, improve function and optimize bladder, bowel and pelvic organ function. We provide physical therapy for women following cesarean and vaginal delivery to optimize postpartum recovery, even if you gave birth years ago. Our treatment plans include scar tissue and fascial recovery, to facilitate improved movement of your scar, viscera and muscles. While we all expect that a cesarean delivery is a painful medical procedure, none of us are expecting to have chronic c-section scar pain; if you fall into the 7-18% of women who do experience chronic c-section scar pain, please reach out to us. To inquire about cost and availability of our services, contact us here or call 616-516-4334 to learn more.

If you experience challenges with your c-section recovery, our licensed physical therapists are here for you! We provide you a treatment plan that includes pelvic floor PT and helps resolve your chronic scar tissue pain.

We have found that our patients tell us that the care they’ve received with us has improved their healing process, even when their cesarean delivery was decades ago. Improving the trigger points and fascial restrictions in and around the scar and also in areas far away from the scar can alleviate your pain and improve your function. Our licensed physical therapists have post-graduate training specific to chronic abdominal and pelvic pain, chronic c-section and other surgical scar treatment and pelvic floor dysfunction. We offer treatments, such as visceral mobilization, scar mobilization, trigger point release, pelvic floor dysfunction recovery, diastasis recti abdominis rehabilitation and more to help overcome the pain that a c-section scar can cause. To learn more about these treatments, contact us here or call 616-516-4334.

How many women experience C-section scar pain?

One paper examined the prevalence of c-section scar pain found the following:

18.3% of women at 3 months post-birth

11.3% at 6 months postpartum

6.8% at 12 months postpartum.

That’s a lot of people! Nearly 7 women out of 100 who have a cesarean delivery will have pain a year later! Flip these numbers and you’ll notice that nearly 82% of women have NO PAIN by 3 months after giving birth.

We recommend starting physical therapy before 3 months postpartum, especially if you are having pain. But, it is never too late to start! Some of our moms have adult children and are grateful to finally get the care they have needed for decades.

Our treatment plan for every patient, regardless of the age of their scars and adhesions, includes scar tissue work. We work with scars that are decades old and are able to meaningful improve these so there is less pain, adhesions and symptoms, like bladder urgency, related to scar issues. If you are reading this and wondering “should my c-section scar still hurt?”, chances are that, no, you should not be having ongoing pain and that physical therapy can help you. To learn more about cost and availability of our licensed physical therapists to help you during your old c-section scar that still hurts, contact us here or call 616-516-4334.

Our licensed physical therapists perform fascial release techniques that have been shown to help alleviate cesarean scar pain

One study provided fascial release techniques and scar tissue manual therapy to women who had chronic cesarean scar pain for 6-9 years following their cesarean delivery. In this study, the women reported high pain levels in the premenstrual period, with bowel movements and with any pressure on their scar. One woman also reported pain when she was trying to move around in her bed. Our physical therapists have advanced training in manual therapy methods, including fascial release techniques, to treat scars. The women in this study experienced resolution of their pain! This is huge. Their pain rating scale was 0 out of 10 after they completed treatment. Using these fascial release techniques, the scars were measured and their mobility and tolerance to pressure both improved. If you are interested in learning more about our treatment plan that comprehensively helps address old c-section scars that hurt, call our office at 616-516-4334 or contact us here.

In one study about c-section scar pain, women reported it hurt when:

*At Rest: Most women reported mild pain when at rest.

*They move: Moderate to severe pain with movement was present at 3 months and tended to decrease for some, but not all women, by 12 months.

*With Activities of Daily Living: Because your c-section scar hurts, this study found your activities of daily living were compromised.

Characteristics of chronic C-section scar pain

The women we work with who have chronic cesarean scar pain describe to us a lengthy list of what it feels like to have c-section scar pain. While this is by no means a complete list, any pain you experience in or around your cesarean scar is a valid experience. Some things our patients report vary and include:

  • My c-section scar feels tight
  • My c-section scar feels pinched
  • I don’t like to touch my abdominal muscles or cesarean scar
  • My c-section scar hurts, it can throb, when something comes in contact with it, like my pants
  • I can’t have a baby or child in my lap, because I may experience sharp pain in my lower abdomen and scar.
  • My cesarean incision always hurt, from day one! It was a really painful medical procedure, a major surgery! I feel like my healing process was not right from the very beginning.
  • Sometimes I have pain with bowel movements; it can feel sharp in my abdomen.
  • Sometimes when I reach behind me, twist or roll in bed I get a catching feeling, sharp pain or something that says “nope, you shouldn’t move that way.”
  • My cesarean scar looks asymmetric, puckers and pinches.
  • When I try to pull it up or to the side, it just won’t go. It feels very tight and can feel throbby.
  • My c-section scar burns or feels like there’s nerve pain.

Adhesions, tension and stiffness causes chronic c-section scar pain?

As your incision site heals, it goes through 3 stages of developing scar tissue.

  1. The first stage is the inflammatory stage, when beneficial inflammatory factors flood the tissue for the purpose of cleaning up the wound and beginning the process of scar tissue development.
  2. The second stage is the proliferative stage, when collagen and other cells begin to fill in the defect caused by the incision site.
  3. The final stage is remodeling and, in this stage, your new collagen scar tissue becomes more organized and structured, so it is stronger.

When someone experiences chronic pain from a cesarean section or any other surgery, often we find that their healing process may have led to scar tissue that is contracted and stuck to surrounding structures.

In many cases, the person sustained an infection in their postoperative days, but this is not always the case. If you are wondering why does my c-section scar hurt years later, come to an appointment with our licensed physical therapists and you will receive answers. We help you uncover what’s going on and also find a path forward to resolve your c-section scar pain. We find that chronic c-section scar pain has myofascial layers (abdominal muscles, connective tissue, nerves, blood vessels) that often have adhesions and are not able to slide and glide properly. The result is tension and stiffness in the scar tissue and nearby structures. If you have tension and stiffness in nerves and tissues that should be able to easily move when you are going about your daily activities, it is likely you will experience scar pain. In our postpartum recovery physical therapy, we provide skilled treatment to all types of scars, including adhesions, c-section scars, laparotomy scars, robotic scars, perineal tears, episiotomies, keloids and scars that had prior infections.

The physical therapy treatment plans that we provide for individuals who have any abdominal or pelvic pain, especially if it is pain that is related to a cesarean delivery scar, always includes a variety of manual therapy methods, such as visceral mobilization, trigger point release, fascial release to the scar, joint mobilization and massage. Our licensed physical therapists also incorporate exercise, postural correction, movement, stretching and core and gluteal strengthening into a recovery plan for anyone with chronic abdominal and pelvic pain. If you are interested in learning more about our treatment plans to help resolve abdominal, pelvic, back or hip pain, you can call our office at 616-516-4334 or contact us here. 

What are some of the predictors that your C-section scar is going to hurt?

If you have chronic c-section scar pain, please know that you have not done anything wrong. We don’t always know why one person’s c-section scar hurts years later whereas another person experiences no pain. Some of us simply lay down more scar tissue, develop adhesions and experience more nerve pain than others. Our licensed physical therapists are able to help you navigate the complexity of chronic abdominal and pelvic pain. If you are wondering “why is this happening to me?”, we do have some research that investigated risk factors for chronic c-section scar pain.

The risk factors for chronic c-section scar pain:

*How did it feel those first 24 hours? Higher pain intensity with movement within 24 hours of giving birth. This is an important indicator for women because this continued to be the associated with higher pain levels at your baby’s first birthday.

*Did you experience low mood before your C-section? Depression present before the operation was a risk factor for ongoing C-section scar pain.

*Did your operation take a long time? Longer duration of surgery was found to be a predictor of ongoing c-section scar pain.

Could my bladder, bowel or prolapse symptoms be related to my c-section scar tissue?

Because your cesarean scar and incision site penetrates all the layers of tissue in your entire abdominal wall, it can affect how your entire abdominal and pelvic region function. Scar tissue that is altering the ability of your abdominal muscles and pelvic floor to work optimally might contribute to back pain, hip pain, pelvic pain or abdominal pain. Scar tissue might cause non-optimal forces through the abdomen and pelvis, resulting in worsening of pelvic organ prolapse symptoms. Scar tissue might cause pinching or pulling when your bladder or bowel fill up. It is common that our patients have urinary urgency, frequency or incontinence. We also find our patients experience painful bowel movements and sometimes difficulty emptying their bowels. In our work as pelvic health specialists, this is why we examine and treat every scar, even if you don’t have any scar pain. Our experience with providing fascial release and visceral mobilization to all types of scars is because our licensed physical therapists have advanced training in these manual therapies and cesarean recovery. Because we specialize in pelvic pain, we have written a variety of articles, you may be interested to read this. To get your questions answered, you may contact us here or call our office at 616-516-4334.

About Purple Mountain PT’s Treatment for Chronic Pain in C-section Scars

Purple Mountain Physical Therapy is a specialty pelvic health clinic that serves women, men and children in Grand Rapids Michigan. We help kids and adults overcome pelvic conditions, including chronic abdominal and pelvic pain related to old c-section scars that still hurt. If you are looking for solutions for why does your c-section scar still hurt years later, we are here to help you. Our c-section recovery program helps women who are newly postpartum and women who have old c-section scars that still hurt. Our physical therapists focus exclusively on pelvic physical therapy and we’ve written before about chronic c-section scar pain. The treatment plans we provide for c-section scars and other scars that are adhered and cause pain, are comprehensive, effective and offer whole-body care. We have training and techniques specific to ongoing c-section scar pain, pelvic floor rehabilitation and abdominal wall recovery. If your c-section scar still hurts and you know that something doesn’t seem right, give us a call to get help. Our doctors of physical therapy are here to help you feel like yourself again. Give us a call at 616-516-4334 to learn more about cost and availability or contact us here. 

Peace,

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT specializing in pelvic floor physical therapy, pregnancy and postpartum recovery for 25 years.

The Pelvic Floor Doula

Why a doula cares so much about your pelvic floor

Photo credit to Emily Croff- Finding fire Photography

What Is A Doula?

I never thought I’d be here- a doula, running my own company, teaming with other doulas and supporting them, knowing so much about the birth world. And yet here I am, and I wouldn’t change a thing in my journey to get me here. I didn’t know what a doula was until I watched the Netflix documentary The Business of Being Born, but like many people, when I saw what the possibilities were for natural birth and embracing the “right of passage” called birth, I was convinced that natural birth would be my path and a doula for myself would be the ticket to achieve these goals. I mostly wanted a doula because I knew I wanted my husband close and he needed direction from someone to know how to help me (so really a doula for him!). Now that I AM the doula, I can speak so much more to what a doula truly is. Doula is a Greek word for slave or servant. She is present for the birth or for the postpartum period in the birth journey to support, equip, serve, etc. She was the village in the beginning, but now it’s becoming more and more a trained vocation and life calling. My calling actually knocked on my door about a year after my first daughter was born. I was working in a boutique cloth diaper store and desperately wanted to remain in a place where I could continue supporting women and their families in the huge journey they undertake during the childbirth adventure. I wanted to be a postpartum doula (the gear, breastfeeding, and infant care really interested me), but knowing my heart, I knew I would want to support families from the beginning of their story. So when my family relocated to Grand Rapids, I eagerly pursued training as a birth doula, one month later I was trained as a postpartum doula, and then pursued certification in both for the next two years simultaneously.

What Does A Doula Do?

Doulas serve, of course! But logistically, we offer physical support, emotional support, informational support, and advocacy. Our place in the birth world is strictly non-medical, we make no decisions for the family we serve, and we do not speak for them. We can attend births that are in the home or hospital, medicated or unmedicated, vaginal, or c-section. I like to say, “you will walk away feeling heard, supported, protected, guided, and educated, regardless how your story unfolds”. Here are some other great evidence-based facts about having a doula attend your birth:

  • 31% increase in your chance to enjoy your experience

  • 25-39% decrease in the risk for a c-section

  • 8-15% increased chance in having a spontaneous onset of labor

  • 10% decrease in the use of pain medication

  • Shorter labor by 41 minutes on average

  • 38% decrease in baby’s risk of a low APGAR score

Why Would A Doula Be So Interested In The Pelvic Floor?

Well in the birth doula training, I fell in love with birth support. I think what drew me in so quickly was that I finally was able to unveil the answers I had to my jaded birth experience with my first-born. To sum up the very long story, my baby was poorly positioned (OP) and either no one knew, or no one cared to inform me. So I experienced pure isolated trauma contraction after contraction. The pain was beyond anything I could imagine for a completely unsustainable time. Even with a doula (a retired postpartum nurse friend not actually trained as a doula). The answers I had from my training were this: babies need to be positioned optimally in the womb for an optimal birth. Backwards babies in general make for longer labors, more painful labors, and more assisted deliveries. I felt so justified in my experience. I quickly went on to learn more deeply about baby positioning in an elevated birth worker training called Spinning Babies. Gosh, I LOVE talking about baby positioning. I promised myself that no client of mine would ever experience the labor I had and at least not be informed of it. I have since been able to turn several babies out of less-than-optimal positions for the sake of a more sustainable labor while offering birth doula services.

Here’s where the pelvic floor enters the picture. Even with all these great new tools I had learned with Spinning Babies, I was still wrecked watching my clients tear deeply during the birth of their baby. I felt like I had less than ideal suggestions to help them navigate that pivotal moment a lot of people refer to as “the ring of fire”. Truly though, I got angry. Angry at the gap in the care I saw between the hospital and the home birth clients (who truly never tore). I wanted to begin to bridge the gap in the hospital, so I started talking with pelvic floor therapists. Fairly quickly in my pursuit in the pelvic floor and the pushing phase of birth, I found myself signed up for another elevated birth worker class called Body Ready Method. Taught by an exercise psychologist and doula, I was able to learn a whole new view of birth in its relevance to the body (but specifically 5 pillars of BRM: upper body, core, pelvis, pelvic floor, and alignment). For anyone who goes to PT in pregnancy, you KNOW these topics are discussed. The best part, I can take these principles into the labor and delivery room and continue the support of body function as it applies to pregnancy, birth, and even postpartum.

What Does That Actually Look Like?

Based on my journey with the different trainings I’ve taken, there are several tools I carry with me into my care with my clients. It’s more than the average doula. I feel like there is no possibility of interacting with any birth without incorporating what is now deeply ingrained into my understanding of birth and the body. We need to look at the baby as it relates to the bony pelvis (Spinning Babies) but even more, it is essential to prepare your body to carry a baby optimally in the first place (BRM). This will lead to a more sustainable pregnancy with less pain, a correctly positioned baby by default (if the body is in proper alignment, baby will also be in proper alignment), therefore the birth will most likely be quicker with less pain and less stalls due to a malposition in baby or a delay in the connective tissues yielding to allow a baby to pass through the body, there will be significantly less tearing or overall dysfunction in the pelvic floor because there was preparation for its big stretch, and therefore less postpartum recovery/pain because there was less trauma to the body during birth. I know, it’s crazy to think that these things are attainable to us and we don’t just have to hope or wish for them!

Final Things

At the end of the day, I wish this for all the readers who find themselves reading this blog: understand that everything is connected. Nothing in the body works in complete isolation when it comes to birth. Preparing for the big marathon is key (mind and body). Doing that will lead you through a much easier time in this big epicenter moment. And hey, to do that, see a pelvic floor therapist for proper training and exercises that suit your body. And hire the doula who will carry that same mindset into your birth room with you so you can not only have your baby born safely, but you come out protected (and in-tact) as well.

About Mandi

Mandi Owns Great Lakes Doulas agency in Grand Rapids Michigan and serves the greater West Michigan area with birth and postpartum services and body work for pregnancy. She cares deeply about your journey, your baby’s position, and your perineum… cause someone needs to! In her time apart from birth work, she is raising up her three kiddos and getting outside. Contact Mandi at www.greatlakesdoulas.com to add her or one of the amazing doulas on her team to YOUR birth team.

About Purple Mountain Physical Therapy

We are Purple Mountain Physical Therapy in Grand Rapids, Michigan and we specialize in providing pelvic health care to women during their pregnancy, postpartum recovery and beyond.  We love to help women get strong again after giving birth so you can be feel like yourself again.

Peace,

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT specializing in pelvic health, TMJ disorders, neck and back pain.

You may be interested in reading these other articles we’ve written about the treatments we offer:

Exercise in Pregnancy: A Physical Therapists Perspective

Balance exercises for Pelvic Floor Dysfunction

Tips to Fix Incontinence Naturally

Does Physical Therapy Help Endometriosis?

Vaginismus and Dyspareunia Treatment in Grand Rapids

5 Tips To Ease Pelvic Pain that Won’t Go Away!

Do I Have Pelvic Floor Dysfunction?

9 Tips That You Need Pelvic Floor Therapy

Tailbone pain and How Pelvic Floor PT Can Help You! Plus Some Self-Care Tips!

Pelvic Floor PT in Grand Rapids!

You Have Found The Best Pelvic Floor PTs in Grand Rapids!

Here at Purple Mountain Physical Therapy we offer advanced and expert pelvic floor PT in Grand Rapids for women, men and children. We understand that when you have a pelvic problem you don’t know where to go to receive your care and you want to make certain that you are getting the best results. Our doctors of physical therapy are uniquely qualified and offer you many years experience and advanced post-doctoral education specific to the challenging needs of pelvic health. To connect, connect us here, or call us at (616) 516-4334.

Pelvic Floor PT Explained!

Some patients tell us “I was skeptical this could help my urinary urgency and frequency, but now I’m a believer because it is so much better.”

We know that pelvic floor PT can be a bit of a mystery. Most of our patients tell us that they had no idea what pelvic PT would do for them. Pelvic floor PT is a specialty field within physical therapy that focuses upon treating bladder, bowel, pain and intimacy related problems for women, men and children. Our pelvic floor PT clinic in Grand Rapids is a place for you to be evaluated and treated with expertise and compassion in a trauma-informed setting that truly elevates the standard of care you should expect to receive from all of your providers. Our Doctors of Physical Therapy are licensed and also have completed extensive post-doctoral training specific to the field of pelvic health, spine and TMJ disorder physical therapy.  It makes a difference when you work with an experienced specialist.  If you are interested in learning more about working with our PTs here at Purple Mountain PT, reach out to us here or call us at (616) 516-4334.

What to Expect at Your First Appointment

It all begins with the first phone call!

First, you will know from your first phone call that you are receiving care from people who truly care about you and who strive to provide you with excellence. Our care is always welcoming, holistic, compassionate and trauma-informed.

Your Pelvic Floor Evaluation Appointment is Holistic and our Whole Body Framework ensures you receive comprehensive insights into the multiple contributions to your condition.

Your first appointment will be an evaluation, where we will go into depth with talking about your pelvic concerns. Some people come to us with focused and specific concerns, such as chronic lower abdominal pain that worsens with a full bladder. Other people come with more general pelvic concerns; for example, they had a child ten years ago and since then they have had some mild, annoying urinary incontinence and intimacy has not been quite the same. Men often present with severe pain that has been frustrating and ongoing. It is common that men have chronic prostatitis pain and/or nerve related problems of the pelvic floor. We are experts in nerve pain, including pain that radiates into the genitalia, perineum, anus and sit bones, as well as sciatic pain and other nerves. Rest assured, we will evaluate and treat every patient for the specifics related to numerous nerve conditions. Contact us for more information or call us at (616) 516-4334 to speak with a knowledgable team member.

Your Pelvic PT Treatment Begins Day 1!   This first visit, it is our goal to begin the process of healing!

During this evaluation we begin treatment right away. This includes advising you on how to optimize bladder, bowel and intimacy function. If your child is our patient, we include the child and parent into all evaluation and treatment methods and all care is age-appropriate and focused upon optimizing the child’s bladder and bowel function. Our examination may include an in-depth assessment of your posture, hip mobility, low back function, thoracic spine and diaphragm. We examine and treat your abdominal wall strength and diastasis recti abdominus. Every adult patient receives a comprehensive myofascial assessment of all tissues from your shoulders to your knees (we check your neck and feet, if warranted, also). It is common that we find trigger points and areas of decreased blood flow in the tissues we evaluate and treat. As we discover items that are contributing to your symptoms, we educate you about our findings, commence treatment and help you understand what you can do to help yourself at home. Call us at (616) 516-4334 to speak with our knowledgeable staff to your questions answered and see about how we can help you!

What is Pelvic Floor Dysfunction?

Broadly speaking, pelvic floor dysfunction refers to the muscles at the base of your pelvis not working quite right. In many cases these muscles have stiffness, tightness and trigger points. In some cases, the muscles are weak. Other times the muscles have adequate strength, but their timing and coordination with other muscles is impaired, leading to urinary or gas leakage or pelvic organ prolapse symptoms. When these muscles are not working properly, because they work in concert with your abdominal wall and low back, they often contribute to pain in the abdomen, hips or back. Some people with pelvic floor dysfunction have considerable pelvic pain. These muscles also provide you control of your bladder and bowel, so if they are dysfunctional you may experience urinary leakage or frequency and urgency. The pelvic floor muscles have both superficial and deep layers; for some of the women and men we treat their primary problem is in the superficial layers. We check all of the layers of your pelvic floor muscles so that you can receive the right treatment to effectively recover your problem. To read more about the benefits of physical therapy, check out this blog we wrote or contact us here!

What does Pelvic Floor PT Involve?

Our treatment is holistic. This means that we evaluate and treat the numerous things that contribute to your pain, so that you experience excellent results. Our treatment is not cookie-cutter. You get specific care related to your body’s needs. Our care is often hands-on manual therapy that includes myofascial release, trigger point release, and nerve release. We also focus quite a bit on improving blood flow to your tissues because blood flow is the source of life & nutrition for your body, especially your nerves. We also offer treatment that is exercise based and focused upon recovering the coordination and firing of your pelvic floor muscles with your abdominals, low back, hips and knees/feet. For some people’s needs, we include balance training, jumping exercises and dynamic exercises that challenge the pelvic floor muscles so that they begin to fire more appropriately. We will assess and treat your abdominal wall so if you have a diastasis recti abdominus, we will provide very targeted exercises and myofascial work to facilitate recovery of your abdominal wall. Connect with us here to get started.

Why Should I Choose to Come To Purple Mountain Physical Therapy?

Our goal is to provide you excellence in care so that you experience meaningful results. Each appointment is with the same physical therapist, is private and lasts upto 55 minutes. We never bounce you around to a lesser trained person or someone you don’t know. Because we have extensive post-doctoral training and experience treating very challenging pelvic conditions, you can expect an expertise that is difficult to find. You will find that our physical therapists provide trauma informed care in a compassionate setting that is focused upon clinical excellence. We are here to provide you world class pelvic health PT care in Grand Rapids.

Meet Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT Pelvic Health, Spine and TM Joint Disorder Physical Therapist.  Founder of Purple Mountain PT.   Wife, Mother.

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT is a pelvic health, spine & TM joint physical therapist specialist, serving the West Michigan region. Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT practiced for 20 years in Chicago working with some of the top surgeons and physicians in the country at Northwestern Medicine Chicago, Loyola University Health Centers and Rush University Medical Center. She had patients travel to her from all over the country and world, seeking relief from their pelvic pain and bladder conditions.

Dr. Maureen founded Purple Mountain PT to provide specialized, one-on-one treatment to her patients by giving them the time needed (upto 55 minutes each appointment) and a whole-body framework to properly and holistically treat you.

Dr. Maureen provides pelvic, spine and TMJ treatments to women, men & children who are wanting to improve their condition by accelerating results from working with an experienced specialist.  Dr. Maureen is the leader at Purple Mountain PT and the reason behind our whole body framework that informs all of the treatments you receive.   All of our physical therapists are trained directly by Dr. Maureen, to ensure you receive the specialized excellence that Purple Mountain PT is known for.  Dr. Maureen combines manual therapies with therapeutic exercise, patient education, rehabilitative ultrasound imaging, balance training, deep core retraining and neural calming.   She loves to educate you on what you should be doing and how to help yourself.  If you would like to work with Dr. Maureen, give us a call at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here.  

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT is proud to be a member of numerous professional societies that are leading organizations in the field of pelvic health and pelvic research.

These include the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health and the Intl Society for Sexual Medicine, The North American Menopause Society and the American Physical Therapy Association. Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT has even taught physicians, surgeons and other pelvic health physical therapists techniques for evaluating and treating complex pelvic health conditions.   Her more than 25 years’ experience are a culmination of broad post-graduate pelvic health, sexual health and menopause related advanced education including treating chronic pain, pregnancy & postpartum recovery, diastasis recti abdominis healing, male pelvic & bladder conditions and pediatric bladder & bowel development.   Her experience treating individuals with chronic TM joint disorders, cerivcogenic headaches and neck pain provides relief from headaches, neck and jaw pain and difficulty with chewing and yawning. She enjoys working with individuals with challenging TM joint disorders or complex pelvic problems, including painful intercourse, pelvic floor dysfunction and chronic pelvic pain. She has a special heart for women in the pregnant or postpartum recovery stages, as she loves those special times and understands the difficulty it can cause to a women’s body. She herself had a traumatic birth injury and had to recover her body through extensive rehabilitation. She creates a healing environment, in partnership with the patient, to optimize results and address all contributing factors in the pelvic condition. Dr. O’Keefe is committed to providing top level care to her patients and is actively engaged in ongoing advanced education to keep up with the latest research and methods.

How Do I Get Started with Pelvic Floor PT? I Have Some More Questions.

The first step is to call our office at (616) 516-4334 to schedule an evaluation. We like to understand what your needs are, so we can know that we can meet your needs. We love this work and consider it a privilege and honor to help people in such a meaningful way! We look forward to meeting you and helping you to feel like yourself again.

Peace,

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT and the Purple Mountain PT Team.

Other articles that may be of interest:

Tips to Fix Incontinence Naturally

Tailbone pain and How Pelvic Floor PT Can Help You! Plus Some Self-Care Tips!

Exercise in Pregnancy: A Physical Therapists Perspective

Physical Therapy for Male Incontinence in Grand Rapids

How Much Bedwetting is Normal?

How Can I Help My TMJ Pain?

How Do You Know if You Need Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy

Let’s clear up the mystery of knowing if you need pelvic floor physical therapy!

Quite often there is limited understanding of what the pelvic floor muscles do and whether these muscles might be a problem. The pelvic floor muscles are located inside the bones of your pelvis and sit like a hammock inside you. On top of this hammock you have all of your organs: bladder, bowel, uterus/prostate. These organs are supported by the muscles. How do you know if you need Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy? Well, the muscles and the organs communicate with each other and work together as partners, so if you have problems in one area (such as your bladder control) you will have problem in the other area (the pelvic floor muscles). Pelvic floor dysfunction presents itself as pain, bladder, bowel or intimacy problems and we can help with all of those issues!

This is a checklist of some common symptoms you may be experiencing that can indicate you have pelvic floor muscle dysfunction.

If you have any of these then you know you need pelvic floor physical therapy:

*Pelvic Pain: Any pain from the abdomen/spine through the pelvis/groin. This includes mid and lower back pain, SI joint pain, pubic bone pain, groin pain, tailbone pain, abdominal pain.

*Lower Back Pain: This pain gets its own bullet point because research has shown us that people with persistent lower back pain typically also have underlying pelvic floor muscle dysfunction.

*All bladder and bowel issues can also have an underlying problem with pelvic floor muscle dysfunction. This could be fecal smearing, unexpected loss of gas, urinary incontinence, urinary urgency, painful urination, poor urinary stream, getting up at night to pee.

*Intimacy related struggles: pain with penetration, pain with erection, pain after intimacy, poor intimacy response, inability to orgasm.

*Pelvic organ prolapse, pelvic heaviness, vaginal and pelvic pressure

*Pelvic muscle weakness, whether you can perceive it or not, is usually happening. The muscles are commonly stiff, tight, have trigger points and operate slowly and deficiently. Hence, the laundry list of symptoms here! Kegels are often not the solution to the problem and, in fact, can make things worse. So, seek expert care from a pelvic PT if you have any of these symptoms.

If you are interested to learn more about the benefits of our physical therapy, check out this blog we wrote for Revive Physical Therapy.

If you know you need pelvic floor physical therapy, what should you do? Call us and we can help!

Well, we are here to help you! We provide holistic and comprehensive care to get you results! Our compassionate, patient-centered treatment will identify underlying issues that are contributing to your problem and will treat each of these things. This is key to your success! By providing numerous assessment and treatment methods we can get your symptoms to improve. We have a lot of techniques to help you improve such as:

  • Myofascial release
  • Trigger point release
  • Joint mobilization
  • Movement pattern restoration
  • Muscle firing and recruitment re-education
  • Strength and conditioning
  • Trigger point dry needling
  • Self-care education and modification of habits/behaviors that contribute to your symptoms
  • Instruction in optimizing nutritional healing to promote relief of symptoms
  • Postural correction and alignment

If you are pregnant or postpartum the pelvic floor muscles and the rest of your body change dramatically during this experience. Unfortunately in our region of West Michigan pelvic floor physical therapy is not routinely suggested to a pregnant/postpartum person, even though we know that it helps improve how you feel!

At Purple Mountain Physical Therapy we provide a comprehensive pelvic health physical therapy treatment program special for pregnant and postpartum women! If you would like to read more about what we do, here is an article we wrote that details one of our postpartum patient’s experiences with us!

Peace,

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT specializing in treatment for pelvic pain, pelvic floor dysfunction, vulvar pain, TM joint disorders and back pain.

Purple Mountain Physical Therapy located in Grand Rapids, Michigan is a specialty pelvic health clinic that serves women and men who have any pelvic condition. If you are still wondering “how do I know if I need pelvic floor PT?” then give us a call! We offer a free phone consult to discuss your condition. Call 616-516-4334 to schedule your free consult. No problem is too simple or too difficult for us! We commonly help people who have failed to get results from other interventions. The men who come to us often have experienced years of pain and/or bladder & intimacy issues that have proven very frustrating, anxiety producing and depressing. The women who come to us may also have pelvic pain or could be pregnant, struggling with postpartum recovery, have long standing pelvic floor dysfunction that shows up as urinary incontinence, constipation, pelvic pressure, painful intimacy, “mommy tummy” or weakness in their back. If any of these resonate with you, give us a call to schedule your free phone consult: 616-516-4334. 

How Do You Feel About Your Postpartum Recovery? Would Pelvic PT help you?

Being Pregnant and Postpartum can be an Overwhelming Experience and Definitely Changes Our Body! Pelvic Floor PT is a Key Component of Your Postpartum Recovery.

Each of us will experience our unique emotional reactions to the changes in our body! You don’t have to know all the answers. Expert help from a pelvic floor PT will take your postpartum recovery to the next level!

How do these changes in your postpartum body make you feel? What do you think about your body now? If you are struggling with disappointment in your pregnant or postpartum body, we can help you get back to feeling more like yourself when you join us to complete a postpartum PT recovery program. Pregnancy and the postpartum period carry a risk of low back pain, pelvic girdle pain (such as SI joint pain, pubic bone pain, coccyx pain), painful sex, pelvic floor dysfunction, diastasis recti abdominus and urinary incontinence. This is quite a long list, actually, of unfortunate things that you be experiencing as a result of being pregnant. The good news is that working with us will give you a comprehensive evaluation and treatment program to ensure you get your body back into top form. Pregnancy changes our posture, breathing, abdominal wall, pelvic floor, bladder, bowels and sex life. We can help you recover all of these things! Contact us to start seeing results sooner than later!

What should your postpartum recovery program look like and include? Pelvic floor PT help you get your body back and return to an active life!

  • Check you for a diastasis recti abdominus and develop a program of recovery from this.
  • Evaluate and treat every muscle of your pelvic floor to determine how each one is working and to get each one to come back to function.
  • Teach you how to recover optimal breathing function, which was disrupted when you were pregnant and the baby moved your diaphragm. Recovering breathing is crucial to recovering your pelvic floor function.
  • Take you through a progressive exercise program to restore your pelvic floor strength, coordination, function and speed.
  • Address your posture, especially increased midback hunch, tight shoulders, forward head and tilted pelvis. Pregnancy changes your fascia and postural alignment and we look at this and help you correct it.
  • Optimize your pelvic organ support, a very important part of addressing pelvic organ prolapse.
  • Strengthen your back and abdominals so you can confidently lift your baby and everything else you need to lift.
  • Get you back to higher level activities including jumping, skipping and running.

Research confirms that exercise and hands-on care for pregnant women can help their low back pain

“Exercise (any exercise on land or in water), may reduce pregnancy‐related low‐back pain and any exercise improves functional disability and reduces sick leave more than usual prenatal care. Evidence from single studies suggests that acupuncture or craniosacral therapy improves pregnancy‐related pelvic pain, and osteomanipulative therapy or a multi‐modal intervention (manual therapy, exercise and education) may also be of benefit.”

Liddle SD, Pennick V. Interventions for preventing and treating low‐back and pelvic pain during pregnancy. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2015, Issue 9. Art. No.: CD001139. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD001139.pub4. Accessed 11 July 2022.

Pregnancies and a live baby were hard to come by in my experience.

I was one of the healthiest people I knew. I was fit and active. I was a physical therapist and knew how to help women through their pregnancy. I had a regular cycle and zero clue that becoming a mother would take years of tears, pregnancy losses, hopelessness and digging in. I had to discover holistic ways to facilitate fertility, I had to work on stress/mind/body/spirit. I had to call on my faith to get us through this. I did just about everything under the sun to facilitate becoming a mother. If you have experienced infertility you know what I’m talking about. Yep, I did everything. Everything.

My postpartum experience wasn’t so peachy, either. I had to do extensive pelvic floor PT, abdominal wall recovery and rebuilding my strength and conditioning.

In my first 30 days postpartum I had emergency surgeries and spent ten hellish days in the hospital. My family was amazing and scared to death for me. It is not an exaggeration to say it looked like I wasn’t going to make it. The will got drawn up in the hospital bed and the priest came. It was a serious and dangerous and God-awful experience. I had two kids under two years old who were not allowed at the hospital. My family and friends were amazing and provided around the clock care for our kids, with my husband shuttling between the hospital and the two locations where our kids were staying. My family wanted to touch base with me or my husband each hour to see how I was doing, because it seemed to change rapidly and would go downhill fast. We were desperate to get me stable, but the roller coaster had begun and it was decidedly out of control. And, remember, I was one of the healthiest people I knew! I was an athlete, super healthy eater, had come to pregnancy after completing years of holistic healing. And. Still. It. All. Went. Wrong. Until it went right! Yay! Eventually I stabilized and got to go home, exhausted and uncertain if I would be able to take care of our two kids. And my body was a wreck. My pelvic floor was a disaster (so many surgeries and my labor and delivery had done a number on me), my abdominal wall had a huge diastasis recti abdominus, all of my body muscles had atrophied. I remember looking at my calves when I was in the hospital and shedding a tear at how atrophied they became. It happened so quickly, over a matter of two weeks. My OBGyne said “well, you’ve lost all of your pregnancy weight and then some.” And I remember replying “It is all atrophy. I will weight lift and get it back.” And I did. It took a long time & a lot of discipline to recover my abdominal wall and pelvic floor and to get strong again. But I did it, with the help of pelvic PT and my clinical background in how to take a woman through a safe and progressive postpartum recovery program.

Now you know a bit about how I got to be the person I am today. I have been through an epic pregnancy and postpartum recovery and found a path forward that is authentically grateful, happy, strong and whole! And we offer this wisdom and understanding to my patients. We know our patient’s pregnancy and postpartum experiences feel like a huge challenge to them. May feel overwhelming. May feel hopeless, like you are stuck with urinary incontinence or a “mommy pooch.” I am proof positive that this is not the case. Get in touch with our knowledgeable and caring staff to see what your plan of care could look like, contact us here.

Working with individuals who are experiencing pregnancy or are postpartum is a calling for us! We love it!

We offer these women an insight, grace, clinical expertise, understanding and joyfulness for their pregnancy. I had to complete intensive postpartum PT recovery. Because of the nature of my labor and delivery and postpartum complications I had serious work to do to recover my pelvic floor, abdominal wall, strength, conditioning and function. I did the hard work. And, I know the commitment it takes to reach your goals. It doesn’t happen overnight and it takes real insight and expertise to provide postpartum pelvic health physical therapy to a woman. It is an honor to work with women who are pregnant and postpartum. Read more about the benefits of pelvic floor PT.

We have advanced training in providing pregnant and postpartum women pelvic floor PT and designing a postpartum recovery fitness program.

And my training dates back to the 1990s! So, I’ve been studying and treating pregnancy and postpartum recovery for more than 2 decades! Many pregnant women come to us experiencing miserable pelvic pain. It might be their SI joint hurts, or their pubic bones are grinding everytime they move their leg, or they cannot roll in bed without back pain. Or it might be that they are experiencing urinary incontinence or pelvic floor muscle spasms or a diastasis recti. We can help all of these conditions! How lucky are we? It is truly an honor to help women during their pregnancy and postpartum periods.

We offer compassionate, patient-focused holistic treatment for people who are suffering from pelvic conditions! Are you interested in addressing your postpartum recovery? Call Today for Information on our Program.

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