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Wrist, Shoulder & Back Pain From Looking After a Baby: The Injuries I See Most as a Physio
Having a baby is surprisingly physical.
I'm a physio. I've treated plenty of parents with back pain, wrist pain, shoulder pain and neck pain after having a baby.
But now that I actually have a six-month-old myself, I appreciate it on a completely different level.
You don't just pick your baby up once.
You pick them up approximately 400 times a day.
You carry them around the house.
Hold them while they sleep.
Feed them.
Rock them from side to side.
Lift them in and out of a cot.
Bend over a changing table.
Carry a car seat that somehow weighs approximately the same as a small family hatchback.
And you do quite a lot of it while running on significantly less sleep than you'd ideally like.
So it's really not surprising that new parents develop aches and pains.
Here are some of the most common problems I see in clinic, and now understand considerably better myself.
1. Wrist and thumb pain from holding your baby
This is a really common one.
Pain tends to develop around the thumb side of the wrist, particularly with:
picking your baby up
supporting their head
feeding
holding them for long periods
lifting them underneath their arms
carrying them around the house
One possible cause is irritation of the tendons around the thumb, commonly known as De Quervain's tenosynovitis, or, appropriately, “mum's wrist” or “mother's thumb.”
Although dads can absolutely get it too.
The problem is often the sheer repetition.
You might spend ages holding your baby with your wrist bent backwards and thumb stretched out.
Once or twice? No problem.
Do it for hours, every day, while your baby steadily gets heavier?
Your wrist may eventually decide it's had enough.
What can you do?
Try not to constantly support your baby's weight through a bent wrist and stretched thumb.
When lifting them, think about getting your hands and forearms underneath them, rather than repeatedly hooking them up through your thumbs.
Swap sides regularly.
Use pillows or support when feeding rather than holding the entire weight of your baby unnecessarily.
And if it's becoming increasingly painful, don't simply battle through it.
2. Elbow pain from carrying your baby
This one gets talked about less.
But think about how often you hold your baby with your elbow bent for long periods.
Feeding.
Rocking.
Walking around.
Trying to put them to sleep.
And then continuing to hold them because they've finally fallen asleep and moving now would be an absolutely catastrophic mistake.
Your forearm and elbow muscles are working for much longer than you'd probably realise.
Some parents develop pain around the inside or outside of the elbow, particularly when gripping, lifting or carrying.
Again, the solution isn't necessarily:
“Stop holding your baby.”
Not particularly practical advice.
Instead, we look at how you're carrying them, regularly changing sides, using support where possible and gradually building the strength of the arm so it can tolerate the workload.
3. Shoulder/Neck pain from feeding & carrying
This might be one of the most predictable ones.
You're holding your baby.
They're asleep.
You look down at them.
They're adorable.
Twenty minutes later you're still looking down.
Forty minutes later your head is approximately three feet in front of your shoulders and one arm hasn't moved since breakfast.
Whether you're breastfeeding, bottle feeding or simply holding your baby, it's incredibly easy to spend long periods in the same position.
That can contribute to neck stiffness, upper-back discomfort and shoulder pain.
The answer isn't “perfect posture.”
I'm not going to tell a sleep-deprived parent that they need to sit bolt upright with their shoulders back every time they feed their baby.
You've got enough going on.
Instead:
Get comfortable and supported.
Bring your baby towards you rather than constantly bringing yourself towards the baby.
Use pillows.
Support your arms.
Lean back where appropriate.
And most importantly, change position regularly.
Your best position is often simply your next position.
4. Lower back pain from the cot
This one I now have a particularly personal appreciation for.
Cots are basically designed to test the endurance of a parent's lower back.
You've finally got your baby asleep.
Now you need to:
Lean over.
Lower them down.
Keep your arms stretched out.
Move incredibly slowly.
And somehow extract your hands from underneath them without waking them up.
It's essentially a slow-motion Romanian deadlift with incredibly high stakes.
Then you repeat it several times a day.
Changing tables, prams, car seats and play mats create similar situations.
You're constantly bending, lifting and reaching.
It's not that bending your back is inherently dangerous.
Your back is designed to bend.
The issue is that you're suddenly doing far more bending and lifting than you used to, often while tired and while holding an increasingly heavy little person.
What helps?
Get closer to the cot before lowering your baby.
Use your legs where practical.
Avoid reaching from miles away.
When picking them up from the floor, vary how you do it rather than using exactly the same movement every time.
And don't become frightened of bending.
We actually want your back to become strong enough to tolerate parenting, not teach you to avoid using it.
5. The endless side-to-side rocking
I genuinely didn't appreciate how much of parenting would involve standing in one place going:
left… right… left… right… left… right…
Sometimes for what feels like several geological periods.
You're holding several kilos on one side of your body while repeatedly shifting your weight.
Unsurprisingly, you may eventually notice discomfort around your:
lower back, hips, shoulders or upper back.
One of the simplest things you can do is change sides.
Most of us naturally develop a favourite hip or arm for carrying our baby.
Unfortunately, your body doesn't particularly care that this is your favourite side.
Give the other side a shift occasionally.
6. And then there's the biggest one: no sleep
This deserves its own section.
Because you can do everything else brilliantly and still feel like you've been hit by a bus when you're exhausted.
Poor sleep doesn't necessarily cause every injury.
But sleep plays an important role in recovery, and lack of sleep can also affect how we experience pain.
And when you're exhausted:
You move less.
You may exercise less.
Your normal routines disappear.
Everything feels harder.
Your patience for dealing with an annoying shoulder is approximately zero.
And unfortunately, telling someone with a four-month-old:
“You just need to sleep more.”
is possibly the least useful health advice imaginable.
Sometimes you simply can't.
So the goal becomes controlling the things you can control.
How can new parents look after their bodies?
You don't need a complicated 45-minute daily rehabilitation programme.
Realistically, if you've got a young baby and someone gives you 14 exercises to complete twice daily, that piece of paper is probably going straight underneath a pile of nappies.
Instead, focus on the basics.
Change positions
Don't always feed, carry or rock your baby in exactly the same position.
Share the load
Swap arms and sides.
And if you've got a partner, let them do their share of the carrying too.
Very generous of you.
Use support
Pillows, armrests and feeding cushions exist for a reason.
You don't get extra parenting points for holding your baby's entire weight yourself for 45 minutes.
Keep moving
Walk.
Train if you can.
Get outside.
Do whatever movement realistically fits around your life.
Something is considerably better than nothing.
Build strength
This is probably the biggest long-term one.
Your baby isn't getting lighter.
They're going in completely the opposite direction.
So rather than simply trying to avoid loading your body, we want to make your body better at handling the load.
Your baby is basically progressive overload
This is perhaps my favourite way of thinking about it.
In the gym, if we want someone to become stronger, we gradually increase the load they're lifting.
Having a baby does exactly the same thing.
Except you can't put the dumbbell down because it's crying.
Your baby gets progressively heavier.
You carry them for longer.
Then they start moving.
Then you're picking them up from the floor.
Then you're chasing them around.
The physical demands of parenting increase.
So one of the best things you can do is make sure your own physical capacity increases alongside them.
The goal isn't to protect your body from your baby.
It's to make your body strong enough that looking after them doesn't constantly hurt.
When should you see a physiotherapist?
Most little aches and pains don't mean you've seriously injured yourself.
But I'd consider getting assessed if:
wrist, elbow, shoulder or back pain keeps getting worse
pain is affecting your ability to hold or feed your baby
you're struggling to lift your baby comfortably
symptoms keep returning
you're experiencing persistent numbness, tingling or weakness
you've tried modifying things and it's not improving
pain is stopping you exercising or doing normal daily activities
Sometimes a couple of small changes make an enormous difference.
Other times we need to properly assess what's happening and build some strength back.
Physiotherapy for Parents in Archway, North London
Since having my own little boy four months ago, I've developed an even greater appreciation for just how physically demanding having a baby actually is.
You're lifting, carrying, bending, rocking and getting up and down all day, usually with considerably less recovery than you'd normally have.
So if something starts hurting, it doesn't necessarily mean your body is broken.
It may simply mean the demands of parenting have temporarily overtaken what your body is currently prepared for.
And that's something we can work on.
At Thrive Physiotherapy Clinic & Studio in Archway, we can assess what's causing your pain, help settle things down and build your body back up so it can cope with everything parenting throws at it.
We're based at 19–23 Wedmore Street, Archway, London N19 4RU, convenient for Tufnell Park, Holloway, Highgate, Kentish Town and Islington.
New baby. New aches and pains?
Book a physiotherapy assessment today and let's get you feeling stronger, moving better and back to enjoying the important stuff.
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