New Parent Neck
A very common problem with new parents: “I just had this baby and my neck hurts soooo bad!”
There are two issues at play here that will be key to alleviating our problem.
Our Attention
It is a very common postural habit to shape our whole body around what grabs our attention. Case in point:
And this is a phone, which when you think about it, is just a bright and shiny object. There is nothing more attention-grabbing, more stimulating than a newborn baby!
You’re also bringing a lot of emotions into interacting with your little one. Perhaps you’re overwhelmed with joy to finally have your baby in your arms, or are amazed almost to the point of disbelief they are here. Perhaps you’re terrified of dropping them, or are watching them sleep to make sure they’re still breathing. Perhaps you’re questioning whether you’re doing this new parenthood thing “right.” Perhaps all of the above.
This emotional swirl - in addition to daily care activities - serves to bring attention forward and down.
This is all normal and human. It’s true that we will be sacrificing a lot of our comfort in caring for our baby! But I’m going to argue, we don’t have to sacrifice all of it. Which brings me to -
2. What we don’t know about our necks!
I think most of us like to swivel our necks around like giraffes.
This is fine for giraffes. They are built to do this!
For us humans, we want to minimize our effort, because especially when we’re functioning on minimal energy, we’d like to use that energy as efficiently as possible.
Put your fingers in/ or in front of your ears. THIS is the point where your head is on top of your spine.
Nod your head from this point. This connection between your head and spine is actually a joint (the atlanto-occipital or AO joint).
Most of us have forgotten that this joint exists - it’s ready and waiting for you to use it! Next time you catch yourself craning your neck down like a giraffe, give yourself a moment to come up, make friends with your AO joint, and nod your head to look at your beautiful baby.
In time, this will become your new habit, and help your neck be less overworked.
Did this tip help? What challenges do you still have when holding and caring for your baby?
Habit change is a process. Please be kind to yourself, and consider a lesson with a skilled teacher in helping you make this change for yourself.