#90: The Real Reason Your Posture Hasn’t Recovered After a C-Section (And What Actually Works)
“The body keeps the score.”
Whether your child is six months or six years old, if you still feel tight across your shoulders, ache in your lower back, or wobble in your core, you’re not imagining it. You’re not weak. And you haven’t missed your window to heal. What you’re feeling is what I call motherhood posture — and it’s more than just slouching.
It’s your body adapting, brilliantly but imperfectly, to the demands of caring for small humans. From sleepless nights and endless lifting to the silent recovery from birth (especially C-sections), your spine reflects more than posture. It reflects survival. Now, let’s explore how to restore the support your body has been missing.
Your Posture Is a Mirror of Everything You’ve Carried
In motherhood, posture becomes a story of everything your body has held: babies, bags, tension, emotion, and often, the expectation to bounce back.
You might notice your shoulders rounding, ribs flaring, or pelvis tucking under. These are not flaws. They are compensations. Protective patterns your nervous system chose when time, energy, and sleep were scarce. Your spine didn’t fall out of alignment — it shifted to help you cope.
Even now, if your kids are older, those patterns may still be running the show. Because no one ever taught your body how to shift out of survival.
Why Traditional Core Work Isn’t Enough
You’ve probably been told to "strengthen your core" to improve posture. But if you’ve done the workouts and still feel unstable or tight, there’s a good reason why: most core training skips the very foundation.
A truly functional core includes the transverse abdominis (TVA), pelvic floor, multifidus, and diaphragm. These deep muscles work as a team — stabilising the spine from within. But after pregnancy, especially C-sections, this system often becomes disconnected.
Scar tissue can create adhesions that block movement and sensation. The brain can lose connection to your lower abdominals. Breathing becomes shallow. The pelvic floor may be overactive or under-responsive. Meanwhile, the body compensates: your lower back overworks, your shoulders tighten, your jaw clenches.
So when you do Pilates or crunches without first re-integrating the deep system, you’re often reinforcing dysfunction. It’s like building a house on cracked foundations.
The Hidden Load of Mothering (That Shapes Your Spine)
You don’t need to be postpartum to still move like a new mum. The physical demands just change form.
In the early years, you might have:
Held your baby on one hip
Fed in collapsed positions
Bent over the cot or car seat constantly
Now, you might:
Carry school bags, groceries, or tired five-year-olds
Sit for long stretches at work or in the car
Stay locked in high-alert mode, even when things are calm
These patterns train your body into compensation: one-sided tension, ribcage flaring, shallow breathing, glutes switching off. And your nervous system, still recovering from years of on-call caregiving, may keep bracing in the background.
The result? A spine that feels like it never gets to exhale.
The Breath–Scar–Posture Connection
Your breath is the access point to deep core function. And when your diaphragm doesn’t move well, everything else suffers.
C-section scars can disrupt the fascia connecting your ribs, core, and pelvis. That restriction limits how your ribs expand, how your lower belly activates, and how you find your midline. You might feel disconnected from your core. You may avoid the scar area entirely.
Restoring your posture means restoring your breath. Not belly breathing. Not chest breathing. But 360-degree breathing — where your ribs expand outward and back, your belly gently inflates, and your pelvic floor moves with your breath.
This breath tells your nervous system: you are safe. Only then can the core switch on. Only then can your spine be supported.
Small Shifts That Rewire Your Posture (Without Adding More to Your Plate)
You don’t need more exercises. You need integration. These are subtle shifts you can weave into your daily life:
1. Reset Your Ribcage When standing at the sink, chopping vegetables, or brushing your teeth, check your ribs. Are they flaring forward? Try exhaling fully. Let your ribs soften down over your hips. Allow your upper back to widen, not stiffen. This helps your diaphragm move better — reducing neck, shoulder, and lower back tension.
2. Reclaim Your Hips While Carrying Next time you’re holding a child or heavy bag, root through both feet. As you exhale, gently zip up from your pelvic floor to your lower belly. Imagine your spine lengthening softly upwards, not rigid but spiralling into support. This resets asymmetrical tension patterns from carrying on one side.
3. Exhale With Movement Every time you get out of bed, stand up, or lift something, exhale intentionally. As you breathe out, feel your lower belly draw in and your spine float tall. This breath-core-spine link is the foundation of everyday strength.
What Healing Actually Looks Like
It’s not about standing like a ballerina or holding perfect posture all day. Real healing is:
Waking up less stiff
Breathing more deeply, without effort
Lifting your child without bracing
Feeling more ease in your spine, neck, and jaw
Moving through the day without collapse
These are signs your system is recalibrating. That the bracing is softening. That your body trusts itself again.
You’re Not Broken. You’re Adapted. And Now You Get to Rebuild.
If you’re years into motherhood and still feel out of alignment or exhausted by your own body, please know: you didn’t miss your chance. You’ve adapted brilliantly. Now it’s time to rebuild with softness and skill.
You don’t need to be perfect. You don’t need to be pain-free overnight. But you can reconnect with your core. You can feel stronger, steadier, and more supported again. And it can happen gently — in the real life you’re already living.
You are already healing, even if it doesn’t feel like it yet. You are not behind. You are ready.
Want practical support that meets you where you are?
Download my free C-section Core Recovery Guide, which includes Lower Abdominal Activations 1 and 2 (LA1 + LA2) — gentle, powerful tools to reconnect your deep core and rebuild real-life strength.
[Click here to download the free C-section Core Recovery Guide]
If you know a mum who still carries it all, share this with her — she deserves to feel supported too.
With Love,
Karo