Delegation of physiotherapy in the puerperium

As obstetric techniques continue to improve, there is a decided swing in favour of an early discharge from hospital of an ever-increasing number of well mothers and babies. In some larger teaching maternity hospitals, women are being discharged 48-hours post partum, and in many cases these women return to a situation where immediate responsibility for full home duties is put upon them. In accordance with this growing tendency and the question of delegation of physiotherapy, perhaps the aims of physiotherapy in the puerperium should be reconsidered. The community is constantly being made more aware of the need for physical fitness, and so, as physiotherapists already involved with obstetric after-care, we have a very real responsibility to teach both new mothers and multiparas the absolute importance of specific post natal muscle re-education, the necessity for back care in lifting and in posture, the value and place of relaxation (that is, active muscle decontraction) in the often trying and stressing puerperium, and the need for a rapid return to a state of general physical fitness.