Six Things I Want You To Know About Your Pelvic Floor... with Annie Hopkins, Pelvic Health Physical Therapist Artwork

The Postpartum Revolution

Welcome to The Postpartum Revolution! This podcast was born because, as a pelvic health physical therapist, I’ve heard and seen the ways our system has failed postpartum people in America. Newly postpartum people have repeated the same questions to me, with fear in their eyes and fatigue written all over their bodies, and I’ve grown tired of soothing them with the reassurance that it’s “all a part of the process, it’s normal to feel like this”. I began to wonder - what the hell kind of “normal process” is this, that produces tired and scared mothers? While not everyone has a negative experience with childbirth and postpartum, many people do. A lot of factors influence our postpartum experience: understanding how your body recovers, how much community and financial support you have, and how well our society helps to support a new family. My goal is to provide education about the postpartum recovery process, so you can set yourself up for a successful return to the things that bring you joy. I also want to bring awareness to the larger, systemic challenges that pregnant and postpartum people face, so that collectively we can start to turn the tide of our culture, and our children won't be trapped in an unhealthy and unsupported birth and postpartum culture. We have lost our power in the birth and postpartum world, and our loss is directly linked to other people's gain. It's time to take back the power over our bodies, our births, and our postpartum health. We are the change we have been waiting for. Let's go.

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The Postpartum Revolution

Six Things I Want You To Know About Your Pelvic Floor... with Annie Hopkins, Pelvic Health Physical Therapist

October 02, 2020 • Annie Hopkins, PT • Season 1 • Episode 20

As a pelvic PT, I get asked the same questions a lot, so I thought I'd record an episode talking about the most common things postpartum people ask me.

So, here's what I want you to know about your pelvic floor:
- It needs time and rest to heal during the first 6 weeks postpartum
- A happy pelvic floor lives in a calm and rested body, so why are we so resistant to rest?
- Leaking pee is not normal (and while I'm at it, a word about the word "normal)
- Painful sex is not normal
- Constipation is not normal
- Prolapse happens, and it doesn't have to be scary

We don't know our pelvis very well, due to lack of information and proper education... and unfortunately we humans tend to fear what we don't know. The purpose of my career, and this podcast, is to educate people. Because education is the antidote to fear and anxiety. Sure, we can be in a crappy place, but if we understand why and how to get ourselves out of it, we're ok. I want you to feel confident and empowered to take your postpartum healing into your own hands, ask for what you need, and find the team to support you, so you can ride off into the sunset like the badass mother that you are.

Additional resources:
EWG Healthy Living app
Come As You Are - Emily Nagoski
Reviving Your Sex Life After Childbirth - Kathe Wallace
Constipation, Gut Health and Melatonin episode 76 of The Funk'tional Nutrition Podcast

Get in touch with me!
www.fullbloomwellness603.com
Instagram and Facebook @fullbloomwellness603

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Want to be a guest on the show? Email me at thepostpartumrevolutionpodcast@gmail.com

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