Why I took the first step
A good friend once told me this pandemic had made her more mindful of her health, and she challenged me to invest in mine. That conversation stuck with me, especially now that I am a mother. My greatest hope is to live long and well enough to care for my son for as long as he needs me, and I know every parent shares some version of that dream. That drive led me to schedule my own first step toward recovery from postpartum issues: a virtual physical therapy session.
I talked it over with my husband, who didn't need much convincing. He had seen the real effects of my postpartum issues, not just physically but on my whole sense of self, so there was no long debate. Still, as the appointment approached, I felt nervous. Since it would be a virtual visit, I wondered whether I would need to expose my body on camera, whether the platform was secure, and whether a virtual assessment could really be as thorough as an in-person one. But with the pandemic limiting my options, I decided to find out.
What the session was actually like
Checking in through the clinic's patient portal was as easy as scheduling the appointment itself. I filled out an intake form and signed a consent form beforehand, which gave me time to think carefully through my medical history and gather details about my symptoms I might otherwise have forgotten. It helped me see the bigger picture before we even began.
Most of the session was spent talking through my history: why I had certain symptoms, what was happening beneath the surface, and how different body functions and movements change postpartum. It felt like connecting the dots, piece by piece, until everything made sense.
The hands-on assessment, from a distance
My therapist also performed a physical assessment, with me as her hands. Under her guidance, we checked for diastasis recti and whether key pelvic muscles were working efficiently. It required real concentration, and there were moments I second-guessed myself, knowing how much my feedback would shape the direction of my care. But my therapist was confident and unhesitating, which gave me the trust I needed to keep going. We finished the session with a set of home exercises, which I demonstrated back to her so she could check my form.
What I learned from being on the other side
As a physical therapist myself, I have never felt more educated about my own body, especially my pelvic area, than I did in this session. Relying on my own sense of touch to feel those muscles at rest and in motion helped me become far more attuned to myself. Understanding your own body is the beginning of healing, at least it was for me, and it motivated me to keep up with my exercises, looking forward to the day I would feel those muscles firing again with fewer symptoms.
I still believe there's a place for an in-person assessment for things a therapist needs to check hands-on that I can't do myself. But even without a pandemic forcing the decision, I would choose virtual PT again, not for its convenience, but for the shift it created in how I understood my own recovery. And no, in case you were wondering: no naked bodies were involved.