Separated at Birth

Early in this process I discovered a statistic that I have shared here before. Everyday across the globe, 1 in 3,000 women will substantially injury her pelvis in childbirth (or pregnancy). And everyday across the world, about 30,000 women give birth.

That means every single day, 100 women experience an injury like mine. It is even more common, 1 in every 500 women, to have a lesser degree pelvic instability that will very likely resolve itself naturally, and quickly after delivery.

I got an email today from a mother of two who has been living with a separated pelvis for 10 weeks. She is living what I describe in this blog as the early days for my family. She and her family need our positive energy and support.

Please, as you go about your day, take a minute to think about what you can do that is easy and imagine if it were hard. Let’s end that energy to moms like Jen and the 1,000s of others that we share our planet with who are struggling to move. These women need our love and support. Everyday they are faced with the reality that — at least for now — they are not the moms that they want to be.

I wish there was something I could do to make diastasis symphysis pubis resulting from childbirth more widely known among doctors. My doctor, John Sojka at the KU Medical Center, had seen it before and knew exactly what to do to fix it. But, my primary care physician and my midwife both were convinced it would heal itself. That reaction is far more common. When I see Dr. Sojka next week I will ask about what ways a person like me could really make a difference in educating doctors.

Every mom deserves to be able to pick up her child and walk, dance or climb stairs. Every mom deserves to play with her baby with her mind on her baby, not her body.