Why caring for your baby puts more strain on your lower back than you might expect
Nicola Tik
The lower back is built to handle load, but it works best when that load is balanced and varied. The daily routine of early parenthood involves a pattern of repeated bending, twisting, and one-sided effort that is quite different from what the lower back is designed to manage comfortably over time. This article explains how those everyday activities add up and what helps reduce the cumulative effect.
No single nappy change, pick-up, or pram lift is particularly demanding on the lower back. The difficulty is that none of these movements happen in isolation. They happen dozens of times a day, often on the same side, often in the same direction, and often when the muscles are already carrying fatigue from the night before.
The lower back muscles and the joints of the lumbar spine are well equipped to handle load when it is distributed evenly and when there is adequate recovery between efforts. When the same movements are repeated asymmetrically, meaning more to one side, or more in one direction, the load concentrates rather than distributes. Over time, that concentration is what produces the stiffness, aching, and tension that many new parents notice building across the lower back in the first weeks and months.
Picking a baby up from a cot, a floor mat, or a pram involves a forward bend that, done repeatedly, places significant demand on the lower back muscles and the discs of the lumbar spine. The temptation is to reach forward and round through the back to get low enough, which concentrates the load at the base of the spine rather than distributing it through the legs.
Where it is practical, lowering yourself towards your baby by bending the knees and keeping the back in a more upright position reduces the load on the lower back considerably. Bringing the baby close to the body before straightening up, rather than lifting with the arms extended, also makes a meaningful difference to how much the lower back has to work with each pick-up.
Changing and bathing involve sustained forward bending over a surface, often at a height that is not quite right for the person using it, and often with a degree of twist as items are reached for to one side. This combination of forward bend and rotation is one of the more demanding positions for the lower back, particularly when held for several minutes at a time across multiple changes through the day.
Raising the changing surface to a height where the back can stay more upright during changes reduces the forward bend significantly. During bathing, kneeling beside the bath rather than bending over it changes the position of the lower back considerably and distributes the effort more evenly. Small adjustments to surface height and body position make a cumulative difference that adds up across the many repetitions of a day.
Pushing a pram encourages a sustained forward lean, particularly when the handle height is not quite right, which places the lower back in a prolonged flexed position through walks. Over longer distances, this sustained position produces the familiar aching across the lower back that many new parents notice after time out with the pram.
Carrying or lifting a pram, into a car boot, up a flight of stairs, or over a kerb, introduces a more acute asymmetric load, often on one side, often in a hurry, and often when the muscles are already fatigued. This is one of the more common triggers for a sudden increase in lower back discomfort during the new parent period. Where possible, unfolding and folding the pram at ground level before lifting, and sharing the lift with another person, reduces the single-effort load on the lower back considerably.
Because the lower back strain of early parenthood is cumulative rather than caused by any single movement, varying how and where the load falls is one of the most practical things you can do. Alternating which side you carry on, switching between kneeling and standing during floor activities, and taking brief moments to stand upright and move gently between tasks all help interrupt the pattern of repeated one-sided loading before it builds into something more persistent.
If you have a few minutes, VIDA has short videos you can follow, which can help ease the tension that builds across the lower back during this period.