What We Treat

Prenatal Prep treatment in North Liberty.

Pelvic pain, a back that gives out by evening, and everybody telling you it’s just part of being pregnant. Common isn’t the same as normal, and pain isn’t the price of admission. A cause-first evaluation shows you what’s actually going on.

Pelvic and hip pain Back pain in pregnancy Preparing for labor Book My Free Consult

Sound Familiar?

Does this sound like you?

  • Rolling over in bed wakes you up, because it hurts
  • Ten minutes standing at the sink is about the limit now
  • A sharp pinch at the front of your pelvis on every stair
  • You want to keep training and nobody will tell you what’s safe
  • Your hip clicks, catches, or gives way when you shift your weight
  • You’d like to understand your pelvic floor before labor, not after it

Two or more? Keep reading.

Why It Happens

It’s common. That doesn’t make it normal.

Pregnancy changes the load on your body every few weeks. Your center of gravity travels forward. Your ribs and pelvis widen. Your abdominal wall lengthens to make room. Hormonal changes leave joints more mobile, so the muscles around them have to work harder to keep everything steady.

When one link in that system can’t keep up, the pain lands somewhere specific: the front of the pelvis, one side of the back, a hip that catches. That’s mechanical, and mechanical things respond to the right work. A cause-first evaluation finds the link that’s struggling, and one-on-one with a licensed physical therapist, you get positions, strength work and breathing that fit the trimester you’re actually in. Wait it out instead and you spend months not sleeping, not walking comfortably, and arriving at labor and recovery with less to draw on.

A pregnant woman doing a supported standing exercise at a studio barre

The Honest Truth

Waiting doesn’t make it wait on you.

If you keep waiting

  • The rest of your body starts compensating, and the compensations start hurting too
  • Flare-ups get closer together, and take longer to settle each time
  • You move less to avoid the pain, which weakens the exact things that were protecting you

If you start this week

  • Visit one is a cause-first evaluation, and you leave knowing what we found
  • Hands-on treatment starts the same day, not after a second appointment
  • You get a plan with an endpoint: a real one, not an open tab of visits

Nobody regrets starting too early. Plenty of people tell us they wish they had come in sooner.

How We Fix It

The same four phases. Adapted to your trimester.

You’ve already read every thread and gotten a shrug. That’s exactly the kind of patient who does well here. Dr. Alex Furtado, DPT, CPPC, brings over a decade across orthopedics, sports PT and pelvic health, training as a birth and postpartum doula, and certification in fitness through pregnancy. Every plan has an endpoint.

Phase 01

Pain

Get comfortable again.

Hands-on work, support strategies, and better positions for sleeping, sitting and standing bring the daily pain down.

Phase 02

Prime

Share the load properly.

Hips, back, ribs and pelvic floor start working together again, so no single spot is absorbing all of it.

Phase 03

Perform

Keep training, safely.

Strength and conditioning adapted as your body changes, so you keep going instead of stopping. You get told what’s safe and why.

Phase 04

Prevent

Walk into labor prepared.

Breathing, pushing mechanics, labor positions, and what early recovery asks of you, so day one after birth isn’t the first time you think about it. That’s the endpoint.

Natalie is such a great physical therapist and person to have in your corner, her exercises and encouragement really helped me throughout my recovery.

Shared by Sophie M. · A patient, on what it’s like to work with us

The problem: pain nobody will explain, and advice to just wait it out

The plan: moving comfortably now, and prepared for labor and after

Prenatal Prep Plan with an endpoint

Related Conditions

Pregnancy asks a lot of several places at once.

What starts in one spot rarely stays there. Here’s what else we treat.

1

Postpartum Recovery

The part after birth that a single six-week checkup was never going to cover.

Learn More 2

Pelvic Floor Dysfunction

Pressure, heaviness, or a pelvic floor that won’t relax when you ask it to.

Learn More 3

Diastasis Recti

The belly that domes when you sit up, and a midline with no tension in it.

Learn More

Questions, Answered

What people ask before booking.

For an uncomplicated pregnancy, movement is generally encouraged, and your OB or midwife is the one to confirm that for yours. What changes is the how, not the whether. Positions, load, intensity and breathing all need to shift as you do, and that is the part nobody explains. One-on-one with a licensed physical therapist, you get told what to keep, what to modify, and what to leave alone for now.

Whichever one you are in. Early on, the work leans toward habits, breathing and building strength while you feel good. Later, it leans toward managing pain, staying mobile, and preparing for labor and the weeks after. Arriving with a specific complaint is a good reason to start. So is arriving with none.

All four phases, Pain, Prime, Perform and Prevent, adapted to where you are. That means settling the pain you have now, getting hips, back, ribs and pelvic floor sharing load again, keeping you strong as your body changes, and preparing for labor and the early weeks after. You get a plan with an endpoint, so you always know which phase you are in and what is left.

Book Your Visit

Ready when you are.

Request a time and a real person calls you back. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.

  • Hours Mon-Fri: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
  • (319) 382-2743 Prefer to talk now? Call us.
  • No referral needed in Iowa

4.9 · 79 Google reviews

Typical response: under 2 business hours

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So we know who to look for when you walk in.

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Care this good, this close.

Motion Matters Physical Therapy and Wellness

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