Top Reasons to Seek Out Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Postpartum
Your body goes through incredible changes during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period — whether you deliver vaginally or by cesarean section. After almost a year of physical, hormonal, and lifestyle shifts, your body deserves care and attention to heal and rebuild strength.
Yet for many new parents, postpartum care ends abruptly. After months of weekly prenatal appointments, you may only have one or two quick postpartum visits — often focused on uterine healing or clearance for sex and exercise. What’s often missing is a deeper conversation about your whole-body recovery: your muscles, posture, bladder and bowel function, and pelvic health.
That’s where pelvic floor physical therapy comes in. Pelvic floor PT fills the “now what?” gap — helping you navigate what’s normal, what’s not, and how to rebuild your body safely and confidently.
Even if you feel you’ve “bounced back” (a myth often fueled by social media), a pelvic floor assessment can help you create a strong, healthy foundation for life with your new baby — and beyond.
Top 5 Reasons to Go to Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Postpartum
1. Support Whole-Body and Tissue Healing After Birth
A human being just exited your body — abdominally or vaginally. That alone is reason enough to prioritize recovery! Early attention to scar tissue mobility (whether from a C-section or perineal tear) can improve circulation, reduce pain, and prevent long-term restriction or pelvic floor dysfunction.
Even if you don’t have visible scars, childbirth stretches and strains the muscles, ligaments, and fascia of your pelvis. Targeted manual therapy and customized exercises can promote healing and help your body recover more efficiently.
2. Ease Postural Changes and Pain from Caring for Your Baby
Pregnancy, delivery, and baby care (think feeding, rocking, lifting, and bending) all affect posture and muscle balance. It’s no surprise that pelvic pain, tailbone pain, or low-back discomfort are common after birth.
Pelvic floor physical therapy helps restore alignment, strengthen stabilizing muscles, and relieve tension — so you can move, lift, and parent comfortably.
3. Improve Bowel, Bladder, and Sexual Health
Postpartum bladder leaks, constipation, or pain with intimacy are common — but not something you need to “just live with.” Research shows that postpartum pelvic floor physical therapy can resolve or significantly reduce urinary leakage and other pelvic floor symptoms.
Therapy can also help with:
Incomplete bowel emptying or hemorrhoids
Vaginal dryness, tightness, or discomfort with intimacy
Restoring pelvic floor coordination for confident control
You are not alone — these are some of the most common postpartum concerns, and help is available.
4. Improve Pressure Management and Prevent Prolapse
Some people feel heaviness or pressure in the abdomen, vagina, or rectum after birth — a sign that the pelvic organs may have shifted. Pelvic floor therapy can teach you how to manage intra-abdominal pressure, breathe effectively, and strengthen deep support structures to reduce prolapse symptoms or prevent them altogether.
You’ll also learn strategies to protect your pelvic floor during daily activities and when returning to exercise.
5. Restore and Reconnect with Your Core
We saved the best for last — your core connection.
Your pelvic floor is part of your core system, working together with your diaphragm, deep abdominals, and back muscles. Whether you’re picking up a dropped pacifier for the hundredth time or carrying your baby’s car seat, your pelvic floor is working for you.
Postpartum physical therapy helps you safely rebuild this system — improving stability, posture, and confidence. If you have diastasis recti (abdominal separation), your therapist can assess and create an individualized plan to heal and strengthen your core safely.
Skip the generic “bounce-back” workouts and TikTok workout routines — your recovery deserves an expert, customized approach.
It’s Never Too Late to Start
You can benefit from pelvic floor physical therapy whether you’re 6 weeks postpartum or 6 years postpartum.
Even years later, it’s possible to:
Improve bladder control & bowel health
Reduce pelvic or back pain
Restore strength and confidence in your body
Bring your baby, bring your questions, and come as you are — healing starts here.
(And yes… we have coffee!)
Ready to Begin?
Don’t wait for symptoms to worsen or for your “old body” to come back.
Your new body is strong, capable, and worthy of care.
Schedule your postpartum pelvic floor physical therapy evaluation at Core Physical Therapy today.