The Rural Women's Physio

Everything feels different... right
But what is different normal? And different abnormal?
What will recover?
What is your new normal?

And some of the symptoms are confronting, overwhelming, dehumanising 🤯🤯

That's where I come in 💁‍♀️

Let me answer these questions for you. Let me guide you back to knowing yourself

🌟 In the postpartum recovery program, there are assessments / quizzes that feed straight back to me. I review each one.

🌟 All the techniques, strategies, assessments in each of my courses are based on the latest research and updated as required

🌟 There is a large proportion of you that will complete the program and choff off into the world doing star jumps and double unders. There are also some of you that will require more attention. Follow-ups. Check-ins with me and prehaps a face-to-face consultation. That is why I review each quiz you take. If something is not progressing as it should be, I will reach out.

You don't need to shrug these symptoms off and pretend it's all hunky dory

🌟 Perineal massage 🌟

All your questions answered

🤍 Save for later
🤍 Send to that waddling friend of yours
🤍 Sign up to my FREE series '3 tips to prepare your Pelvic floor for birth' through 🔗 in bio

Still want more?? (Of course 💁‍♀️) my 'Prepare your Pelvic Floor for Birth' online program is ready and raring to go

Let's get that 🍉 out your 'v' without the trauma

😘😘😘

Ready and raring to go for huddle Day 3 🫶🫶

What an experience it has already been, and we are only halfway through

I am in awe of the women I am meeting, the passion led businesses they are running, and the ethical considerations at the fore of their mind.

Who runs the world 💁‍♀️🫶

Very much enjoying finding old friends, making new pals, growing closer with my gal pal and all the learnings 🤯


Also a huge thank you for your time, expertise and generosity with both


And I know there are so many more of you

Thankyou thankyou thankyou

🫶🫶🫶

I feel like it has been the second or third time I have posted something like this for 2023

It has been a hot minute and I have been MIA on here for too long now

I won't go into the details but in short think of most life challenges and I have had them this year 😅

But as the final quarter begins to tick by life is settling to a new normal and I'm catching my breath. Planning for 2024 is a priority and it has me bubbling with excitement.

What's to come:
✨ Launch of our BIRTH PREPARATION COURSE before the end of the year
✨ Rural workshop tour April 2024
✨ And something ticking away in the background to enable me to travel to visit YOU and consult (thinking old Viscount caravan set up as a mobile clinic)

So I apologise firstly, it was never my intention to have a hiatus and secondly thank you for sticking around, following along, reaching out. Rural women are the 💣

Jess xx

women

Time to introduce these rays of sunshine 🌞

3 gorgeous, playful, insanely sassy and full of attitude children.

3 different birth stories

1 in 3 women describe their birth as traumatic. This is despite the physical injuries they may or may not sustain. I can only assume that the ratio in rural and remote areas is even higher when you consider services available, travel and care arrangements, emergency care options etc etc.

I had my eldest handsome - with a foot now bigger than mine - little man in rural NSW.

I will openly admit I was completely unprepared for what labour and birth would bring. I had a wonderful client say to me at the time 'It is a job, and you will get it done' and that was so powerful and influenced my mindset greatly.

I wasn't at all frightened. I fully trusted my body to birth this baby for me. It had never let me down. I had never NOT achieved something.

What I didn't realise is how to help my body, that the skills needed for birth could be practiced and perfected, that risk for complications (for pelvic floor in my world) can be somewhat quantified, that knowledge is power and the only shield to trauma.

For a very long time I would have described this birth as traumatic both physically and emotionally. Enough so that the next 2 were planned csections.

I have been unpacking and workshopping how to support rural women through their pregnancy, prepare you for birth and help you recover afterwards since my experience, knowing we NEEDED to do this better.

🎉🎉 And I am so excited to announce I will be releasing my 'BIRTH PREPARATION' course later in the year 🎉🎉

I hope you are as excited as I am

Sign up to our waitlist through the 🔗 in bio!!!

✨ Postpartum recovery in action ✨

Are you wondering what to do and when on your postpartum journey?

Are you wondering what to do to rehabilitate your Pelvic Floor, abdominal separation, pelvic instability and Pelvic Girdle Pain?
What exercise is appropriate and when?
How much?
What symptoms are normal and what are not?
Where to start? When to progress? When is something too much for your body right now?

Our Postpartum Recovery Program guides you through your Physiotherapy Postpartum Care from Day 1 to 6+ months answering all of these questions along the way and guiding you at every turn, every milestone, every bump in the road.

Check out the program through 🔗 in bio, see our free resources and sign up to our email list for a special discount code coming your way next week

😉😉😉

See you there

Staying active during pregnancy is important for both your health and your growing babe

It is safe to continue at a level you were previously exercising at and to gradually increase, unless your pregnancy has been deemed high risk in which case SEE YOUR WOMENS HEALTH PHYSIO who will guide you through

Be mindful and listen to your body, especially through the 1st & 3rd trimester as there are a lot of rapid changes and growth during these periods.

If you have any questions, hit me 👇🏽below 👇🏽

&bubs

Looking after your body post C-SECTION 🤕

Use these tips & tricks to help care for your cesarean section incision.

And another (not so) subtle reminder DON'T NEGLECT YOUR PELVIC FLOOR

😉😉😉

🌟 For other tips see my free downloads on the website 🔗in bio

🤯🤯🤯

Who would have thought there was so much to it?

When you hear 'Pelvic Floor Muscle Training' don't we all automatically think CONTRACT-HOLD-RELAX?

Well now you know there is so much more to it. Depending on where you are on your Partum journey, your goals, your activity levels and your symptoms PFMT (Pelvic floor muscle training) could mean you need to work on any number of these either solo or in conjunction with each other.

👉🏽 Downtraining
👉🏽 Relaxation techniques
👉🏽 Activation & awareness
👉🏽 Strength
👉🏽 Coordination / reflexivity
👉🏽 Endurance
👉🏽 Power

Make sure you get the right advice.

📖 In our Postpartum Recovery Program we step you through each of these at the appropriate recovery stage to ensure your Pelvic Floor is capable of not only contracting but also relaxing, reacting in time to stop any mishaps, functioning appropriately to get you back into exercise (at any level that is for you), and also to get you back to seggs painfree.

Each of these are just as important as each other. Check out our program through the link in bio and we also have another webinar coming up... also 🔗 in bio

PELVIC ORGAN PROLAPSE or POP

The decent or lowering of one or more of your pelvic organs in your pelvic cavity. As the organs lower they place pressure onto the va**nal wall/s creating a bulge or protrusion from the va**na.

When it comes to pregnancy, birth and postpartum there are a few circumstances that increase your risk of developing POP:

👉🏽 A prolonged second stage of labour (pushing phase)
👉🏽 Chronic constipation
👉🏽 Obesity
👉🏽 Returning to impact activity &/or heavy lifting without adequate pelvic floor muscle conditioning

Ensuring your Postpartum Recovery is guided by a Women's Health Physio will ensure we mitigate these risks. Try these tips to help along the way:

👉🏽 Adequately prepare your pelvic floor for birth
👉🏽 Ensure horizontal rest is prioritised in the first 6 weeks postpartum
👉🏽 Avoid constipation and manage your bowel health, including learning 'how' to poo (weird yet very effective)
👉🏽 Manage your weight
👉🏽 Improve your body awareness around your Pelvic Floor muscles. Learn what it feels like when they are working and just as importantly when they are not. Tune into this when trying a new activity or when increasing the intensity (weight, speed, power, time) to ensure your pelvic floor muscles are keeping up
👉🏽 Seek an individual Pelvic Floor Muscle Training (PFMT) Program to adequately recondition your Pelvic Floor Muscles post pregnancy and birth

🌟 Did you know our Postpartum Recovery Program teaches YOU how to set your individual PFMT program?? Pretty clever, especially when you can't access specialised Physiotherapy Postpartum Care

😉😉😉

🔗 in bio

🏃🏽‍♀️🏃🏽‍♀️Returning to Running POSTPARTUM🏃🏽‍♀️🏃🏽‍♀️

Check out these tips for returning to running

Let me know if you have any other questions 👇🏽here to help 🤍

EXERCISING POSTPARTUM

So important!!! Your body has gone through an enormous task of growing and birthing a human! It really needs some love but more than anything it needs reconditioning. Not for aesthetics and looks, not for social pressure
BUT for
💫FUNCTION
💫for CAPABILITY
💫for INJURY PREVENTION
💫for RECONDITIONING & REHABILITATION
💫for MUSCLE & BONE MASS
💫for HEALTH as a whole.

I am absolutely biased but you can't beat physio-led workouts which target all the areas that need a little extra attention to recoup and thrive.

We include stage appropriate workouts throughout our POSTPARTUM RECOVERY PROGRAM, we have an example from stage 2 on our website - hit the 🔗 in bio for access 😉

🤰🏾🤰🏾🤰🏾
Are you pregnant?
🤰🏼🤰🏼🤰🏼

There are so many aches, pains and discomforts that come with growing another human

Many of which can be easily eased with some gentle mobility exercises

Try these, being mindful to never move into pain, start easy and your mobility will improve without needing to push it

👉🏼 Cat / cow stretch: Inhale as you dip your spine and lift your chin and opening your chest, then exhale as you round through your spine. This helps to improve spinal mobility and reduce any low back aching after a big day on your feet carrying your bump around.

👉🏼 Hip flexor stretch: Your hip flexors attach to the front of your spine and with the changes in your posturing and the stretching of your abdominals they are doing alot of work just to hold you upright. Stretching these will help relieve any low back and hip aching.

👉🏼 Hamstring & side body stretch: With our postural and hormonal changes our muscles are working overtime to hold us together. Hold a gentle to medium stretch to help relieve back and hip tension and pain.

👉🏼 Diaphragmatic breathing: Has multiple benefits both physically and psychologically. Physically diaphragmatic breathing helps to reduce tension in your pelvic floor and normalise tone through the PF, diaphragm and core. Psychologically - it feels really good! And reduces anxiety helping with stress management

Let me know how you go and keep your eyes peeled for the birth prep course launching soon 😉

🤰🏼Pregnancy related Pelvic Girdle Pain🤰🏼

1 in 5 women will experience PGP during pregnancy
😲😲😲

And that includes pain either at the front of the pelvis or p***c bone (aka p***c symphysis related pain) or at the back of the pelvis at the SIJs (sacroiliac joints) or all of the above!

Here are a couple of tips to help manage / reduce your pain:

👉🏼 Avoid single leg exercises like lunges, step ups, single leg deadlifts (please note if you are not symptomatic variations or regressions of these exercises are actually great for strength and stability training)

👉🏼 Avoid sitting cross legged (try keeping both feet on the ground and maybe use a foot stool)

👉🏼 Sleep with a pillow between your knees (and even try one under your waist)

👉🏼 Wear a pelvic belt or some type of compression for your pelvis. This helps with stability and can dramatically reduce discomfort (make sure you are assessed by a WH physio first to see of this is suitable)

👉🏼 Avoid standing on one leg while getting dressed (instead take a seat while putting on pants)

✨✨✨
Above all what I want you to know is that although this is a COMMON pregnancy related condition it can be managed really well with the help of a Women's Health Physio. You do not need to be in pain and shake this off as 'just another discomfort of pregnancy'

Who would like a workout targeting Pelvic Girdle Pain??
give me a🖐🏼in comments

💔Birth trauma💔

I saw this statistic the other day and it BLEW MY MIND

And then I thought about it, reflected on the postpartum mums I have worked with over the years and on my own birth experience

And I though - um YEP I see that

And that broke my heart

Just like it does every time I have a women present that becomes teary and emotional recounting their birth story.

You know what I think is worse here? The guilt women then feel when experiencing these emotions. Every story retold to me is followed promptly by 'but I am so lucky, he/she is here, safe and sound, we are so in love'

These feelings, dealing with a traumatic experience, does not take away from the LOVE you have for your baby

I gathered some information from the Australian Birth Trauma Association for you and have also elaborated based on experiences that have been shared with me and also my own.

Birth trauma can be experienced as physical or psychological or both

Physical trauma may present as:
👉🏼 Perineal tears
👉🏼 Pelvic Floor Muscle Injury
👉🏼 Heamorrhage
👉🏼 Cesarean wounds
👉🏼 Foetal distress
👉🏼 Length of labour (either very quick or very short)
👉🏼 Where you birthed (I have worked with a lady who didn't make it to the hospital)

Psychological trauma may present as:
👉🏼 Postnatal depression &/or anxiety
👉🏼 Postpartum Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
👉🏼 Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

There are many symptoms which characterise the above and I wonder if RG Psychology may be able to comment on the psychological trauma?

Some health professionals that can help
✨ Psychologist
✨ Counsellor
✨ GP
✨ Women's Health Physio
✨ Gynaecologist

I wonder ladies, could you list some useful resources / accounts that may have helped you below? Would be great to have more resources for all of us

👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

✨✨Birth recovery✨✨

Those first few weeks postpartum are so full of unknowns

Let me help take the load:

👶🏼Horizontal rest: 30 minutes 2-3 x per day
👶🏼Abdominal compression: Ideally perineal compression and pelvic girdle compression also. Try i have a 🔗in bio because I am so in 💗
👶🏼Avoid constipation: This is not something you want to go through when recovering from birth, especially if you have perineal trauma or a csection. Avoiding it is the BEST option by far
👶🏼Pelvic floor exercises: The goal here is awareness. 10 contract/relaxes 3 x per day
👶🏼Returning to seggs: From 6 weeks you can return to penetrative seggs, check out my tips on that slide
👶🏼Exercise: I have included a brief walking program on the slide to help you ease you way back in. Remember you should not be in pain, feeling heaviness or throbbing either during your walk or afterwards

Save this one for later 💥💥

Let me know if there are any other tips you would give a friend

Preparing your pelvic floor for birth

Once you are 35+ weeks pregnant, your focus should turn to preparing your pelvic floor for birth

Each of these should be included in your preparation:

🤰🏽Perineal massage (I have a few posts in my feed on how to do this - have a look and save for reference)
🤰🏽 Meditation - Using a guided meditation here works really well. One that brings awareness to your pelvic floor muscles and your breath is ideal. Keep your eyes peeled I will be releasing 2 of these shortly 😉
🤰🏽Deep breathing exercises - these can be used as a 'body check-in' or as a relaxation exercise
🤰🏽Pelvic floor relaxation exercises or DOWNTRAINING - you can combine these with all of the above. Simply contract your pelvic floor and then consciously relax the pelvic floor muscles
🤰🏽 Body scanning - at regular intervals throughout your day bring awareness to your pelvic floor and notice if you are holding any tension. If so consciously relax and release the tension
🤰🏽 Stretching - using yoga poses and breathing techniques together is a great way to help prepare the pelvic floor muscles for birth. Try child's pose, figure 4, crescent lunge with knee down. Hold each pose for 40 seconds minimum while breathing. The stretch doesn't need to be strong, a slight to medium stretch is ideal

Is there anything else you used to prepare your pelvic floor for birth? Let me know 👇🏽

Merry Christmas from US

Our family (minus our main man in this pic) wish you and your loved ones a tummy full, heart exploding, soul enriching Christmas day

Thank you for the support these last few months as we have navigated a new business launch, an across state sabbatical, family holidays and new schools, a wind back of commitments and the most precious of family times

Let the rigmarole of the day pass and make space for the meaning

FAMILY

💗💗💗

Taking care of your pelvic floor

Finding out your pregnant is usually an absolute mix of emotions (and add in the hormones 🤯)

Elation (if it was in the plan, and eventually elation once the shock wears off), shock, and then anxiety

So much anxiety
😨 What can I eat / can't I eat
😨 Is the babe growing as he/she should be
😨 I can't feel kicking - oh yeah there it is
😨 Don't lay on your back for too long
😨 Don't sit up - roll
😨 Wear this, don't wear that
😨 What is happening to my body - is this normal?

Oh the list can go on and on

Here's a list to reduce the overwhelm. Tick these boxes and know your pelvic floor is being taken care of

Remember if you don't have access to Women's Health Physiotherapy have a look around my website (🔗 in bio) and send through your questions. I am always happy to help

Let me know 👇🏽what questions you had during pregnancy. Would be great to have a resource

So what exactly can you do post birth? How can you move your body? How much of an activity?

I know you needed this - or perhaps you have read it and though 'I didn't know I needed this until right now'

Either way - thank me later 😉

You can follow this walking program from week 1 post birth.

Things to consider:

🌟 You should never be in pain, if you experience pain whether during the walk or afterwards you need to reduce to a pain-free level or consult a health professional
🌟 You should never experience heaviness, pain, throbbing in your perineum. This is of particular importance if you sustained perineal trauma. Again if you do reduce your walking distance to a level that is symptom free. And don't forget your horizontal rest during the day
🌟 Wear your compression garment while walking - this will help with pelvic instability and pain, abdominal recovery, musculoskeletal stamina, perineal symptoms

If you haven't purchased quality compression garments I strongly recommend you do (I feel a post about the benefits brewing)

I have a link in bio (and a discount code inside the Postpartum Recovery Program) for you 😍

It is recommended EVERY women who has given birth - no matter how, sees a Women's Health Physio at 3 weeks postpartum.

And this is why - 1 out of 5 women receive their birth injury diagnosis from a Women's Health Physio

This is a big one - close to my heart and part of my story

I self diagnosed my birth injury 1 year after the birth of my son. I knew I tore worse than was diagnosed and as the year unfolded, my symptoms worsened, I completed courses in Women's Health and continued my career path

I realised how much worse my tear was then originally diagnosed, had to convince my obstetrician (as I was now pregnant again) to send me for an ultrasound and 💥 grade 4a

I still needed to have my proctologist send a letter to my obstetrician at the time to request a cesarean section birth 🙈

Please see a Women's health physio or take the assessment on my 🔗in bio, to help rule out any nasties and see if our Postpartum Recovery Program is right for you

✨✨✨

It is great to have a 'birth plan' but you need to know your options when things don't go 'to plan'

It is so important to be educated around all things birth, birth prep and your options when it comes to intervention.

Make sure you are talking to your health professionals, completing birth courses, listening to podcasts and seeking information from reliable sources.

I would love to hear you recommendations for antenatal courses, podcasts etc 👇🏽👇🏽 Please share

We are OH SO LIVE

I am absolutely LOVING helping the beautiful women who have jumped into our program

😍😍😍

They are feeling
✨ Confident in their recovery
✨ Confident in their direction
✨ Confident in their Pelvic Floor rehabilitation
✨ Confident in their abdominal wall rehabilitation (including separation / diastasis)
✨ Confident in their exercise progressions

And starting to feel:
✨ Strong
✨ Capable
✨ Fit
✨ Like their life and body didn't STOP when their baby's started

The benefits don't stop there either because we get you moving your body QUICKLY you get all the benefits of physical activity

(Which are much needed when sleep deprivation is high)

👌🏽Improved mood regulation
👌🏽Improved mental clarity
👌🏽Improved sleep quality
👌🏽Improve fatigue
👌🏽Aid in weight management

New mums - do you feel like you need any of this right now??
Let me know
👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

Pic courtesy of Artie 🤍

THIS ONES A KEEPER - HIT SAVE

Top tips for the first 6 weeks postpartum!