In my Pilates practice working with pregnant and postpartum women, moms will often tell me that they are frustrated with their postpartum recovery, that they feel like they have "hit a wall" in their exercise progress, and that their body doesn't respond to exercise in the way it did pre-pregnancy.

This can lead to feeling discouraged, or like you are somehow doing something "wrong."

If this is you, or if you are pregnant and starting to think about your postpartum recovery, I want to share a little secret with you that may shift your entire perspective, and will hopefully help you to see your body in a whole new way. Let's talk about relaxin. A tiny, stealthy pregnancy sidekick that likes to stick around long after the baby is born, and can make your postpartum fitness journey feel like an uphill battle!

What is Relaxin?

Relaxin is an incredibly interesting hormone that is produced in large quantities throughout pregnancy. It helps to prepare your body for birth, and also plays a role in helping your body to recover immediately after birth.

It's main role is to relax the ligaments, joints, and muscles in the pelvis - this makes it easier (not easy, mind you... but easier) for baby to make its way through the birth canal, out into the world, and straight to your arms!

So, this little hormone is a big reason that you're able to deliver your baby and begin your journey as a Mama!

Let's briefly go over how relaxin affects the body during pregnancy, and in your postpartum recovery:

Relaxin: The Pregnancy Essential

• Relaxin levels reach their highest around the end of the first trimester, and then dip slightly during the second trimester before rising again during the third trimester as the body prepares for birth.

• Relaxin helps your body in many ways during pregnancy!

  • It helps the uterus stretch and expand as your baby grows

  • It helps the placenta implant and grow, ensuring your baby gets the right nutrition and oxygen

  • It helps the pelvic floor relax in preparation for all the stretching it will have to do during the birth process

  • It helps to open your blood vessels, which reduces stress on the heart and ensures proper blood flow to your baby

  • It softens your ligaments and your cervix in preparation for labor, and makes it possible for your body's tissues to stretch and grow as your baby grows

Relaxin: The Postpartum Healer

• In the first few days following the birth of your baby, relaxin levels remain fairly high but not quite as high as they were during pregnancy. Relaxin plays a crucial role in helping the uterus rapidly shrink back down to it's normal size.

• In the months following your baby's birth, relaxin levels continue to drop, usually returning to pre-pregnancy levels by 6 months to a year postpartum (if you are not breastfeeding). During this time, relaxin really helps your body to heal the pelvic floor, ligaments, and tissues that were so stretched during the pregnancy and birth process.

• If you are breastfeeding, relaxin sticks around for even longer! Prolactin, the same hormone that helps with milk production, also causes the release of small levels of relaxin, which serves to keep your milk ducts open and milk flowing to baby! Because of this, relaxin can remain in your body for up to 6 months after you and your baby are done breastfeeding.

So, you can see that relaxin is absolutely essential to the entire pregnancy, birth, and postpartum recovery process! I think it's pretty amazing that one hormone can help the perinatal body in so many ways.

But some side-effects of relaxin are more frustrating than fascinating, and can contribute to making your postpartum recovery feel stuck, or like it's moving slower than you would like.

Relaxin: Causing Frustration to New Moms Everywhere

Like we just talked about, relaxin helps the tissues in your body stretch during pregnancy and birth - to make room as baby grows, and to allow baby to make their appearance into the world! However, when your tissues are more loose than usual this can lead to difficulties that you probably never had to consider in your pre-pregnancy life!

Relaxin loosening your ligaments and other tissues can cause joint instability, reduce muscle strength, make you more prone to injury, and can make any injuries you get take longer to heal.

So... even when you feel like you are ready to jump back into exercise, and you want to move towards the body you are more familiar with as fast as possible... relaxin may have other plans.

You will still of course be able to gain strength and move towards your goals, but it may be much slower than you would like, your body may not seem to respond to exercise the way it once did, or it may seem like you can only make a certain amount of progress before you hit a wall!

This can be frustrating. It can make you feel stuck. It may make you feel like exercising just isn't "worth it" anymore.

But. Try to keep in mind that the effects of relaxin are temporary!

Once the relaxin reduces back to pre-pregnancy levels, your body WILL respond more quickly to strength training and exercise. The fitness wall you have hit may seem to melt away, and you'll be able to see encouraging progress again!

Exercising When Relaxin is Present

Because heightened levels of relaxin cause instability and make you more prone to injury, you may want to avoid high-impact forms of exercise during pregnancy, in early postpartum, and while breastfeeding. Of course every pregnancy is different, but just understand that for this temporary period in your life, your body will naturally just be... looser.

So pushing your body too hard, maybe with the goal of "bouncing back" as soon as possible after having your baby, can start to cause real setbacks, (diastasis recti, leaky bladder, muscle strains) which can delay your postpartum recovery further!

Instead, try to focus on low-impact, restorative activities... like Perinatal Pilates! Focusing on creating a strong foundation of strength and stability while relaxin levels are high will help combat the looseness and laxity you may experience. This can help with preventing injuries, reducing back and pelvic pain, and helping you to feel more on-balance throughout the day.

Building this foundation of strength and stability will also help you to reach your postpartum goals more quickly! And, continually moving forward with your strength gains and control of your body keeps you feeling encouraged and motivated, rather than frustrated and like giving up.

Personally, Perinatal Pilates was what helped me to regain my strength after two babies, and to regain my motivation to move and exercise again. I struggled with diastasis recti after my second baby, but steadily building my foundation with Pilates has allowed me to regain confidence and control of my body, so that I'm no longer afraid of the advanced core exercises!

The True Goal: To Bring Understanding and Patience to Your Postpartum Body

In summary, relaxin is a "pregnancy hormone" that sticks around long after pregnancy has ended! It helps the body stretch during pregnancy and birth, and helps it to heal in postpartum. It also can cause laxity and instability in the body, making it more easily injured and much slower to respond to exercise. You can help with the unwanted side effects of relaxin by focusing on gaining stability and low-impact strength training, such as Perinatal Pilates.

You'll find the movement practice that works best for you! Just keep the effects of relaxin in mind, and allow patience and grace for your still-recovering postpartum body!

What really helped, for me, was the knowledge that the effects of relaxin that I was experiencing were temporary. It gave me the knowledge and confidence to keep moving forward, even when it felt like I was stuck.

So. If you have been feeling stuck, frustrated with your postpartum recovery, like you somehow need to try harder or find more hours in the day to exercise; if you are starting to feel discouraged and down on yourself because you're not seeing the results you want...

Try to keep one tiny word in the back of your mind. Relaxin.

Working out harder, longer, or more intensely in this period may not be the answer. Supporting your body with a gentle and consistent movement routine, and with this new understanding, will be what gives you the tools to truly reach your postpartum goals.

Keep moving, Mamas! And try to shift your perspective so that you see your body as "healing" rather than "stuck."

To learn more about your postpartum recovery, and about how patience is the best policy when it comes to your body as it recovers from pregnancy, email me at shauna@bumptobabypilates.com and ask for the Body Patience Guide - an amazing resource that was created by my mentor, Alison Marsh. I'll send it right over!

Shauna Grasso is a Nationally Certified Pilates Teacher and Perinatal Pilates Specialist. She has been teaching Pilates since 2014 and is constantly amazed by the power of Pilates and the resiliency of the human body. She lives in the Nevada mountains with her husband, their dog, and their two beautiful children.