The Postpartum Revolution

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 [email protected]

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Wait, I thought this wasn't a parenting podcast?? (It's not.) Think back to the sex education you received as a kid... chances are, it wasn't all that informative or empowering. And we all muddled through our lives, probably ashamed of our bodies in some way, scared of sex (but also intrigued), figuring out our boundaries as we went. Hopefully we made it to adulthood unscathed (sadly, this is unlikely - 1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime, according to RAINN).
Ok, now here we are, entering our own parenting journey... will we let the cycle continue? The shame, inadequate knowledge, fear... I guess we made it through ok, so let's just hope for the best? I wouldn't judge you if you did... how can we teach what we don't know, or model behaviors we've never seen, all while possibly facing some major demons from our own past? It's overwhelming. But I have great news...
Caiti Courtier saw these struggles and created a solution. She saw how the kids in her Health classes were asking the same basic questions about sex, about their bodies, about love, about relationships... how they were hungry for knowledge and just begging for someone to give them the honest truth, no frills, no judgement. And she did the best she could in the classroom, but public education systems are so diverse, it's not possible to "get it right" when talking about anything other than human anatomy and function. So, who is left to teach these kids? PARENTS. And so The Parent Sex Ed Blueprint was born.
This episode is a goldmine of information: practical methods, pro tips, fun facts, and why changing the way we understand our bodies can change the world. Seriously.


Connect with Caiti:
[email protected]
Instagram
Facebook 

Join Caiti's Intentional Confident Parents group to connect with other parents

Go to www.theparentsexedblueprint.com to get Caiti's top 5 tips that parents need to know about sex ed

Other Resources:
Clip from Conan O'Brien when his guest talks about throwing his daughter a period party
Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski
The Flower Model of Sexuality - Jo Adams & Carole Painter
7 Levels Deep - Dean Graziosi

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Want to be a guest on the show? Email me at [email protected]

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"We're staking our claim on a better way"

Today I talked with Chelsea Skaggs, creator of Postpartum Together, about her journey into motherhood, in all it's realness: the battles she fought against her body, the bumps in the road to redefine her marriage, and the struggle to shed the "Pinterest perfect" expectations to become the parent she wants to be. After her first postpartum experience left her feeling empty and lost, she decided to "nerd out" on all things postpartum, hoping she could find a way to create a better experience for herself, and other struggling moms, the next time around. 

She developed a coaching program called Postpartum Together, where a big focus is helping moms look internally instead of externally for some of the answers on how to care for themselves and their family. She helps parents identify and prioritize their family values -  how do we decide what stays and what goes? how do we communicate what our root needs are? - and guides and supports them through the often messy process.

Her big message for moms: you don’t have all the energy in the world, so spend it being present on what matters to you. You don’t have to impress anyone, and honestly, anyone you’re going to impress is going to forget about it in like 10 sec. So DO YOU, do YOUR family values. Presence over performance.

Connect with Chelsea:
postpartumtogether.com 
FB and IG: @postpartumtogether
Postpartum Sex: Back in the Sack eCourse - use code EMAIL for $5 off!

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Want to be a guest on the show? Email me at [email protected]

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“I want to show other women that it’s ok to pursue the passions you had before becoming a mother.”

⠀

I had a chat with Rebecca Perkins Kwoka and it got me all fired up about...
- federal paid leave policy, and how vital it is for families to thrive
- representation in government... we need more womxn making policies, because the current policies in place leave so many folx behind, and that’s just not ok
- how parental - not just maternal - paid leave policies can help decrease gender based wage disparities
- how supporting families with healthcare and paid leave actually has a great return on investment - physically, mentally, and economically

We need compassionate policy. We need more mothers making policy. We need your voice!

“Come as you are into our society, and done be afraid of the little things you feel you lack.” -RPK

Additional Resources:

Top 10 Competencies Desired for Modern Leaders:

The most highly correlated characteristics for the “ideal modern leader” based on a survey of 64,000 people around the world:

1. Expressive* 
2. Plans for future*
3. Decisive
4. Reasonable*
5. Loyal*
6. Flexible*
7. Patient*
8. Resilient 
9. Intuitive*
10. Collaborative*

* = feminine characteristic
Source: The Athena Doctrine, John Gerzema, BAV Consulting, WPP Group PLC, 2012

Learn more about the facts about paid leave policy: The Paid Family and Medical Leave Opportunity

Connect with Rebecca:
voteforrebeccanh.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/voterebeccanh
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebecca_perkins_kwoka/ 

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Want to be a guest on the show? Email me at [email protected]

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"Can I bear to be with myself, can I bear to sit with myself... and not "fix" me?"

Here's part 2 of my amazing conversation with Shaelyn Cataldo, where we dive deeper into the Recovering Good Girl and how Shaelyn learned to break the cycle of cultural conditioning that keeps women quiet and small: perfectionism, pleasing, and pretending. We talk about how girls are conditioned from a young age to stifle their sexuality, and how as adults we are taught to stifle our needs, feelings and struggles, and how this affects us "my needs matter, or else I get madder!"

Take home message: your needs matter, ALL of your needs matter. And if your mothering doesn’t include you… it’s not complete. 

Be sure to check Instagram (@fullbloomwellness and @shaelyncataldo) for a fun challenge and a fantastic giveaway!

Connect with Shaelyn:

Instagram: shaelyncataldo

www.shaelyncataldo.com

Current Offerings on her website:
- Free Self mothering 7 day challenge 

- The Recovering Good Girl - 6 month mentorship program

- Mothering the Mother - group coaching program for mothers

Connect with Annie:
www.fullbloomwellness603.com
Facebook + Instagram: @fullbloomwellness603

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Want to be a guest on the show? Email me at [email protected]

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"I had the plans, the nursery done, childcare plans… but what I didn’t know was that when I gave birth to my daughter, I also gave birth to my unmothered self... my baby needed me, and I had a part inside of me that needed me, to be nourished, to be tended… and the world doesn’t teach mothers to take care of themselves postpartum" 

This is part one of a long discussion with Shaelyn Cataldo, who is an Authentic Self-Expression Mentor and creator of Mothering the Mother program, which is a group coaching program that centers mothers and helps them learn how to RE-mother themselves back to wholehearted living. In this episode we talk about Shaelyn's own journey into motherhood, her struggles with postpartum anxiety and depression "my control monster" and how it broker her wide open, which eventually led to where she is today, living an authentic and embodied life, and reaching out to women everywhere to help them do the same.

Stay tuned next week for Part 2 of this discussion, where we dive deeper into the Recovering Good Girl and how Shaelyn learned to break the cycle of cultural conditioning that keeps women quiet and small: perfectionism, pleasing, and pretending. 

Be sure to check Instagram (@fullbloomwellness and @shaelyncataldo) for a fun challenge and a fantastic giveaway!

Connect with Shaelyn:

Instagram: shaelyncataldo

www.shaelyncataldo.com

Current Offerings on her website:
- Free Self mothering 7 day challenge 

- The Recovering Good Girl - 6 month mentorship program

- Mothering the Mother - group coaching program for mothers

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Want to be a guest on the show? Email me at [email protected]

Support the show

Today I talk with my friend Katie, and her unique birth experience being a "medical mom" x 2 (both sons went to the NICU, and both are now thriving!), coupled with her unique infant feeding journey as an exclusive pumper. Though her journey is unique in many ways, she shares many commonalities with the American birth experience, including:
not knowing what you don't know
feeling alone and unsupported
being dismissed and gaslighted by the medical community (your water didn't break, your clothes are dry, it was probably pee)
not knowing how to accept help as a postpartum mom
She also shares how "lucky" she was to have had extra services and postpartum medical support for her second son... things she wishes everyone had access to (without the requirement of having a heart warrior baby in the NICU for a month!)

Connect with Katie:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katie.ambrosestout
Email: [email protected]

Learn more about Mended Little Hearts:
https://mendedhearts.org/
https://www.facebook.com/MendedLittleHeartsNationalOrganization/ 

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Want to be a guest on the show? Email me at [email protected]

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Warning: If you love the patriarchy, and celebrate dieting and body shaming, this is NOT the episode for you.

“It would be one thing if spending our time and money to be thin and beautiful actually worked... but if you’ve ever been on a diet and reached your goal weight and you *still* hated yourself when you looked in the mirror you understand: it doesn’t work.” - DB

This conversation with Dana Barron from Wellness Lately digs deep into the co-opting of “wellness”, the patriarchy, how we are culturally conditioned as children to self silence our intuition, and how all that shows up in full force during postpartum.

Dana shares her journey into motherhood, and how doing the work of healing her relationship with herself, with food, and finding her voice was key in softening the blow that is the unsupported postpartum journey in America. But even she, a holistic health coach and intuitive eating enthusiast, didn’t get through postpartum unscathed.

Trust me, you won’t want to miss this.

And if you like the pod, a rating or review goes a long way in helping the show grow! Please and thank you! 

Connect with Dana: 

www.wellnesslately.com

Facebook and Instagram: wellness_lately

Join the Food Freedom Academy - group coaching for food and body image

Free Facebook group: Food Freedom Collective

Podcast: Wellness Lately

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Want to be a guest on the show? Email me at [email protected]

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What is vaginal steaming - aka pelvic steaming - aka yoni steaming? Well, if you have a pelvic floor, steaming is for you! This ancient practice is gaining popularity in the US, and is something that can support women throughout the lifespan - first menstruation, fertility, labor prep, postpartum recovery, menopause and post-menopause. I talk with Adrienne about how steaming promotes a healthy menstrual cycle, aids with labor preparation (which MUST be done under the guidance of a practitioner!), and can help with postpartum pelvic floor healing. We talk through the 4th Trimester Steam Study, a foundational study that showed promising results when it comes to many markers of postpartum healing. We also talk about the importance of self-care, rest, and how steaming promotes those things with a non-invasive, healing practice. Other cultures honor the sacred window of the first 30-40 days postpartum, but Americans don’t. 
IMPORTANT: When steaming, you have to use the right tools - the right herbs, the right amount of time… work with a practitioner - Adrienne does virtual visits with people all over the world and can set you up for success!

Connect with Adrienne:
www.moonessence.life 

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram: moonessenceME

Read the 4th trimester steam study: steamychick.com/4thtristudy

Check out the Fourth Trimester Bodies Project on Instagram: @stopcensoringmotherhood and @4thtribodies

Interested in participating in the next 4th trimester steam study?

Email [email protected] or [email protected] 

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Want to be a guest on the show? Email me at [email protected]

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Today I talk with Dr. Allyson Shrikhande about how to holistically to heal your pelvic floor during postpartum using a multidisciplinary approach. We talk about some of the "common but not normal" symptoms that postpartum people experience, including bladder urgency, frequency, and incontinence, painful intercourse, painful bowel movements, constipation, hemorrhoids, fissures, and UTI symptoms that won’t go away. Dr. Allyson also talks about the importance of building a team of healthcare providers postpartum, and why it's best get in "early and often" for pelvic floor care (it’s easier to fix when it's not a chronic problem!). We also talk about other pelvic pain conditions such as endometriosis, and what a "normal" menstrual cycle should feel like *hint - it shouldn't be so painful that you stay home from school/work! Bottom line: know your options, build your team, put yourself first, and don't let any physician normalize the symptoms you have!

Connect with Dr. Allyson Shrikhande and her team:

Instagram – @pelvicrehabilitation

Facebook – /PelvicRehabilitation

YouTube – Pelvic Rehabilitation Medicine

Twitter – @PelvicRehab

LinkedIn – /company/pelvic-rehabilitation-medicine

Pelvic Rehabilitation Medicine clinic locations: NY, NJ, FL, MD, MI, TX, IL, GA, DC

The Squatty Potty ad "this unicorn changed the way I poop" https://www.google.com/search?q=squatty+potty+youtube&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS715US716&oq=squatty+potty+you&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i57j0l6.7200j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Want to be a guest on the show? Email me at [email protected]

Support the show