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What is the impact of having a child on your brain and body? How do you navigate postpartum depression? What are some things you should know about pelvic floor dysfunction? These topics aren’t covered as often as they should be by medical professionals. So in this episode of Mothers and Daughters Unfiltered, Diane and Natalie chat with Dr. Amanda Fisher and Denielle Finkelstein about these important topics.
Co-Founder of The Organic Project (TOP), Denielle brings a career in marketing and retail along with a personal passion for all things organic to build a brand that is healthy and safe for our girls and the environment.
Amanda Fisher is a Doctor of Physical Therapy at her business, Empower Your Pelvis. Amanda loves serving the world by helping women realize there is hope with pelvic floor issues like peeing your pants, pelvic organ prolapse, pelvic pain and pain with intercourse.
What is the impact of having a child on your brain and body? How do you navigate postpartum depression? What are some things you should know about pelvic floor dysfunction? These topics aren’t covered as often as they should be by medical professionals. So in this episode of Mothers and Daughters Unfiltered, Diane and Natalie chat with Dr. Amanda Fisher and Denielle Finkelstein about these important topics.
It takes 10 months for you to grow a human being inside of you. The expectation that you’ll suddenly bounce back is insane. Women need to be taught early about what happens after birth so the conversations can be had along the way. What you might experience should never be a surprise. The goal isn’t to scare young women but to inform them. You need to know what might happen.
Amanda also emphasizes that any pregnant patient should be asked what their birth plan is. Even if the plan is vaginal birth, Amanda will always cover what things look like with a C-section because 30–33% of women end up having unexpected C-sections. These women tend to deal with a lot of trauma. The experience can be so traumatizing that seeing or touching their scars nauseates them.
When Diane gave birth to Natalie, she didn’t want to speak or interact with anyone for about a month—and she’s a very social person. She got a doula to help her learn how to take care of the new baby. It can be an emotional and humiliating time women need to be prepared for.
Giving birth is like choosing to run a marathon knowing you’ll be injured at the end. Will it just be a sprained ankle? Or will you tear your hamstring? You can work toward pre-habbing your body and getting to a point of great core strength. But things happen where you might need more help. You need a support team around you.
Sadly, women are terrible at asking for help. But postpartum recovery is the time where you have to take care of yourself. It’s overlooked time and time again, which can lead to an increase in the length of time you can struggle with postpartum depression. Everything you’re struggling with compounds which is why a team of people supporting you is key.
What is pelvic floor dysfunction? Your pelvic muscles support your organs, hold back or release urine or feces, help stabilize your spine, and they’re sexual in function. If you’re unexpectedly peeing your pants or passing gas when you don’t want to, it could be pelvic floor dysfunction. Pelvic floor dysfunction can also mean pain with sex or orgasm, tailbone pain, hip pain, low back pain, etc.
Your abdominal muscles lengthen in pregnancy. Most women aren’t firing their core correctly so they get hip and low back pain. So Amanda focuses on modified core movements and full-body functional movements to help women strengthen their core. This includes contracting and relaxing their pelvic floor to help those muscles lengthen to deliver a baby vaginally.
Amanda’s practice offers a postpartum program called “Body After Birth” that covers weeks 2–14 and helps you build a foundation. You have to reconnect the dots between your brain and pelvic floor, brain and lower abs/transverse abdominis, and help stability come back in different positions. If those exercises are skipped, you’re more likely to have pelvic floor dysfunction later on.
Because of hormones, Amanda notes that things don’t really level out until at least 6 months postpartum. If you jump back into running or high-intensity workouts too soon, you set yourself up for a high risk of prolapse. You’re putting too much pressure on your pelvic floor muscles before they can rebuild their strength. This can lead to prolapse.
Prolapse can happen when you’re bearing down (holding your breath and pushing). When you bear down, your organs move toward your vaginal opening or anus. If you are constipated and bear down with bowel movements, bear down during delivery, or jumping into exercise too soon, your organs can push on the pelvic floor muscles and creep into the vaginal canal. This can create a feeling of pressure.
Women need to be educated on the support that’s available to them postpartum—including seeing a pelvic floor therapist like Amanda. To hear the entire discussion about postpartum recovery, listen to the whole episode.
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