In this episode, Becky and Jessica dig into the often-oversimplified advice around breathing and weightlifting — especially for postpartum folks and anyone dealing with prolapse symptoms, stress urinary incontinence, or pelvic pain. Using both anatomy and real clinical scenarios, they break down how breath mechanics actually influence pelvic floor function, why pressure management matters more than “strength” alone, and how different breathing strategies apply at different loads. If you’ve ever been told to “just exhale” or “never hold your breath,” this episode adds nuance — and practicality — back into the conversation.

In this episode:

🫁 Diaphragm + pelvic floor anatomy

🏋️‍♀️ Weightlifting after pregnancy

💨 Exhaling on exertion

🔒 Valsalva vs bearing down

⚖️ Managing intra-abdominal pressure

🧠 Re-learning movement patterns

🩺 Pelvic floor dysfunction & exercise tolerance

📩 Questions or episode ideas? Email us at [email protected]

📲 Follow along on Instagram @ladybirdpt

🏥 Learn more or book a visit at ladybirdpt.com

⭐ If this episode helped you, leave a review — it truly helps more people find pelvic-floor-informed care

In this episode, we sit down with lactation consultant and perinatal mental health coach Heather from The Lactation Expert to unpack the very real, very under-discussed relationship between mental health and feeding. We dive into how anxiety, birth trauma, hypervigilance, and societal pressure directly impact lactation outcomes — and why feeding struggles are often an early warning sign of deeper nervous system stress. This conversation bridges physiology, psychology, and lived postpartum experience to help parents and providers better understand why feeding is never “just mechanical.”

In this episode:

🧠 Perinatal anxiety + hypervigilance around feeding

🍼 The bidirectional relationship between mental health and lactation

📊 Tracking culture, freezer stash pressure, and social media myths

💔 Birth trauma, cortisol, oxytocin, and delayed milk onset

🌈 Supporting queer, neurodivergent, and high-risk parents

🛠 Making feeding plans realistic instead of punishing

🤍 Why preventative lactation support actually matters

Because feeding your baby shouldn’t cost you your mental health — and you deserve support, not survival mode.

Find Heather:

🖥 Learn more at www.thelactationexpert.com
📲 Follow Heather on Instagram @thelactationexpert

🧠 For birth & health professionals:
Heather’s Lactation Essentials for Birth Professionals course is opening enrollment for its second cohort. This multi-week program includes recorded modules plus live calls, and is designed for pediatricians, midwives, doulas, SLPs, OTs, sleep coaches, and anyone supporting feeding families.

🤍 For parents:
Heather offers a bi-monthly support group that’s evolving into something special — the Parent Kind Support Circle. This is ongoing, relationship-based support from pregnancy through early postpartum, featuring two live virtual calls each month, expert guest speakers, and an intimate community space to stay connected between calls.

Find the Lady Birds:

📩 Questions or episode ideas? Email us at [email protected]

📱 Follow us on Instagram: @ladybirdpt

🩺 Book pelvic floor care with our team: ladybirdpt.com

⭐ Love the show? Leave a review — it helps more parents find honest, evidence-based care

In this solo episode, Jessica breaks down how pelvic floor physical therapy has evolved over the past decade — and how that evolution directly impacts postpartum recovery, pelvic pain treatment, and birth preparation. Drawing from updated research, shifting clinical guidelines, and real-world practice changes, this episode covers why outdated “no crunches, only Kegels” thinking no longer holds up, how pregnancy care has expanded, and what truly supports long-term symptom resolution.

In this episode:

🧠 Evidence-based postpartum core rehab

🤰 Internal pelvic floor work during pregnancy

📉 Why biofeedback and isolated Kegels are losing priority

🏋️ Strength training for pelvic pain and tension

🔄 Pressure management over “perfect” core control

🛠 Long-term symptom prevention vs quick fixes

🐦 Bonus bird fact energy

Because pelvic health care shouldn’t stay stuck in 2015 — your recovery deserves better science and better systems.

Find us:

🎧 Subscribe + leave a review to help more parents find evidence-based pelvic health care

📧 Questions or episode ideas? Email us at [email protected]

📱 Follow us on Instagram: @ladybirdpt

🌐 Learn more or book a visit: ladybirdpt.com

Second and subsequent pregnancies often come with earlier symptoms, faster belly changes, and more physical strain — and it’s not “just in your head.” In this episode, Becky and Jessica break down the biomechanical, tissue-level, and lifestyle factors that make later pregnancies feel so different from the first. From connective tissue changes and cumulative load to sleep deprivation and deconditioning, we explore what’s modifiable, what isn’t, and how strategic strength training and pelvic floor rehab can meaningfully improve symptom progression and pregnancy tolerance.

In this episode: 

🤰 Why bellies show earlier and grow faster the second time around

🦴 Tissue stretch, ligament changes, and why bodies “remember” pregnancy

💥 Common symptoms: leaking, pelvic pain, heaviness, back pain

🏋️ Strength training vs “just staying active”

😴 How toddlers, sleep loss, and life load impact pregnancy symptoms

🧠 Modifiable vs non-modifiable factors (and letting go of blame)

⏱ It’s never “too late” to get stronger, even during pregnancy

Your body isn’t broken — it’s adapting under more load, more life stress, and more history. And there’s still a lot you can do to feel stronger this time around.

📩 Questions or episode ideas? Email us at [email protected]

📱 Follow along on Instagram: @ladybirdpt

🧠 Learn more about pelvic floor PT, pregnancy prep, and postpartum care at ladybirdpt.com

⭐ Love the show? Leave a review — it helps more parents find evidence-based care

Regulation and co-regulation are increasingly used terms in pediatric and parenting spaces, yet they’re often poorly defined or oversimplified. In this episode, we sit down with neuroaffirming, pediatric occupational therapist Caitlin Sanschagrin, owner of BrightSpOT Pediatric Therapy to break down what nervous system regulation actually means, how co-regulation supports emotional development and functional behavior, and why connection-based, neuro-affirming approaches outperform compliance-driven strategies. We discuss how stress physiology impacts learning and behavior, what co-regulation looks like across developmental stages, and practical ways caregivers can support regulation at home without unrealistic expectations of perfection.

In this episode:

🧠 Let’s talk regulation and what it actually means

🫶 Co-regulation across ages (babies → teens → adults)

🔥 Why compliance-based therapy backfires

🧸 Meltdowns aren’t teaching moments

📚 Predictability & routines as regulation tools

💬 Modeling emotional regulation as parents

💔 Repair after rupture actually matters

🌈 Neuro-affirming parenting + therapy

Fight Caitlin and her team:

Website: https://brightspotpediatrics.com

Instagram and TikTok: @brightspotpediatrics

Find us: 

🎧 Subscribe, follow, and leave us a review — it helps more parents find real support

📩 Questions or episode ideas? Email us at [email protected]

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @ladybirdpt

🩺 Learn more about pelvic health care with Lady Bird PT

Resources Mention:

@learnplaythrive on IG and https://learnplaythrive.com

In this solo episode, Becky reflects on how pelvic health care has evolved and how her own clinical beliefs have changed over nearly a decade of practice. As patients return for second and third pregnancies, old advice resurfaces… and sometimes we have new research that has shown us that advice should be different. From breath mechanics to postpartum exercise, perineal massage, and prolapse, this episode is a candid look at what newer research (and real-life bodies) have taught us — and why as PT's we never have finally learned everything .

In this episode:

🫁 Breath work: Valsalva vs bearing down
🏃‍♀️ Postpartum timelines that aren’t one-size-fits-all
💪 Core strength beyond “neutral spine only”
🌸 Perineal massage as nervous system training
⬇️ Prolapse symptoms across multiple pregnancies
📚 How evidence + experience actually change practice
🧠 Letting go of outdated rules
🐦 A truly wild bird fact (as always)

Find us:

📧 Email us your thoughts or clinical hot takes: [email protected]
📱 Follow along on Instagram: @ladybirdpt
🩺 Learn more about pelvic floor PT with us: ladybirdpt.com
⭐ Love the show? Subscribe, follow, and leave a review — it helps more than you think

In this episode, we do something a little different — Becky brings her mom (a recently retired clinical psychologist and Becky’s personal parenting coach) onto the podcast to answer the questions we all ask ourselves in the toddler years. Are we traumatizing our kids with diaper changes? Is screen time ruining everything? How do we set boundaries without being assholes? We talk tantrums, timeouts, discipline vs punishment, tech guilt, and why “good enough” parenting is actually the goal. Equal parts validating, educational, and deeply relieving.

In this episode:

🧠 Toddler brains & emotional development

📱 Screen time, guilt, and reality

😤 Tantrums, meltdowns & autonomy

🛑 Boundaries vs punishment

💬 Validation over fixing

🧩 “Good enough” parenting

🐦 And as always, a bird story! 

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re messing up your kid just by existing — this one’s for you. Truly: hang in there.

Find us:

📩 Questions or episode ideas? Email us at [email protected]

📲 Follow along on Instagram: @ladybirdpt

🩺 Work with us in Austin, TX — pelvic floor PT for pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond

⭐ Love the show? Leave a review so other tired parents can find us

In this solo episode, Jessica breaks down one of the most common postpartum questions: “Is this exercise safe for me right now?” Instead of universal timelines, fear-based rules, or the mythical “six-week clearance means it's time to run a 5k,” she walks you through a simple, framework you can use for literally any movement. Whether you're three months, three years, or a whole decade postpartum, this method helps you tune into your body, progress intentionally, and stop second-guessing every plank, jump, or core exercise.

In this episode:
💪 How to actually know if an exercise is safe
🧠 The difference between symptoms vs. normal effort
🫠 Why your early-postpartum core needs more attention
⬆️ Easy ways to modify without feeling like you’re “starting over”
🔄 When—and how—to reassess and progress
⚠️ When it’s time to bring in a pelvic floor PT
🤯 The truth about “universal timelines” (they don’t exist!)
🐦 A bonus bird fact that Jessica absolutely did not remember in advance

Postpartum exercise doesn’t need to feel like guessing in the dark — your body gives you more information than you realize.

Find us:
📧 [email protected]
📸 Instagram: @ladybirdpt
🌐 Book a visit or join the email list: ladybirdpt.com
💬 Love the episode? Leave a review — it helps other parents find us.

In this very off-duty, very unserious holiday episode, Jessica and Becky take a break from pelvic health and wander straight into the chaos of holiday traditions. From fake vs. real trees, to eggnog discourse, to matching pajamas, unpopular holiday opinions, and how Hanukkah and Christmas collide in their households — this one is cozy, a little spicy, and completely rooted in real-life end-of-year exhaustion.

In this episode: 

🎄 Real vs. fake trees vs the 3rd option you’ll have to listen to find out what it is

🥚 Eggnog: delightful? disgusting? only good with whiskey?

👚 Matching pajama culture and our thoughts

🎶 Strong opinions about Christmas music

📽️ Favorite holiday movies

🕯️ Navigating blended family holidays with humor and honesty

🦩 Flamingo bird fact, courtesy of Dr. Sam!

Whether you’re team real tree, team fake tree, or team “my kid will destroy whatever we put up,” we hope this episode made your holiday season feel a little lighter and a lot more human.

Find us:

📬 Email us: [email protected]

📱 Follow us on Instagram: @ladybirdpt

🧘‍♀️ Work with us: Book a visit or join our email list at ladybirdpt.com

🎁 Holiday Offer: $199 initial evaluations — purchase now, use later

⭐ Leave us a review: It truly helps other parents find the show

This week, we sat down with Moriel Levy of Juniper Babyproofing to talk about something that feels overwhelming for pretty much every parent: safety, stairs, gates, and all the things tiny humans love to climb, chew, or escape through. Instead of fear-based “what could kill my child?” vibes, Moriel walks us through a calmer, more grounded reframe — creating yes spaces that make your home safer and make your life easier.

In this episode:
🧗‍♀️ How “yes spaces” reduce stress and constant parent hovering
🗂️ What to actually prioritize when babyproofing
🚧 Stairs, gates & furniture anchors — what matters and why
🧰 Common mistakes people make
🐣 The toddler room = the new crib (and how to keep it safe)
✨ Aesthetic babyproofing is real and we deserve nice things
🐦 A taxidermy crow?? Moriel’s hilarious bird story

If babyproofing has been living rent-free in your brain, this episode might just give you permission to breathe again.

Find Moriel:

💻 https://www.juniperbabyproofing.com

📸 Instagram: @juniperbabyproofing

Find The Lady Birds:
📧 [email protected]
📸 Instagram: @ladybirdpt
💻 Book a visit or join our email list at ladybirdpt.com
🧑‍⚕️ Pelvic PT for pregnancy, postpartum, pelvic pain & beyond
⭐ If you loved this episode, leave us a review — it really does help parents find us