What to do when your lower back flares up as a new parent
Nicola Tik
Lower back pain during new parenthood is common, and it tends to respond well to some practical adjustments made early. The challenge is that the activity driving the pain, lifting, bending, and carrying, cannot simply be stopped. This article is built around that reality. It covers what helps when the lower back is already sore, how to manage the unavoidable demands of baby care more comfortably, and when it is worth getting some additional support.
When the lower back is already painful, how you lift and bend matters more than usual. The goal is not to avoid lifting entirely, which is not realistic, but to reduce the demand on the lower back with each lift by adjusting how the movement is done.
Where it is practical, bending the knees to lower yourself towards your baby rather than rounding forward through the lower back reduces the load on the lumbar spine considerably with every pick-up. Keeping your baby close to your body as you straighten up, rather than holding them away from you with arms extended, reduces the lever effect on the lower back and makes the lift significantly easier on the muscles and discs of the lumbar spine.
For nappy changes, raising the surface to a height where you can stand more upright reduces the sustained forward lean that repeated changes place on the lower back through the day. Even a small increase in surface height makes a meaningful difference across the many changes a day requires. During bath time, kneeling beside the bath rather than bending over it changes the position of the lower back entirely and distributes the effort more evenly across the body.
When the lower back is sore, the instinct is often to keep it still and avoid movement. In most cases, gentle movement within a comfortable range is more useful than rest alone. Sustained stillness allows the muscles of the lower back to stiffen and the joints to become more sensitised, which tends to make the pain feel worse when movement eventually resumes.
Slow, gentle pelvic tilts, where the lower back is gently flattened and then allowed to return to its natural curve, encourage movement through the lumbar spine without loading it. Short, unhurried walks keep the lower back moving in a way that sustained sitting or lying does not, and many people find that gentle walking eases lower back discomfort more effectively than rest during a flare-up.
Warmth applied to the lower back, a heat pad, a warm compress, or a warm shower directed at the area, can ease the muscle tension and joint sensitivity that builds during a flare-up and makes gentle movement more comfortable. Warmth works particularly well for the muscular tension component of lower back pain, which is typically the dominant feature of new parent lower back strain.
If you have a few minutes, VIDA has short videos you can follow, which include gentle lower back movements that may help ease discomfort during a flare-up.
Complete rest from all physical activity is rarely possible for a new parent, and it is not always necessary. What tends to help most is reducing the sustained load on the lower back where possible, rather than eliminating all activity. This means identifying the movements that provoke the most discomfort and modifying those first.
Prolonged bending, particularly the combination of bending and twisting involved in nappy changes and bath time, tends to be the highest-load activity for a sore lower back and is worth prioritising for modification. Breaking up longer floor sessions with brief periods of standing, sitting with good back support between lifting tasks, and taking any opportunity to lie down briefly and allow the lower back to fully release all help reduce the total sustained demand through the day.
When sitting during settling or feeding, supporting the lower back with a cushion or pillow and sitting back against a chair rather than perching forward reduces the demand on the lower back muscles through those periods and gives them a genuine rest between more active tasks.
Most lower back flare-ups in new parents settle with these adjustments over a week or two. If your lower back pain is not easing despite modifying how you lift and move, is getting noticeably worse, or is making it difficult to care for your baby comfortably, it is worth speaking to a GP or physiotherapist. You do not have to manage it alone.
Your VIDA pain check-in is a good way to keep track of how things are shifting over time and to notice whether the pain is gradually improving or staying the same.