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Is Scar tissue just Scar tissue or is it causing your pain?

20
May

Is Scar tissue just Scar tissue or is it causing your pain?
When a Caesarean Section is performed, 7 layers of tissue are cut through to get to your baby.

    1. Skin
    2. Fat
    3. Rectus Sheath | Fascia
    4. Abdominal muscles
    5. Peritoneum
    6. Uterus
    7. Amniotic sac

When your baby is born, each layer is carefully sutured back together but unfortunately, each layer of tissue doesn’t heal separately from the others.
If the scar tissue is left alone and not treated post-birthery (birth-surgery 😊), complications can arise.

Common issues are:

    • low back pain
    • urination problems (loss of control, urinating to much)
    • painful bowel motions
    • pain over the scar itself
    • painful sex.

Some not so common issues are:

    • Non-diagnosable abdominal pain (sometimes years after your c-section) often felt as a dragging pain.
    • Bloating abdomen
    • Secondary infertility
    • Chronic pelvic pain
    • Increased menstrual pain (since c-section)
    • Swelling after c-section

These issues are caused by what is known as adhesions. Adhesions are thick, non-elastic collagen (scar tissues) inside your body that sticks two surfaces or organs to each other.
Adhesions are a normal part of healing post-surgery but rarely discussed.
Adhesions can wrap around structures at the site of healing. This can reduce blood flow, irritate nerve function, create pain, and reduce the function of any organs around the surgical site.

The picture above shows the untreated scar pulling down into the tissue.

What can be done about it?
Treatment of scar tissue needs to get into the skin layer AND underneath it to the adhesions and organs below it for best long-term function and zero complications.

At Alara Women’s Health we offer the following treatment to help.

Treatment by Physiotherapist’s | Massage therapists

    1. Skin release – advice on how to mobilise the soften the skin layer. This can be started at 3 weeks post birth.
    2. Scar Remediation – a technique used to release adhesions and realign the collagen for long term healing and function. This technique softens the scar, removes any adhesions pulling to surrounding organs and therefore allow blood flow for better healing. This can be started 8 weeks post birth.

Treatment by Physiotherapists only

    1. Organ releases for optimal function. This can be address 8 weeks post birth.

Treatment by Acupuncturist only

    1. Needling and moxibustion techniques.

acupuncture has been recognised to speed up recovery post surgery by increasing blood flow to the area of incision. Treatment will decreases pain and numbness and reduces the amount of scar tissue | adhesions that develop.
An acupuncture session post C-section birth can take place as soon as you are comfortable enough to get to us.