What if your client has done everything right – pelvic floor PT, stretching, exercise, therapy, nutrition – and they're still struggling more than a year postpartum?

In this episode, Lynn sits down with former client Samantha to unpack a complex postpartum recovery that many pelvic health therapists will recognize. After two very different births, Samantha was left with persistent pelvic floor tension, low back pain, bowel dysfunction, urinary symptoms, painful intercourse, and overwhelming emotional distress. Despite months of treatment elsewhere, her symptoms remained unchanged.

This conversation explores the clinical reasoning behind looking beyond isolated muscles to assess the pelvis as a whole – including birth patterns, pelvic bone positioning, compensatory movement strategies, nervous system regulation, and unresolved trauma. For those who have had postpartum clients that plateau despite doing "all the right things," this episode offers valuable clinical insights for how you assess and treat these challenging cases.

Clinical Takeaways

• The importance of learning the birth history – even when symptoms don't appear until months later.
• The long-term effects of prolonged labor versus precipitous birth on the postpartum body.
• How previous orthopedic injuries can influence pelvic alignment years later.
• Recognizing common postpartum pelvic bone patterns that often perpetuate pelvic floor tension.
• Why persistent urinary, bowel, and sexual dysfunction may have structural contributors beyond muscle tightness.
• The role of the central nervous system in clients who remain "stuck" despite appropriate treatment.
• How emotional beliefs and nervous system regulation can influence physical recovery.
• Why individualized assessment is essential when previous pelvic floor therapy hasn't produced results.

From Treatment to Recovery: A Clinician and Client Perspective

This episode isn't simply another postpartum success story. It's a detailed clinical discussion that walks through the therapist's reasoning from evaluation to treatment, while hearing directly from the client's perspective about how unresolved pelvic tension affected every aspect of her life – including motherhood, relationships, and mental health.

If you treat postpartum clients with persistent symptoms, this conversation will encourage you to think differently about assessment, treatment sequencing, and the interconnected nature of physical and emotional healing.

Don't Miss This Episode If You Treat Clients With:

• Persistent postpartum pelvic floor tension
• Urinary dysfunction
• Bowel dysfunction, fissures, or hemorrhoids
• Painful intercourse
• Chronic low back pain after childbirth
• Clients who plateau despite previous pelvic floor physical therapy
• Complex postpartum presentations involving both physical and nervous system factors

Recovery isn't always about doing more exercises. Sometimes it's about uncovering the hidden patterns that have been preventing the body from healing all along.

Connect With Lynn

Have a comment or question about today’s episode? Message Lynn on Instagram or Facebook, or Email Lynn.

About the speaker:

Samantha Dove is a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst and LBA living in Mead, Co. She has over 16 years of experience working with children and adults in a multitude of settings. She has been working in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis for 8 years, but before that, she worked as a Special Education teacher in the public-school setting. She has a passion for advocating and helping individuals with disabilities accomplish their goals. She loves to go camping, paddleboarding, and spending time with her family.

Visit Institute for Birth Healing to learn more about how to care for the pregnant and postpartum body: CLICK HERE