Post-Birth Aches — Sit Them Out and They Stay

Post-Birth Aches — Sit Them Out and They Stay

"My wrists have been cold since the baby. Everyone said it's normal so I put up with it — it's been a year."

I find this a shame to hear. Because it wasn't a thing to put up with.

The months after birth are a re-setting

In pregnancy the body changes on a large scale. The grip holding the joints loosens, the centre of gravity moves forward, the pelvis widens. The body did that itself, to make a way out for the baby.

After birth it puts it back. But not overnight. Over months it works its way back into place.

Those months are particular. The tissue is still soft, so it moves easily — and it settles wherever the way you use it takes it.

And that is exactly when you use your body hardest

Look at what happens in that window.

You wake every two or three hours to lift a baby. You brace with one arm and hold a bottle with the other. You feed for hours with your back rounded. Sleep comes in fragments, sitting posture collapses, wrists work all day.

The tissue is at its softest exactly when the body is used hardest. Cold wrists, aching shoulders, a sore back — of course.

And it settles in that posture

Here is the heart of it.

Soft tissue stretches easily, and stretched for months, it stiffens in that state. By then the baby has grown a bit and needs less carrying — and the body has already set to that posture.

So around a year on you say "life is easier now but my body hasn't come back." It isn't that it won't come back — it is closer to having passed the window when it came back easily. Not that it can't be helped at all; it just takes longer than it would have then.

It doesn't go away by being put up with. It settles while you put up with it.

So in this window

I look at filling and releasing together. What was spent heavily in birth and never refilled has to be filled. But fill only, and leave what has stiffened, and it grows strong while stiff.

If you're nursing, I look at that too. What can and can't be used in this period gets sorted. Tell me and I compose around it. (Herbal medicine in pregnancy and nursing)

And I look at how you hold the baby. This matters more than people expect. It is a movement done dozens of times a day, so a small change moves months.

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"Everyone's like that" is true. Everyone does use their body this way.

It's just that everyone being like that doesn't mean it should be left. Now is a time when it is easier to work on. And even if that window has passed for you, there is still work that can be done.

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References

• Pregnancy hormones loosen the ligaments to prepare for birth, and the growing abdomen shifts the centre of gravity forward — Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine, 2025
• About one in three women still has pelvic pain three months after giving birth — Medicina, 2023
• The wrist position used again and again to support a baby strains the tendons of the wrist — HAND, 2023

Written by Dr. Heo Ji-young (PhD in Korean Medicine Pathology, Kyung Hee University · former Research Professor of Herbology, Kyung Hee University)