If you have ever explored women’s health research, you know Grainne Donnelly, my guest today, is a celebrity. 

Grainne Donnelly is an advanced physiotherapist in pelvic health and a doctoral researcher from Northern Ireland. In her free time, she is a mother of four and incidentally the current Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Pelvic Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapy, sitting on its board of trustees.

What do we really know of postpartum recovery? When should women get back into running after having a baby? When is it a good time to start deep squatting? The truth is the reason there is room for debate is that there are still major gaps between what research investigates and what is practiced, a gap Grainne is passionate about bridging. The other reason is that every body responds differently to the changes occurring during pregnancy, birth and postpartum.
With mums often at the mercy of conflicting advice, we emphasized the critical need for individualized recovery plans—something Grainne and myself are deeply passionate about. As we chatted, we discussed how teaching groups may lead instructors to err on the side of caution more than physiotherapists who are supporting clients one-on-one. It was an eye-opening discussion about how our own biases shape the support we provide. If this conversation feels too technical, note that I will be sharing my thoughts on tentative postnatal timelines and guidelines in an episode later this month.

If you'd like to get into the research, here are some of the key studies you may consider diving into:

- Return to running postpartum (2019):  https://absolute.physio/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/returning-to-running-postnatal-guidelines.pdf

- Delphi study (2024):  https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/58/4/183

You can reach out to Grainne on Instagram at absolute.physio or on her website at https://absolute.physio/