There are five joints in the adult pelvis, but only three joints open in the adult female pelvis. Three of these five joints open during labor. The front joint is called the symphysis pubis. This is the joint in the center of your pubic bone. The back two are called sacroiliac joints and connect your sacrum to your pelvis. This front joint can actually stretch as much as two inches with the back two joints bending, so your pelvis can open like a book in order to help your baby come out during a vaginal birth. In some countries, rather than doing a cesarean section, this joint is cut.
It is possible that this joint doesn’t always return to its pre-pregnancy size. In some cases, you will There’s developing fat tissue around the joint and this will prevent the joint to returning to its original size. Because these joints are sometimes slow to close postpartum, they can slip around causing pain with walking.
For many years, obstetricians have considered the second pregnancy to be not only be the easiest pregnancy and delivery, but also considered to be the safest. In other words, the second pregnancy is considered to be the one most likely to have the best outcomes for mothers and babies. There are many reasons you carry differently with the second pregnancy. Your abdominal muscles are a little more stretched, giving your uterus more opportunity to move around and therefore the baby a little more opportunity to move around. With your first pregnancy, your uterus is shaped more like a ball rather than a cylinder. In subsequent pregnancies, your uterus will take on a more cylindrical shape, offering your baby more room to move about.
With first-time moms, babies usually position themselves head down and low in the pelvis. With the second baby or any subsequent baby, very often the baby’s head doesn’t engage in the pelvis until after labor starts.
Generally, the second labor is better in all ways than the first labor. In obstetrics circles, the second labor is considered to be the best labor that you will ever have. Second labors are faster with better outcomes for mother and baby. Although the second labor is generally faster, it isn’t necessarily harder. The increased risks associated with having three or more pregnancies are usually not present for the second baby.
Return to pre-pregnancy weight is generally easiest after the first pregnancy. Weight loss after the second pregnancy is much harder and tends to remain through successive pregnancies unless there is rigorous effort to return to pre-pregnancy weight. The problem is more likely to be starting pregnancy at a heavier weight than actually gaining more weight. Nonetheless, it is very easy to wind up weighing more at the end of each successive pregnancy.
Is there any way to shrink hips after pregnancy? There is a hormone known as relaxin which helps soften and open three of the five major pelvic joints making spontaneous delivery easier and more successful. The symphysis, as well as the two joints in the back, called the sacroiliac joints that connect your pelvis to your the backbone, so your pelvis opens like a book.
Relaxin is present for spontaneous labor and delivery and one of the reasons that spontaneous deliveries are more successful and a little easier and faster than induced labor. Two to three months after spontaneous vaginal birth, your body will stop making relaxin and your hips should shrink even more. You should anticipate your hips returning to your normal size by six weeks to six months, depending on your activity level. Cardiovascular exercise helps, including swimming, dancing, jogging and walking for twenty to thirty minutes four days a week.
Yes, your hips can return to the size they were before your pregnancy, but with each pregnancy it will take more effort.