I was on the Front Page of the Mercury!

I was so honored to be featured in both the Mercury and the Smoke Signal for such a very important topic!!

I would have never guessed I would have a passion for treating postpartum women, but here we are. It comes from my own struggles and seeking out help for myself. Once I found the trusted sources to learn from, everything changed!!!

I want to shout from the rooftops that women deserve and usually need to be at least evaluated once in their postpartum journey by a professional.

SO many things change during our pregnancy. If we let these subtle changes persist, we can develop pain because of them!

You DO NOT have to suffer in pain and think that that is just how life is going to be or that it is ok.

There is SO much you can do to nip this acute or even chronic pain in the bud!

See below for some common changes during pregnancy. Some may surprise you!

Body Changes during pregnancy:

1: Your center of gravity changes. As baby grows you subconsciously begin to carry yourself differently in order to keep from falling down and to stay upright. Weight shifts more to the heels to compensate and the curve in our lower back increases. Shoulders then respond by rolling forward and over time, the head position begins to shoot even more forward than the shoulders. Then you have baby and can’t stop looking at it (rightfully so) so your head, neck and shoulders really take a hit and often pain sets in soon after this.

2: Loss of core and glute strength. As the shifts in center of gravity occur and baby grows, core will naturally loose it’s strength. We start to rely on hip flexors and quads more as well as the lower back muscles as a result. Keeping up glute and hamstring strength for as long as possible is very important because it can really help to stabilize the pelvis (and posterior chain) as we continue to grow and get looser.

3: Diastasis recti is a NORMAL thing. It happens to us all during pregnancy. It is supposed to occur! Our core muscles stretch and the linea alba (line separating the six pack abs) begins to separate. Breathing and pressure management can play a huge role on how fast we heal our diastasis or pelvic floor issues postpartum. More on this later.

4: The hormone Relaxin makes you more mobile for good reason. We want ligament laxity when we are pushing a baby out! But, if we are naturally on the more mobile side, we will potentially have more issues pop up because we will have even less stability at our joints. This is why strength training during pregnancy is SO important! I love to work with women during this time to prepare them because when we do, we see how much faster they heal after baby!

Please reach out if you are lost on where to start in your postpartum journey and remember postpartum is FOREVER. I have worked with women in their 60’s on the foundational stuff that I teach postpartum women and their CHRONIC pain diminishes because of a few simple tips, tricks and exercises. Don’t believe you have to live like this forever! Something also to consider, that these foundational principles are for EVERYONE! Whether you are dealing with a sports injury, you are old, young, weekend warrior, desk jockey, or farmer, almost everything I teach will still apply to YOU!