Written by Mariam Kilpatrick - Physio, Clinical Pilates Instructor, Ultra-marathon runner & Awesome mum

After 9 long months, finally, your cute little bundle of joy has arrived! Goodbye to feeling like a bloated whale and goodbye heartburn. Say hello to sleeping on your tummy and to eating stinky cheese & sushi again. You’re keen to get back to exercise, get that endorphin rush and reclaim your pre-pregnancy body! You’ve had your 6 week check-up and your doctor has given you the all clear to exercise. Yay! BUT…yes there is a but. You can sometimes do more harm than good if you push your body beyond what it is ready for. Here we review the guidelines for returning safely to postnatal exercise and look at the specific benefits of Postnatal Pilates which include improved Pelvic Floor function and reduced Diastasis Recti (abdominal separation). Read on for more….

As the saying goes, you shouldn’t build a house on a weak foundation.

For many women, it has become a common thing to accept “a little bit of wee escaping” with a sneeze or running for the bus, just because you’ve had a baby. But no matter what age your baby is, either 6 weeks or 6 years, this should not be the perceived norm. Some women may feel embarrassed to raise their concerns around continence and other intimate issues but this should never be the case. Please seek professional advice early, as with the right help and guidance, these issues can and should be addressed.

Your Pelvic Floor is a hugely important part of your body. It is made up of layers of muscle and connective tissue. These layers stretch like a hammock from the tailbone at the back, to the pubic bone in the front. They support your pelvic organs and control your bladder and bowel movements. The front passage (pee hole), the vagina and the back passage (poo hole) all pass through the pelvic floor muscles. Throughout your pregnancy, your pelvic floor has carried the weight of your baby, the placenta and a 50% increase in blood volume! As such, this will greatly affect its ability to do its job properly compared to pre-pregnancy function. It is therefore vital to work on these muscles after having a baby, regardless of the type of birth you had (whether vaginal or C-section).

Let’s practice how to correctly engage your pelvic floor…

• Take a deep breath in, fill your lungs completely and allow your pelvic floor to relax.

• As you breathe OUT, close your back passage as if you were holding in a fart, then pull upwards and inwards towards your front passage to close it, as if you were holding in a pee.

• Visualise trying to "squish" your anus (poo hole) to your urethra (pee hole) towards your pubic bone.

• Do this without clenching your butt cheeks, your jaw or tensing your neck and shoulders (tricky, huh?)

• Let everything relax again as you breathe in.
  Repeat x 10

• Now try and engage your pelvic floor as above in 10 x quick flicks on and off.

*Practice turning your pelvic floor on in both sitting and standing positions

**Practice turning your pelvic floor on when doing things at the same time like picking your baby up from his/her cot or picking a toy up from the floor.

Why do I still look pregnant months after giving birth?

In the latter stages of pregnancy, the connective tissue or fascia between your outermost abdominal wall (your six-pack muscles) can thin out/stretch to allow for a growing baby bump. After giving birth, you can be left with a gap between the two sides and sometimes it can look like you are still pregnant i.e. the dreaded “mum-tum”. This is called a Diastasis Recti or abdominal separation, a common condition that causes a lot of grief for many mums. However, like any muscle in the body, these can be addressed and worked on with specific corrective exercises - all hope is not lost! The key is to target the deep layer of abdominal muscles. This may mean avoiding certain traditional core stability exercises initially (e.g. sit ups and planks). Your deep abdominal muscles have functional connections to - guess what - the pelvic floor…so it’s a win-win situation all round!

Postnatal Pilates

Pilates is a great form of exercise to target the working relationships of your pelvic floor and core muscles (abdominals and diaphragm) especially in the first few months after having your baby. The benefits of Pilates include:

• Strengthening your Pelvic Floor

• Targeting your deep abdominal muscles to help heal Diastasis Recti

• Addressing muscle imbalances that may be contributing to lower back pain or pelvic girdle pain

• Targeting postural muscles of the back, neck and shoulder girdle

Here is a short taster video of a postnatal Pilates workout:

We Want To Help You Get Your Body Back On Track

Physio Effect specialises in helping mums recover their health, fitness and confidence after having a baby. Our Cry-Baby Pilates classes where new mums attend with their babies has been a great success and very popular. We are working hard to bring this content to full digital online form so that all mums everywhere can enjoy and benefit from this safe, structured and fun specialist postnatal program. For advanced notice of when this course is available and for special early-bird promotional rates please register for your free sample class below and we will keep you informed.

Want to read some REVIEWS about our classes from other mums? Click the links & read below: Yell.Com Reviews or Facebook Reviews

The cry baby Pilates classes led by Mariam were an absolute highlight of my maternity leave. They offered important rehab for all the changes to my body left by pregnancy and a c-section and the strengthening work got me back safely running sooner than I expected - yay! The classes were warm, friendly and supportive and my baby Helena loved meeting the other babies too (as well as getting cheeky cuddles from Mariam). Couldn’t recommend more highly to new mums!

Katherine C via Facebook reviews

I’ve recently completed 2 blocks of Crybaby Pilates with Mariam & would highly recommend it for postnatal recovery. Mariam was great at making you feel relaxed, gradually building up the intensity of the exercises over the weeks so it wasn’t too daunting in the beginning. I liked how the exercises also allowed you to interact with your baby. The classes are small enough that you get the opportunity to get to know the other mums & babies, which helps you feel completely at ease in the class too. I now feel back to my pre-baby self & body, ready to start running & hitting the gym! Thank you!

Keri. L.K via Facebook reviews

Would you like a FREE 30 minute Specialist Postnatal Pilates class to try?

Please Click the following link to register & we will send you a video link to enjoy

Returning to Exercise - What do the guidelines say?

• In the first six weeks after giving birth and when you feel you are able, you may commence your pelvic floor and abdominal exercises, functional bodyweight movements, as well as low impact cardiovascular exercise such as walking.

• From six weeks onwards (or a little longer if you’ve had a C-section), you may commence light resistance exercise such as Pilates and light weights training.

• The earliest you should start high impact exercise such as Running/HIIT/Bootcamp is between 3-6 months after having your baby. This of course may differ from person to person depending on the type of birth you had. A recent study for guidance in returning to running post pregnancy by some expert pelvic health physiotherapists can be found here 
  

Seek Help & Advice Sooner Rather Than Later

As with everything in life, there isn’t a one size fits all when it comes to returning to exercise after pregnancy. Factors that need to be considered include:

• Type of birth you had; was it a straightforward vaginal birth, a vaginal birth with complications such as forceps delivery/episiotomy/tears, a C-section? The timescales may be different for each case!

• Previous level of exercise (e.g. were you a runner/gym-bunny/Crossfitter before pregnancy?)

• Experiencing symptoms of lower back pain, pelvic or pubic pain, leakage and/or feeling of vaginal heaviness (which could be a sign of pelvic organ prolapse), coccyx/tailbone pain (which could be a sign of a hypertonic or tight pelvic floor)

• Are you currently breast-feeding? Pregnancy hormones stay in the body for about three months postpartum, continuing to loosen joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments as they did in preparation for delivery. For those breast-feeding, hormones can still have a loosening effect even months after you stop.

If you are unsure, it is advisable to seek help from a specialist trained physiotherapist or a pelvic health practitioner.

If you would like to chat to one of our physiotherapists you can use the link below to book an appointment. Or if you prefer send us a message with any questions you have and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Thank You

Thanks for taking the time to read this guide, we hope you find it useful. Please share with anyone else who might benefit and if you have any questions comment and let us know. Please subscribe for regular updates and advice on everything health and fitness related - Zero spam promise.