The Physiological benefits of Closing the Bones

After pregnancy, a birthing persons’ body opens in immense ways.

The hips and pelvic bowl literally widen to make space for a baby, and blood volume expands throughout the entire body. The abdominal muscles separate and the hormone relaxin causes the body’s ligaments and tissues to be more stretchy and elastic. The uterus, a free-floating organ supported by 14 ligaments grows in weight and size and can put strain on these slow-to-heal ligaments. For birthing people the ripening of the cervix and passage of the baby through the birth canal and vagina is quite literally the most dramatic and visceral way their body has opened up before. Rest, warming therapies, nourishing foods and bodywork are all extremely helpful in healing the postpartum body.

For these physiological reasons Closing the Bones and similar types of manual therapy are considered a necessary aspect of healing the post-pregnancy body in many traditions. The intention behind Closing the Bones is not simply to create energetic closure, (although it can accomplish that as well) but on a physical level it helps bring the pelvis, uterus, and sacrum back into alignment. Closing the Bones is a form of postpartum bodywork, and that is one of the reasons I believe it is so cross-culturally widespread. In traditional postpartum healing practices tending to the bones, the very structure of the mother/birthing parents’ body is crucial, especially in the tender time after birth. so that they are able to show up even more fully as a parent.

Quite simply, Closing the Bones is a body-based practiced based on the wisdom of those that have brought us into the world. And in addition to the physiological reasons, it offers something back to the birthing parents that they often give to their babies: nurturance, warmth, and a feeling of being held.