THE PREGNANCY AND POSTPARTUM ACHES NOBODY REALLY WARNS YOU ABOUT
Updated: Oct 6
From pregnancy aches to feeding shoulders and "mother's wrist", we speak to the team at
Urban Motion (the go-to clinic for pre/post natal massage therapy) about looking after the body that's doing all the carrying.
Pregnancy comes with a fairly lengthy list of expected body changes.
The bump gets bigger.
Your centre of gravity shifts.
Sleeping comfortably becomes something of a nightly logistical exercise.
Then the baby arrives and a whole new set of movements takes over.
Feeding. Rocking. Carrying. Babywearing. Lifting a growing baby in and out of a cot. Looking down approximately 400 times a day.
Suddenly you're spending hours in positions your body was never particularly accustomed to.
So what's normal? And what's not?
What can you actually do about it? When is massage helpful, and when might you need a physiotherapist?
Urban Motion tell us about some of the most common pregnancy and postpartum complaints they see, including a few we'd never actually heard given a name.
Pregnancy massage: yes, you can actually have one
Let's start with one of the questions Lindsay Eng, Massage Therapist at Urban Motion with a specialty in pre/post natal care and lymphatic drainage, says comes up during pregnancy: is massage actually safe?
Urban Motion offers specialist prenatal massage and says that, when carried out by an appropriately trained therapist and taking individual circumstances into account, massage can be adapted throughout pregnancy. At the clinic, pregnancy cushions allow clients to lie comfortably face-down where appropriate, with side-lying positions available too.
Treatment might focus on relaxation, but it can also address some of those very familiar pregnancy complaints, including lower-back discomfort, pelvic aches, swelling, sciatic-type pain, and learning to sleep comfortably and safely as your body changes.
The important bit? Pregnancy massage isn't simply a regular massage with a bump involved. Tell your therapist you're pregnant when booking and look for someone appropriately trained in prenatal treatment. At Urban Motion, your therapist will adapt the treatment to your individual health circumstances.
Then there's "Mother's Wrist"
Yes, it has a name!
Pain around the thumb side of the wrist can become particularly troublesome after having a baby. Often referred to as "mother's wrist", de Quervain's tenosynovitis can be aggravated by the repetitive movements that suddenly become part of everyday life with a baby.
Think feeding, carrying, changing positions and repeatedly lifting your baby in and out of their cot.
The Urban Motion team sees the problem throughout the postpartum period, particularly within the first couple of years.
Jack Morozov, Massage Therapist at Urban Motion with a specialty in chronic pain and repetitive injuries, and the team may use massage and stretching alongside postural and behavioural changes to help manage symptoms.
It's also a good reminder that sometimes the solution isn't simply treating the bit that hurts.
Looking at how you're holding, feeding and lifting your baby can be just as important.
Your feeding position matters more than you think
There is no medal for maintaining perfect posture while feeding a newborn at 3am.
Hours spent breastfeeding or bottle-feeding can, however, mean a lot of time with rounded shoulders, a forward head and your arms held in roughly the same position. Add carrying and babywearing into the mix and your neck, shoulders and back may start making their feelings known.
Thomas Te, Physiotherapist at Urban Motion, and the team recommend thinking about ergonomics as part of postpartum care: how you position yourself while feeding, how carriers are fitted and even the way you handle everyday equipment such as strollers and car seats.
Sometimes very small adjustments can make repetitive movements much kinder on your body.
What about C-section recovery?
A C-section is major abdominal surgery, and recovery doesn't end when the incision has closed.
Sydney Luong, Founder of Urban Motion and Massage Therapist, says that once someone has been medically cleared (generally no earlier than around six weeks), hands-on scar work may form part of their postpartum treatment. Urban Motion practitioners use techniques to work on mobility around the scar and surrounding tissues, alongside rebuilding movement and gradually re-engaging the core.
This isn't something to rush into, and individual recovery varies. If you've had a C-section, speak to your doctor or appropriate healthcare professional before starting scar treatment or returning to exercise.
Massage or physio: which do you actually need?
This is where having different practitioners under one roof becomes useful.
Urban Motion isn't solely a massage clinic. Its Central practice brings together physiotherapy, clinical massage therapy, stretch therapy, lymphatic drainage and both Reformer and Mat Pilates. Its services span pregnancy and postpartum care through to injury rehabilitation, chronic pain and sports performance.
That means treatment doesn't necessarily have to sit neatly in one box.
Someone dealing with muscular tension from feeding might benefit from clinical massage, while another person may need physiotherapy and active rehabilitation. Someone returning to movement might eventually incorporate Pilates and strength work.
The aim is to work out what your body needs rather than simply prescribing the same postpartum recovery plan to everyone.
The Story Behind Urban Motion
For Sydney, the route into hands-on therapy started long before pregnancy and postpartum care became part of her work.
Her father suffered a stroke when she was nine years old. Years later, wanting to play an active role in his mobility, Sydney trained as a Massage Therapist in her hometown of Toronto, completing more than 2,200 hours of training and a provincial board examination. She says that while working with her father, he regained three movements he had lost for more than 20 years.
That experience shaped the approach she eventually brought to Hong Kong.
Sydney opened Urban Motion in April 2024, building a multidisciplinary team that includes Canadian-trained Registered Massage Therapists alongside physiotherapy and movement specialists. The clinic says its practitioners have between 10 and 25+ years of clinical experience. It also supports people with neurological conditions, injuries and chronic pain, and welcomes men, children and older adults as well as new and expectant mums.
We spend a lot of pregnancy preparing for birth, then an extraordinary amount of early parenthood thinking about the baby. Meanwhile, your body is doing an enormous amount of work too.
Not just recovering from pregnancy and birth, but adapting to an entirely new (and physical) routine: feeding for hours, carrying an increasingly heavy little person, manoeuvring prams, bending over cots and somehow transporting a baby, changing bag and approximately seventeen things you apparently cannot leave the house without.
Looking after your body after having a baby is not about "bouncing back". In fact, we rather like Sydney's suggestion that the conversation should be about reconnecting with it, with realistic expectations of postpartum recovery.
Sometimes that might mean treatment. Sometimes movement. Sometimes changing the way you're doing something fifty times a day.
Mostly, it's a reminder that the person carrying the baby needs looking after too.
FIND URBAN MOTION IN CENTRAL
Urban Motion - Unit CD, 22/F World Trust Tower, 50 Stanley Street, Central
Instagram: @urbanmotionclinic WhatsApp: +852 6999 8320 By appointment only.
