Congratulations on your baby! Regardless of how your baby was delivered and how your delivery went, now might be the time to build up your body strength again, so that you can cope with life with a small baby.

When it comes to exercise, it is important to always start from yourself and not compare with others. Only you know when you are ready to start regaining your strength after your delivery! Set reasonable goals and be kind to yourself and your body. Trust your body – if a movement doesn’t feel right, ask your midwife or physiotherapist to get the right help to heal.

Here are some exercises to do after childbirth.

For your body:

1. Kegel exercises
Lie on your back with your hips and feet firmly on the floor. Find your pelvic floor muscles by starting to squeeze from the anus and slowly lift forward towards the urethra and up towards the navel. Hold for two seconds and rest for the same amount of time. Try repeating 5 to 10 times. You can do this several times a day. However, it is good to do the exercise in the morning, as the pelvic floor gets tired from having carried your whole body up in the evening.

When you start to feel stronger, you can practice holding a little longer each time. You can also try doing short one-second squeezes with a one-second rest between. Over time, you can try to hold for as long as you can – aim to hold for one minute!

2. Find your stomach
Lie on your back with your hips and feet firmly on the floor. Put your hands on your stomach. Exhale and try to hold your stomach in. Can you press your lower back down to the floor? Hold, relax, repeat. Try the same thing while lying on your stomach or while on all fours.

3. Activate your stomach
Once you feel you’re finding your abs, you can start activating your abs. Lie on your back with your hips and feet firmly on the floor. Angle your pelvis slightly towards your face. Feel how the abdominal muscles are activated. Hold your breath and relax. Repeat 5 to 10 times and feel free to do this exercise a few times a day, or as much as you can handle.

4. Activate the abs with leg pushes
Lie on your back and keep your stomach in, imagine that you are pressing your lower back against the floor. Pull your feet up towards your bottom and slowly push out one leg at a time with the heel on the floor. Repeat alternately.

For your mobility:

When you have a newborn baby, it is common for you to experience pain in your upper back and shoulders. This is due, among other things, to poor posture when feeding the baby. It is therefore important that you think about your posture when you breastfeed or bottle feed, sit and walk. Stretch, lower your shoulders and maintain a neutral position for your back and neck.

Here, we suggest some good mobility exercises to do every day to relieve and prevent pain:

1. Baby cobra against wall
Stand against a wall with your forearms firmly against the wall. Push your hips forward and push up with your forearms. Follow your gaze upwards, so that you feel a stretch in your lower back and how your shoulder blades contract. Come back down slowly. Vary between repeating 10-20 times or hold for as long as it feels good.

2. The Cat and the Cow
Get on to all fours with your hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips. Exhale and arch your back, relax your neck and look towards your navel. Breathe in and curve your back downwards. Raise your eyes and look forward-upward. Squeeze the shoulder blades together. Come back to neutral position. Repeat 5 to 10 times, preferably several times a day.

Remember – start gently with small steps and take care of yourself!