Physical Therapy Business Tips
April 14, 2025
The benefits of physical therapy for pregnancy can hardly be overstated, but many expecting mothers aren’t educated about how much it can help them. Unfortunately, many physical therapists also aren’t well-versed in caring for their pregnant patients either, often leading to missed opportunities and a sub-par patient experience.
Fear not, because we’re going to take a deep dive into the benefits of physical therapy for pregnancy, how to effectively manage your patients who are pregnant, and some helpful tips on marketing yourself to this niche patient population. Let’s get to it!
Patients who are pregnant can benefit from pregnancy physical therapy in many different meaningful ways, such as getting relief from back pain, minimizing muscle loss during pregnancy, easing labor, reducing pregnancy and postpartum complications, and maintaining a healthy pelvic floor before and after pregnancy.
Understanding each of these key benefits is the first step in providing great care to patients who are pregnant, so let’s take a closer look at each of them.
Back pain is such a common challenge during pregnancy that many expecting mothers think it’s unavoidable. In reality, most cases of back pain during pregnancy are caused by changes in stress to the spine that aren’t properly addressed with exercise and positioning techniques.
Physical therapists treating expecting patients are well-equipped to deal with pain during pregnancy because they have extensive training in therapeutic exercise, body mechanics, and activity modification techniques that can take stress off the spine and keep pain during pregnancy under control.
While weight gain is an inevitable part of pregnancy, carrying around extra body weight doesn’t always mean getting stronger. In fact, many patients who are pregnant actually lose muscle strength because of lower activity levels, which can contribute to a host of other challenges.
As experts in safe therapeutic exercise, physical therapists can help their patients maintain and even gain muscle strength during pregnancy with regular sessions and coaching. Encouragement and reassurance are key here, as many expecting mothers are hesitant with exercise during pregnancy as a precaution for the safety of their baby.
Riding on the coattails of muscle strength, pelvic floor health and strength are important parts of labor and delivery that can be improved with physical therapy. Pregnant patients who are getting the benefits of physical therapy for pregnancy will be better equipped to handle the enduring events of labor and delivery with fewer challenges related to pelvic floor weakness.
Physical therapists are able to help expecting patients with easier labor and delivery even if they are not certified pelvic health specialists, as many of the most basic techniques can still make a big difference. However, specialized physical therapists are able to provide a greater level of detail in care and may be required for patients with existing conditions.
Similar to how physical therapy can help ease labor and delivery, it’s also an important part of promoting postpartum recovery. Some of the biggest challenges for patients who are postpartum are weakness or dysfunction of the pelvic floor, pelvic pain, obesity, and diastasis recti, a condition where the abdominal muscles become separated.
Physical therapists can help their patients before and after childbirth by supporting strong pelvic floor muscles, facilitating exercise during pregnancy to promote maintenance of lean body mass, and providing direct treatment for the management of diastasis recti.
Pelvic floor strength is essential for reducing complications like pelvic pain before delivery and during postpartum recovery, but strength is only one part of pelvic floor health. Pelvic floor dysfunction can occur from weakness of the pelvic floor muscles, but it can also occur from a lack of control and endurance.
Physical therapy for pregnancy reduces pelvic floor dysfunction with a wide variety of targeted treatments that promote pelvic floor strength, control, and endurance.
Physical therapists managing pregnant patients can use a wide variety of approaches to ensure a quality care experience, including the use of custom intake forms for pregnant patients, offering treatment packages for pre and postpartum, providing wellness check-ins, and maintaining an availability summary for patient convenience.
Striking the right balance for a quality patient experience can be challenging when managing people who are expecting, so let’s take a closer look at each of these key opportunities.
The reality for the majority of healthcare is that it isn’t set up for pregnant patients, and patients coming to physical therapy often feel out of place filling out a standard intake form. Providing custom intake forms that ask detailed questions about your patient’s pregnancy can set the tone for a better interaction and help ensure quality care.
For example, a digital intake form with built-in question logic can be a great start. If your patient selects “yes” to being pregnant, then they can be shown a selection of other questions that specifically relate to their pregnancy, making them feel understood from the very start and simplifying your PT documentation software workflow.
While labor and delivery can be less predictable parts of pregnancy, many other parts are often very predictable and provide great opportunities for patients to address their health pre and postpartum. This makes treatment packagesespecially appealing, because they can be offered in the months before or after delivery.
For example, physical therapists can offer prenatal treatment packages that focus on overall fitness, pain management, and pelvic floor function that are covered in a weekly session. Sessions can also be flexible once they’re purchased, allowing for patients to benefit from pregnancy and postpartum physical therapy.
One of the biggest benefits of physical therapy for pregnancy is having regular touch points with an expert in exercise, pain management, and pelvic floor health. For that reason, offering patient wellness check-ins to your expecting patients can be a big value add for your practice.
A wellness check-in can be in-person, virtual, or on a hybrid basis. During check-ins, a physical therapist can field any concerns from the patient about general wellness, joint pain, body positioning, and exercise safety.
Pregnancy can create a lot of chaos in life, and maintaining appointments can be challenging for your patients who are expecting. Sending out an availability summary (weekly or bi-weekly) can help your patients remember to schedule their appointments and show up for those that are already on the calendar.
To market your physical therapy services to prenatal clients, focus on a well-rounded approach with attention to detail. For example, set up a referral system with local providers, market to prenatal clients on your website, advertise through pregnancy magazines and classes, and create content for pregnancy clients on social media.
One of the biggest challenges physical therapists face in delivering the benefits of physical therapy for pregnancy is simply not being noticed by their potential prenatal clients. Putting time and effort into each of the following areas can make a big difference in your visibility and patient schedule.
There are very few things that can benefit a prenatal physical therapy practice more than collaboration with other providers, and this is especially true for physical therapists marketing to clients for pregnancy care.
When seeking collaboration with other practitioners, start by showing them how you can support them by showing off your skills and specialties. Prioritize face-to-face time to help build the relationship, leave them something to remember you by - such as a referral pad - and follow up regularly to align on your shared goals.
Patients who are expecting are more likely to engage with content that’s designed specifically for them, such as pregnancy magazines. This opens up a new avenue of advertising for physical therapists who want to make their services known to prenatal physical therapy clients who may not otherwise consider their practice.
Popular magazines, such as Pregnancy & Newborn and The Bump, are a great place to advertise your practice’s benefits of physical therapy for pregnancy. When advertising, remember to keep your message relatable and focus on problems your patients face in everyday life, such as back pain and bathroom urgency before and after pregnancy.
Similar to magazines, flyers can also be a great way to reach a niche audience of potential clients. One ideal place to post flyers for your pregnancy physical therapy services is at Lamaze classes. In short, Lamaze classes are group events taught by trained professionals that focus on preparing for easy labor & delivery with minimal complications.
While Lamaze classes are an excellent way for expecting patients to prepare for the delivery of their baby, some people may be seeking more instruction or one-on-one assistance, making flyers a great way to catch attention and increase sign-ups for your pregnancy physical therapy packages.
As more and more expecting parents spend their time learning on social media platforms, it’s increasingly important for pregnancy physical therapy practice owners to not only advertise their services on social media, but also create clear ways for potential clients to book through social media.
This can be as simple as adding a link to your social media profile that takes viewers to your practice's website, or as nuanced as a marketing campaign advertising specific deals and packages that may entice your followers to schedule their first appointment.
When using social media booking strategies, always remember to lead with lots of free content that helps your viewers become more comfortable with your brand, sprinkling in advertisements for your services and packages.
Running a thriving prenatal practice is entirely achievable when using the right tools to get the job done, with the most important tool being your practice management software. When choosing a software to manage prenatal clients, focus on features like customizable intake forms, easy scheduling, and hassle-free invoices.
With so many practice management software options to choose from, it can be hard to cut through the noise and find what’s best for the needs of your practice. ClinicSense is an all-in-one practice management software that empowers practice owners to deliver stellar care to their prenatal clients and constantly improve the health of their business. From SOAP note physical therapy support to helpful financial tools, prenatal practice owners can seriously boost the success of their clinic by leveraging all of the cutting-edge features in ClinicSense.
Practice owners using ClinicSense have the ability to use customizable SOAP note templates for their prenatal clients, or build their own SOAP note templates from scratch to support an ideal workflow that can be replicated time and time again. That means less time digging through endless drop-down menus and more time focusing on the patient in front of you!
New ClinicSense users can get free physical therapy documentation templates for immediate use in their practice, simplifying the delivery of physical therapy for pregnancy and streamlining the growth of their business. Happy charting!
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