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Ann Cleary, Lac.

Suite 106
Los Angeles. CA 90026
6268173556
Herbs, acupuncture, healing touch

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Ann Cleary, Lac.

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"Mommy Thumb", or Why do I have so much pain postpartum?

December 3, 2024 Ann Cleary

If you found your way to this post, you may have already heard about “mommy thumb”.  But there is also mommy back, mommy shoulders, mommy neck.  Luckily I do not normally suffer from much pain, After giving birth to our daughter, I had the opportunity to suddenly experience what it is like to have your back go out, and to have excruciating pain in your neck/ shoulder that has you moving gingerly, because the slightest wrong movement causes severe spasming.  I also got to experience the relief of visiting an acupuncturist and postpartum chiropractor and letting them help me.  I have to say, when you are on the receiving end it feels incredible and seems magical.


If I had known then what I know now, I could have prevented this pain.  I, and everyone else who has given birth within the past year (or four), and especially if also combined with breast feeding, is prone to fluid and blood deficiency.  It is the liquids of our body that keep our muscles like a moistened and wrung-out sponge – able to bend, be squished, change position.  During the gestation of a child, we become filled with extra blood and fluids to support the growth of our baby.  This is why your skin looks younger, and your hair gets extra full like any fertility idol ever dug up.  


When we give birth, we lose a lot of this.  This is why just following the birth we can have nightsweats, and why our lush hair starts to fall out, leaving us with our usual thickness.  Now of course, our bodies were made to do this, but we have lost a lot of the traditional social and dietary supports that help replenish these fluids postpartum.


Some people continue to have nightsweats long after giving birth, or leak milk in their sleep and can fill a whole other bottle from the opposite breast while feeding their child.  I fit the second of these categories.  I found myself waking up in puddles of milk. I asked my midwives about “oversupply”, and they told me there is no such thing.  Perhaps I did not describe what was happening completely, in part because I also didn’t really think it was an issue. I was just surprised that breastfeeding was so messy because I hadn’t heard anyone talk about it.  Now I know that this is a kind of “leakage” according to East Asian medicine, a sign of deep deficiency, and should absolutely be treated to prevent further issues and deficiency (which in my case, did come).  Luckily, it is not hard to treat this situation, or the more mild version of relative postpartum deficiency.


When these fluids are lost, our muscles become dried out.  They can feel stiff, almost like cardboard, or a dried out sponge, or feel spasmodic.  This is often accompanied by strong thirst in the postpartum person.  If left untreated, it can lead to fatigue, low grade frequent nausea, achey joints, and other kinds of malaise.  If you visit a postpartum acupuncturist and herbalist, they will treat the branch (the pain), and the root (the fluid deficiency).  Not only will this ensure that the problem does not return, but it also prepares you to be in full health for the next step in your reproductive journey, whether that is another conception and pregnancy or perimenopause.


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In postpartum, perimenopause, Herbal Medicine Tags mommy thumb, postpartum pain, leaky breasts, postpartum nightsweats, oversupply, breastfeeding, breastmilk, breastmilk leaking

Visit our acupuncture clinic and herbal dispensary in Atwater village At:

3273 Casitas Ave. suite 106 Los Angeles, CA 90039


The Tongva/Gabrieleno people are the Native people in the LA basin and have been here since time immemorial. As a guest institution on Tongva land, we make kuuyam nahwá'a, a recurring guest exchange, to the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy, the Tongva-led org who received the first return of land back to Tongva people. We invite you to go to Tongva.Land and join us in making kuuyam nahwá'a to the Tongva Conservancy who is providing a space to create community and practice ceremony, housing Gabrieleno/Tongva people, and rematriating the land.


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