Comparison of Thoracic Joint Mobilization Along With Breathing Exercises and Scapular Stabilization Exercises Along With Pectoral Muscles Stretching Exercises in Kyphotic Postpartum Females

Exclusive breastfeeding is defined by WHO and UNICEF as supplying a baby with exclusively human milk for the first six months of life and continuing this practice while supplementing the baby’s nutrition for the remaining two years after birth. Only 35% of infants worldwide are exclusively breastfed between birth and age 5 months, according to WHO estimates. Only 46% of Indian newborns between the ages of 0 and 6 months are exclusively breastfed, according to the national family survey-3 (NFHS-3). The average nursing session lasts between 15-20 minutes, is completed every two to three hours, and occurs 8 to 12 times a day.  While breastfeeding, a mother takes a variety of postures or positions for extended periods of time, which can change the spine’s natural curvature and result in a number of postural abnormalities. Postnatal females are more likely to experience mechanical neck discomfort, carpal tunnel syndrome, kyphosis, scoliosis, sciatica, and low back pain. Trunk flexion is a abnormal posture assumed during breastfeeding that may be one of the causes of hyper kyphosis, was among the most common posture habits (66.7%). Thoracic kyphosis is the anteroposterior curve of the thoracic spine in the sagittal plane. The normal range of kyphosis is between 20 and 40 degrees, while severe forward curvature of the thoracic spine is often greater than 40 degrees is defined as hyper kyphosis. The prevalence of this abnormality was 15% in 11-year-old children and 38% in 20–50-year-old people. Kyphosis may occur in young age groups due to changes in lifestyle that are causing people to engage in less physical activity and spend a significant amount of time in sitting with a severe flexion posture. Breastfeeding mothers are more likely to develop hyper kyphosis because they adopt this flexion position for a prolonged period of time to care for and feed their infants several times throughout the day. The respiratory function parameters are impacted by kyphotic posture. In India, the majority of women feed for at least a year, and if this breastfeeding is done while maintaining poor posture for such a long time, it may result in increasing scapular muscle weakening. Therefore it become essential to explore the easiest or simple ways for the mothers of managing problems associated to postural hyper-kyphosis. Participants of postural hyper kyphosis will be screened on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria and will be randomized into 3 groups. Informed consent will be taken for the participation in the study. The outcomes measure will be evaluated at Baseline, at 4th week (at the end of treatment protocol).