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Your Baby Gets Heavier Every Week. Your Thumb Tendons Don’t.
Thumb-side wrist pain from lifting a baby is usually De Quervain’s tenosynovitis, nicknamed mummy wrist (mommy thumb in the US). Change how you lift, wear a splint that includes the thumb, and most cases settle in about 6 weeks. Stubborn ones can take 3 months. If 6 weeks of that hasn’t helped, a steroid injection usually works and is generally compatible with breastfeeding.
New parents get hand problems for a reason nobody warns them about: the load goes up every single week and never comes down. A newborn weighs 7 to 9 pounds (3 to 4 kg). By six months that is closer to 15 to 17 pounds (7 to 8 kg), lifted dozens of times a day, usually with the thumbs doing the work under the arms, by someone who is exhausted and not sleeping.
Ignore it and it doesn’t wait politely. The tendon sheath thickens, every lift hurts, and the “few weeks” becomes six months of dreading the car seat.
It has a nickname because it is that common.
Mummy wrist. Fathers and adoptive parents get it too, and so do grandparents and nannies. The lifting is what causes it, not the biology.
What is mummy wrist?
Two tendons that move your thumb run through a tight tunnel on the thumb side of the wrist. Lift a baby with your thumbs spread wide and your wrist tilting, dozens of times a day, and those tendons rub and swell inside that tunnel. That is De Quervain’s tenosynovitis.
Pain on the thumb side of the wrist, worst lifting the baby under the arms with thumbs up, or lifting a car seat, or a kettle.
How is it diagnosed?
Usually in a few minutes, with your hand, not a scan.
- Where it hurts: tender over the bony bump on the thumb side of the wrist, sometimes with a little swelling there.
- The test: tuck your thumb into your fist and tilt the wrist toward the little finger. Sharp pain on the thumb side is the classic sign. Don’t keep doing it to check. That’s a test, not an exercise.
- Imaging: rarely needed. An ultrasound helps if the picture is unclear.
- What else it could be: numbness points to carpal tunnel, not De Quervain’s. Pain right at the base of the thumb with grinding is more like thumb base arthritis, which is uncommon at this age.
How do I lift my baby without hurting my wrist?
- Scoop, don’t pinch. Slide a flat hand and forearm under the baby and lift with the whole arm rather than gripping under the armpits with thumbs out. This single change does more than anything else here.
- Keep the wrist straight when lifting. The damaging position is thumb up with the wrist bending toward the little finger.
- Bring the baby close before you lift. Lifting at arm’s length, out of a crib or a car seat, multiplies the load on the wrist.
- Carry the car seat with two hands or on the forearm, never hooked over one thumb and fingers.
- Vary how you feed and hold. Alternate sides, use pillows to support the baby’s weight rather than your arms.
- Use a carrier or sling for longer holds. It moves the weight from your wrists to your trunk.
- Push the stroller with flat palms, and change diapers at a height that doesn’t make you bend and twist your wrists.
The baby gets heavier every week. Nobody else trains for a load that increases forever and then wonders why their wrist gave out at four months.
Which splint helps mummy wrist?
- A thumb spica splint. It must include the thumb. A plain wrist brace does nothing for this condition. See thumb spica splints.
- When: at night, and during the heavy jobs (car seat, bath, carrying) for about 4 to 6 weeks.
- Then wean: drop the daytime wear first over 1 to 2 weeks, keep nights a little longer.
- It’s safe with a baby. The splint is compatible with everything a parent has to do. You can feed, change and hold in it.
How long does mummy wrist last?
De Quervain’s from lifting runs on an OPEN window. Time is on your side, provided the load drops. Waiting with the same lifting habits is the one thing that doesn’t work.
- Weeks 0 to 2: change the lift, splint on at night and for heavy jobs. The sharp pain on every lift usually starts easing.
- Weeks 2 to 6: pain mostly with the awkward lifts. Start the gentle exercises below.
- Weeks 6 to 12: most people are well on the way. Wean the splint, build strength.
- No better at 6 weeks: that’s when an injection makes sense, not month six.
Exercises for mummy wrist
Start these once the sharp pain has settled, often around week 2 or 3. Keep pain at 3 out of 10 or less, settled by the next morning. More detail in De Quervain’s exercises.
- Thumb slides: gently touch the thumb tip to each fingertip, then slide it to the base of the little finger. 10 rounds, 2 to 3 times a day.
- Wrist holds: forearm on a table, thumb up, press the hand up into your other hand without moving. Hold 30 seconds, 5 times, once a day.
- Thumb-side wrist lifts: forearm resting thumb up, hold a light can (start around 0.5 kg or 1 lb), tilt the wrist up and lower slowly. 3 sets of 10 to 15, every other day.
- Grip and open: squeeze a soft ball gently, then open the hand wide. 10 times, twice a day.
What if the splint and lifting changes don’t work?
Most of these settle with technique change and a correctly fitted splint over about six weeks. The stubborn ones respond well to an injection, which is generally compatible with breastfeeding. Worth asking rather than assuming it is off the table. See steroid injections for hand pain.
- After an injection: keep the splint on and go easy for a few days. Most people notice the difference within 1 to 3 weeks.
- Surgery: a small release of the tendon tunnel, for the few that fail splinting and injection. Light baby care often returns within days, full lifting around 4 to 6 weeks. See De Quervain’s release recovery.
What does not work is waiting for the baby to get lighter.
(Spoiler: they don’t. Toddlers are heavier and they wriggle.)
The rest of it
- Night numbness in thumb, index and middle fingers: carpal tunnel syndrome. Very common in pregnancy and the months afterwards, and the pregnancy-related version follows different rules. See carpal tunnel in pregnancy. A wrist splint in neutral at night for about 6 weeks is the first step.
- Catching at the base of a finger: trigger finger, which also rises around pregnancy and the postnatal period.
- Outer elbow pain lifting and carrying: tennis elbow. Lift with palms facing up, not down.
- Thumb-side wrist pain plus hours of one-handed phone use: the loads add together. See thumb pain from phone use. Night feeds plus scrolling is a lot of thumb.
- Swollen, stiff hands in the mornings during pregnancy or early postnatally: usually fluid, and it settles, but how long the stiffness lasts is the thing to time.
Work, driving and the gym
- Back to a desk job: keyboard and mouse are usually fine. The baby lifts at home are the real load.
- Driving: fine once you can grip the wheel firmly without sharp pain. Lifting the car seat in and out is often the harder part. Use two hands.
- Postnatal gym: push-ups, planks and burpees load the wrist bent back. Use push-up handles or fists, and skip heavy grip work until lifting the baby no longer hurts.
Get it checked today if
- Sudden weakness or numbness in an arm or the face: call emergency services.
- Hand and face swelling in the weeks after birth with a headache, vision changes or high blood pressure. Call your doctor or maternity unit the same day. That’s not a hand therapist’s job.
- A red, hot, swollen wrist or finger, especially with a fever.
Get it checked if
- Numbness that has stopped coming and going, or wakes you every night.
- You are avoiding lifting your own child because of pain.
- A finger that catches or locks.
- Six weeks of changed lifting and a proper splint with no improvement.
- Pain severe enough that you are dropping things.
Ask for a hand therapy referral specifically. A splint that includes the thumb, made or fitted properly, is the difference between six weeks and six months.
Change how you lift before you change anything else. Most of this is a technique problem with a very heavy, very demanding load.
Written by Nigel Chua, hand occupational therapist in practice since 2005. Thousands of hands, wrists and elbows assessed and treated. My credentials are here. This article explains; it doesn’t examine. A wrist that’s stopping you lifting your own baby deserves a proper look this week.
Part of: Hand, wrist and elbow pain by job, sport and hobby
Every article on this site is written using the Closing Window Method: name the window your condition runs on, find where you are in it, and act while it’s still open.