Waiting for our third baby to come was strange. I completely expected him by the weekend following his due date (a Thursday) since the longest I had ever been pregnant was two days after my due date with my first son. By Monday night there were no clear signs he was coming any time soon. However, I had a little feeling that with the full moon Tuesday evening and the fact that our planned babysitter couldn’t watch my older two and because my husband had a really busy day planned at work, he would decide to come that day.
As promised, an update on my postpartum journey to heal my pelvic floor and diastasis recti. For those of you following along for awhile, you saw my first post on the 10 week program I had started back in January. If you haven’t read that post yet, head over there for a point of reference and for an interview with women’s health personal trainer Ali Frendin. Ok, I know it’s been a lot more than 10 weeks since January but life happened and I actually had to re-start the program after missing two weeks and losing progress. Today I am recapping what my physical status was before the program and the all progress I saw throughout the program!
There’s a reason that the six sacred weeks after the birth of a baby are called a woman’s fourth trimester. Her body is still going through so many changes and a massive healing process, regardless of the type of birth she had. Navigating all the bodily changes all while getting to know a brand new human and keep them alive is no easy feat. She is a new person, a mother, or maybe a mother again, which brings on a whole slew of emotional changes as well. I’ve rounded up some ways to take care of yourself postpartum, some of which I learned the hard way, and I hope you don’t have to!
guest post: personal trainer ali frendin on pelvic floor & abdominal health
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I can barely contain my excitement about today’s post! Why? Because this is a topic women are not talking about enough and which affects our everyday life including our sex life, social life, exercise routines, day to day mothering and just about everything! Today, I have the honor of interviewing Ali Frendin, mum of two littles (yeah she’s an Aussie) and a women’s health personal trainer with over ten years experience. She practices a holistic and full body approach to health and exercise during pregnancy, postpartum and beyond and is backed up by up to date research by leading women’s health physiotherapists. She offers coaching programs in her hometown in Australia as well as online programs for pregnancy, post-natal and pilates.
I came across Ali and Real Fitness for Mums on Instagram just after the birth of my second baby and am so glad I did! I am about half way through her Ultimate Core Restore program and have already had SO MUCH progress (keep reading for details)!
Introvert by nature, I tend not to share deeply personal things in this space, but as I mentioned when I shared my son’s birth story, my hope is that in sharing this, I can help empower other women, educate them on birth choice, and keep them and their babies safer.
A woman’s birth experience is incredibly important and life changing, something that she will always remember. My grandmother still talks about all five of her births to this day, one of which involved a vacuum and her son losing some of his scalp. It is a transformative experience that can be either beautiful and empowering or devastating, traumatic and one that scars her literally and figuratively. Before I became pregnant I was fortunate enough to learn about birth choice. My mom had two out of the four of us at home with a midwife, and all four of us without any drugs. My little sister was born upstairs in my parent’s bedroom while I played with my siblings downstairs. We all piled in bed to meet her when she was just minutes old. My oldest sister had used a group of midwives for both of her daughters, one in a hospital, one at home in the water. Not all women have the privilege of knowing women who talk about their birth experience and birth choice. For me, it was incredibly empowering to know these women and also read every birth story I came across, including all the stories in Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth (which is a must read for any woman who is or wants to become pregnant). The United States has the second worst newborn death rate in the developed world and has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among all industrialized countries. There is no reason for this, and we need to change these statistics. I am a very private person by nature, but I have decided to share my birth stories here in hopes that it will empower other women, educate them on birth choice, and keep them and their babies safer.
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