Course Outline

The aim of this course is to produce a caesarean-birth informed practitioner. With roughly 30% of North American births occurring via caesarean, this is a patient population that you will encounter as a pelvic health or orthopedic practitioner.

With many women experiencing shame, guilt and the feeling that they “took the easy way out” following a Csection, it is important to be armed with the appropriate information and language necessary to help women prepare for this surgery and to recuperate afterwards. Understanding the components of preparation, the procedure, and recovery are key to any practitioner guiding women through the birth experience or developing treatment plans for rehabilitation.

A caesarean birth presents its own unique set of challenges for practitioners. Developing strategies for those scheduled for a C-section, educating our patients about caesarean but who are planning vaginal deliveries, and coping with the mental and physical trauma after birth should all be carefully considered. Rehabilitation techniques addressing the complications that can occur following a major abdominal surgery while simultaneously acknowledging the challenges associated with early motherhood are necessary for a wellbalanced approach to recovery.

This course encourages a biopsychosocial framework, manual based therapies, exercise and education to help practitioners build a comprehensive treatment plan for their patients. In recognizing that mothers who delivery via belly-birth are worthy of their own birth preparation, education, and rehabilitation plan we can begin to change the dialogue around caesarean birth, and in doing so, hopefully develop happier and healthier mothers. No previous internal pelvic health education is required to enroll in this course.

What’s Included in this course?

• Two days of education specific to rehabilitation concerns in patients undergoing caesarean.
• Useful pdf files for guiding you through caesarean surgery preparation, yellow flag monitoring, postoperative rehabilitation treatment guide, and pain journal template.
• Practical patient handouts for “Just in Case” of a caesarean delivery, in-patient bedside exercise
  program, and beginner c-section scar massage guidelines.
• You receive a modified adheremeter – a tool developed for assessing abdominal scar tissue mobility
  and a PDF file of modified adheremeter and instructions for printing your own assessment tool.
• Receipt upon purchasing this course. This receipt can be used for education grants and for tax
  purposes.
• Certification of completion. Once you’ve completed the course, you will receive a certificate for your
  professional portfolio.
• Access to this course is through Katie Kelly Physiotherapy PC Inc, and while the provided handouts can
  be downloaded, the majority of the course content cannot. This is to protect the instructor’s material and to
  prevent the content from being shared freely on the Internet. However, hard copies of notes/slides are
  provided.

Course Objectives:

• To have a general understanding of a caesarean surgical procedure and birth.
• To understand the comorbidities, injuries and concerns following caesarean delivery.
• Be able to develop strategies for pain, complications and recovery in the immediate post-operative
  period.
• To acquire evidence-based information regarding the benefits of abdominal binders following
  caesarean.
• Gain a general understanding of c-section wound management, healing and the role for
  physiotherapy.
• Build skills necessary for subjective and objective assessment in the sub-acute period and beyond.
• To have an awareness of the unique challenges associated with caesarean including post-operative
  pain issues, wound healing, surgical adhesions, abdominal nerve entrapments and neuralgia, birth trauma,
  chronic scar pain, and special considerations for returning to exercise.
• To gain strong skills for the differential diagnosis of abdominal wall pain following caesarean birth.
• To develop the ability to screen for biopsychosocial influences on recovery and the appropriate
  treatment practices for such.
• To feel confident in the use of the modified adheremeter – a tool to objectively assess scar mobility.
• To build a selection of myofascial techniques for caesarean scar adhesion related pain and to improve
  scar mobility.
• Have an arsenal of clinical tips and tricks to help guide patients through a caesarean recovery.
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• To feel confident developing a comprehensive plan for the preparation of a caesarean birth and
  rehabilitation afterwards.

Audience:

Rehab professionals including physiotherapists, physiotherapy assistants, occupational therapists, occupational therapy assistants, registered massage therapists, kinesiologists, or any other exercise or manual based therapist who has an interest in helping women prepare for or recover from caesarean births.
There is no internal portion to this course and therefore no prerequisites are required. ** This course is not intended to act as medical advice. Please seek guidance and treatment from your health professional in your area for any unmanaged conditions. **

Your Instructor:

Katie Kelly has been practising as a women’s health and pelvic floor physiotherapist since 2010. She is the owner/operator of her practise, Katie Kelly Physiotherapy, in Moncton, NB. Katie is often a guest lecturer for the School of Physiotherapy at Dalhousie University on the topics of the role of physiotherapy in pregnancy, pelvic floor and exercise for obesity and weight management. She is an active contributing author to the Canadian Physiotherapy Association’s Women’s Health Division Newsletter. Katie has formed a relationship with Mount Allison University’s Sexual Health Laboratory to research chronic pelvic and genital pain conditions. She received both her BSc and MSc in Physiotherapy from Dalhousie University, is a member of the New Brunswick College of Physiotherapists, the Canadian Physiotherapy Association’s Women’s Health Division, the Canadian Sex Researcher Forum and the Canadian Obesity Network. Katie’s overwhelming curiosity for pelvic health physiotherapy drives her to continuously take deep dives into topics of interest.