Back, Wrist, and Neck Pain From Carrying a Baby

Your baby weighs a little more every week, and somewhere along the way your back, your wrists, and your neck started keeping score. Everyone calls it "part of being a mom." It's common. It isn't something you have to just live with.

Carrying a baby is a repetitive, lopsided, awkward job, and your body is doing it while still recovering.

Why It Hurts, Starting With the Obvious

You lift, bend, twist, and hold a growing weight dozens of times a day, usually on one side, often while leaning over a crib, a car seat, or a changing table. Add feeding positions that round your shoulders and push your head forward, and your neck, upper back, and wrists take a beating from sheer repetition.

The Part People Miss: Your Core Is Still Recovering

Your deep core muscles and pelvic floor are part of your back's support system. Research on low back pain has long shown that when the deep stabilizing muscles aren't working efficiently, the spine relies on other structures to do the job (Hodges & Richardson, 1996, Spine). Pregnancy stretches and changes those muscles, and pregnancy-related low back and pelvic girdle pain is common, and for some women it doesn't resolve on its own (Wu et al., 2004, European Spine Journal). So when a mom says "my back hurts from carrying the baby," it's often the carrying plus a core that hasn't been rebuilt yet. If that sounds familiar, we explained why in Your Core Isn't Weak, It's Disconnected.

Wrists: "Mommy Thumb"

Pain on the thumb side of the wrist, especially when lifting your baby or gripping, is often called "mommy thumb" and is usually irritation of the tendons that run along the thumb side (De Quervain's tenosynovitis). It's linked to repetitive lifting with the thumb extended and gripping, and it's common in new moms. It's worth having it looked at, because it often responds well to changing how you lift and hold, plus targeted treatment.

What Actually Helps

Small mechanical changes add up when you repeat them a hundred times a day. Hold your baby close to your body instead of out in front of you. Bend at the hips and knees to lift, not your back. Switch sides, carry on both hips over the course of the day. When you lift, scoop with your whole hand and forearm instead of pinching with your thumb. For feeding, bring the baby up to you with pillows instead of hunching down to them, and keep your ears over your shoulders where you can. Take short breaks to move your neck and shoulders and open up your chest.

The bigger fix is rebuilding the foundation: reconnecting your deep core and pelvic floor (Your Pelvic Floor Is Talking. Are You Listening? is a good place to start) and gradually strengthening your back, hips, and shoulders, so your body can handle the load. If the pain is sharp, shooting, keeps waking you at night, or comes with numbness or weakness in your hands or legs, don't wait it out and check with a rehab doctor.

You aren't weak, and you aren't doing it wrong. You're doing a physically demanding job on a body that's still healing, and it can be supported.

After Erica, my posture was so completely out of whack and I just thought it was the breastfeeding that was causing my back pain. Erica was an unli-latcher, and my back was in unli-pain too! When I restored my core function I was able to hold her and carry her for any amount of time, with zero pain!

If you're not sure if you have core dysfunction or diastasis recti, let me help you with my Symptoms and DR Check.

Take the free Symptoms and DR Check →

Mindy Lagdameo is the co-founder of ThriveLife/Mamafit, certified in postpartum recovery, supporting moms through the parts of motherhood nobody prepares them for.