What Your C-Section Scar Is Really Doing to Your Body | Mikaela, Naturopath

Naturopath Mikaela explains why C-section scars (and any abdominal scarring) are far more than skin-deep — describing scars as "an iceberg," with a web of collagen underneath strong enough to pull on the pelvis, hips, and even your breathing. She walks through how abdominal massage works to release this tension, improve circulation and hormone regulation, and why the belly holds so much unspoken emotional story. 

Final part of our 3-part mini-series with Mikaela.

Connect with Mikaela Duffy
https://mikaeladuffy.com.au/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to another episode of Inside Mumma's Circle. Today we have Michaela who is a naturopath and nutritionist chatting with us about all things health, wellness, and nutrition postpartum. So welcome Michaela, thank you so much for coming today. I know we've touched a little bit on that abdominal massage, but why is it such a powerful tool for mums?

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Because there's a C-section element to it and the scar element. So I see lots of women who've either had cesarean sections or some kind of abdominal surgery, right? So that might be laparoscopies or you know any other kind of invasive incisions on the on the gut. Or if they have endometriosis or polycystic ovaries, or you know, conditions that would cause adhesions or scarring internally. Doing that work, I'm I'm trained in the C-section scar method, release method, so I work specifically in those areas to help and educate women how they can do it for themselves at home too, to help to soften the scars because scars are like an iceberg. This is just the tip of the iceberg we can see on the surface, and underneath we've got this whole web of collagen because the body is so great at making collagen, and collagen is incredibly strong. You know, it's like the strength is let's say the equivalent of being able to lift like a car with your little finger. So it's so powerful, and and it will attach itself like a spider's web. So if you imagine if some collagen has attached itself, you know, to maybe this side of the pelvis, it can pull things in directions that shouldn't be. And so then we can experience like back pain or hip pain, and actually it's a it's caused by some you know scarring internally. So wow, sorry, this is just blowing my mind.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

I learned so many new things all the time from my from everybody. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

You know, we've got to consider that. We also need to consider that a cesarean scar will impact the diaphragm and how much that it actually impacts the full breathing, the ability to breathe fully. And so I'll see when I'm assessing people because when they all come in, I will always have a look at the tummy when they're standing. I will be feeling the temperature to make sure it's warm enough. If it's not, we will do copping or other techniques to warm the belly one. A nice warm for any for everybody, but particularly for new moms and fertility and for healthy periods. And so if the breathing is impacted, we can do lots of release through the upper area. We also work on the lymphatics, and we also work through the whole belly and then the lower back and the bottom because the pelvic floor can be too tight or not tight enough. So when we start to really work on releasing the tension, the ligaments, the muscles, any scars or adhesions we're starting to mobilize, we're getting freedom of flow. That means we get circulation and blood, which takes hormones around the body, so we get an improvement of hormone regulation, and that can only be a positive thing.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Absolutely. For for new mums, you can't do it in the first 12 weeks, but from that point onwards, it doesn't matter if you have a scar or not, like this work is for everybody, but we can work specifically on the scars, but it's helping to realign because once you free things up, you give things an opportunity to move where they want to go. And the uterus, a lot of women get told just in passing, I have a retroversion, you know, or my uterus is tipped to one side or tip forward. That's stuff that we can work on correcting. Yeah, wow. You know, because that really impacts period pain, fertility, pregnancies. So we can gently move the body in ways to try and encourage the uterus to go back where it wants to go once it's had some spaciousness. It's not saying that it fixes every time or after one time, but it definitely will impact. You know, the belly gets ignored, the belly gets hidden, there's a lot of shame around the belly, and even if you go for a whole body massage, how often do they like some folks into your belly? It's like this is like the centre of my body ignored. And I've told lots of story and emotion here.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

We do, right? And that's that's what I've heard in the past, is that we hold a lot of trauma and a lot of uh emotion in our womb.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Yes, so as we do gentle work, and I will work, you know, in a nice dark, calm space, you're all coated up and warm with warm heat packs. I'll use rose quartz, uh goua sha, I'll use gentle cups, I'll use balms that I've infused myself, or you know, the two-eat balm, which has got all these beautiful female focused herbs and oils in there, and then we're just holding space to allow you to emotionally or physically release what doesn't need to be there anymore. So it can be profoundly beautiful and relaxing. Some women will cry, some women will just say afterwards they just feel like they've had a huge release or they feel taller. We're you know, we're freeing up this whole area of the body. And so after birthing, there's a whole story going on there anyway, whether even if it's a really great one.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Thank you so much for spending time with us today. If this podcast resonated with you, please feel free to leave a review, share with a mum that might need it, and we're so glad to have you part of our inner circle.