You may have had a difficult birth. You may have had a vaginal delivery with an episiotomy and/or an obstetric tear. Yes, one those scary ones that are graded in numbers and letters. And nothing 3rd degree is ever good, is it? You may have had postpartum complications. You may be experiencing mental health issues because of your birth experience or experienced medical trauma. Post-partum PTSD is a real thing. Or you may have had a fairly straightforward delivery but now you are still experiencing a whole host of undesirable post partum issues, including urinary incontinence, diastasis and prolapse or back pain. Or a combination of these. I forgot haemorrhoids and other bowel issues. Your body feels broken. You are running ragged on 3 hour sleeps. You finally realise why sleep deprivation is also a torture method. No fancy concealer can cover up the triple eye bags that have now become the norm. No amount of espresso can give you the energy you need. Your tummy and boobs look like there has been a fire at Madam Toussaud's. Your perineum feels like a war zone.

 It's ok to grieve the loss of your old body, those feelings are valid and can coexist with loving your baby to the moon and back! You would love to have your body back but yet are too exhausted and overwhelmed to do anything about it. When you have 5 minutes to yourself there is a mile-long list of chores to do when baby is asleep. You may also be a bit scared: you already feel broken, you don't want to make things worse. You have been told things will go back to normal after six weeks. But six weeks is the bare minimum time frame for tissue healing. Muscles don't magically recover in 6 weeks when they changed for 9 months. 

This is where pelvic health physiotherapy can really help. If you come and see me I won't just give you a sheet of standard postnatal exercises, I will assess you first. Very thoroughly. In the postnatal check I will assess your posture, back, pelvis, pelvic floor and abdominal wall. Will give you exercises that are challenging but not overwhelming. Exercises that are functional and mimic the movements we do with our babies (lifting, pushing, pulling etc).  Assess muscles strength again on subsequent appointments. Watch you perform the exercises correctly maintaining optimal alignment and form, to prevent overwhelming your pelvic floor and abdominals.  I will gradually progress the intensity of your exercises, when you are ready, adding therabands and gradually heavier weights (not wriggly ones this time)! I will increase the complexity of the exercises to include the whole body, not just pelvic floor and abdominals. But most of all I will give you a programme that is sustainable and doable even when you are having a bad day.  So you can be the strong mum you want and need to be.