Postnatal Exercise
#DryKnickers
Campaign
All new mums should get the postnatal information they need to fully physically recover after having a baby. The right knowledge will give them dry knickers, a strong body, and no worries about whether their body can!
The Problem
The information new mums get in their postnatal care is shockingly lacking, and it is not OK. As a former midwife, I know that new mums are likely to have, at most, been handed a short leaflet and been instructed to ‘Do your squeezes’. Perhaps a professional put their hand on mum's stomach and said "Yeah you're good to exercise" – but what does that even mean? What kind of exercise? How often? How do women keep themselves safe when exercising after having a baby? This is not good enough.
The lack of information mums get in their postnatal period leads to women being scared to exercise, suffering with weak pelvic floors, lower back pain, and a body they do not feel confident in. This affects mums in all areas of their life. In their career, when their little takes their hand wanting them to join them on the trampoline, and in their confidence and mental health. I am so so sorry this is happening. It is not good enough, it needs to change, and I am going to bring about this change – because new mums everywhere deserve it.
The Vision
I want new mums who feel lost or scared in their body, and have no idea how to heal physically, to have a place to get the information they need to support them on their journey to a strong body after birth.
My vision is that new mums get clear, helpful information to understand what is going on in their body, and how they heal their incredible body after it has grown and birthed a baby. I want them to know that jumping into an everyday exercise class isn’t the way to recover their body and stay strong forever. I want them to understand how to carefully nurture their body to full strength in an accessible way (free and online) so they can recover fully after they have had a baby and get on with their life feeling confident and bad ass in their body.
This information needs to be available for them when they are ready. Some mums will want this information in pregnancy, or the early weeks of having a baby. But, for other mums their physical recovery will not become something they want to learn about until their children are older. So the information needs to be available for mums at all stages, whenever they are ready.
The How
A free online workshop (Link here for workshop info and to sign up).
It took me a little while to realise that this is what is needed but it works beautifully.
The workshop runs live every other month but is also available on replay, so it can be watched anytime that is convenient. It's free and online, which makes it super, super accessible. All the information mums need to recover physically is on the workshop. They leave empowered, informed and with direction of what to do and where to go next.
The inspiration for doing this came from new mums themselves. I held a few pelvic floor workshops (which cover so much more than just pelvic floor) free online, and the responses were overwhelming. Mums messaged to tell me how much they got from the workshop, how it has changed their life, and how it was exactly what they needed, and what has been lacking in their postnatal care.
So now I am on a mission to get that workshop in front of EVERY single mum in the UK (and maybe beyond!)
I know this is so needed from feedback like this;
The Woman Behind
the Campaign
That’s me! Karen Ellis, once upon a time a midwife and now a Postnatal Rehabilitation Coach. I empower mums to have a fully functioning body that will support them for the rest of their lives, so they can feel powerful, strong, bad ass and have all the fun.
My own motivation to keep strong and workout is to be able to climb mountains as an old lady and play footie with my grandchildren. My vision is that every single women will know how they can achieve this post baby too.
I run my business single-handedly from my home near Saltburn on the East Coast of England where I live with my partner, our two children each (that’s four between us – it’s busy!) and our furry four legged cockerwhip Rosie.
How You Can Help
Spread the word! Drop me an email if you can hang a poster or distribute leaflets to other mums, I will post some to you. Follow me on my socials, tag mum friends, share and interact with my posts. Basically get behind me on this. Follow my journey and reach out to me if you can help along the way.
Buy a pin badge or a coffee. I want to always keep this workshop FREE. This feels so important to me. I want all mums, no matter what, to be able to access this workshop. I never want finances to get in the way of that. But is costs to print posters, and run Facebook ads to get the workshops in front of new mums. So I have created a pin badge as a way to raise funds to do this. It’s a pretty cool pin badge that you can wear or gift, and a great conversation starter about the campaign. (It isn't actually on sale yet. This is coming very very soon!!)
Or simply “me a coffee” through https://www.buymeacoffee.com/karenpostrehab. I actually put the money towards Facebook and Instagram ads to tell more new mums about the workshop. It costs about £1 for each mum who signs up to the workshop. So by “buying a coffee” for £5 you are sending the info that you found super helpful to 5 other mums and supporting me on my mission. How cool is that!