4-Week Postnatal Recovery Programme

7 days ago

9 min read

A small, baby-friendly programme to help you understand and rebuild your pelvic floor, core and stomach muscles after pregnancy and birth. Join me in person at Cloud Nine in Guisborough, or register your interest in a future live online group.

This programme is for you if you have had a baby and have no idea how to make your pelvic floor and stomach feel strong again.

I know it is very likely that the only piece of postnatal recovery advice you have been given is, “Do your pelvic floor squeezes,” and then you have pretty much been sent on your way.

I can tell you with great certainty that THIS IS NOT IT! There is soooooo much more to your postnatal recovery than just squeezes—and, for some women, repeatedly squeezing without learning how to relax their pelvic floor can actually make things feel worse.

Your pelvic floor isn’t a group of muscles that wants to work all by itself. It is part of your whole core unit: your pelvic floor at the bottom, your diaphragm underneath your lungs at the top, and your stomach and back muscles around the sides.

To recover properly after having a baby, you need to understand what your body has just been through. During pregnancy, your stomach muscles and the tissue between them stretch and separate to make room for your growing baby. This is called diastasis recti. You then need to understand how to start piecing everything back together and rebuilding strength and function.

You need to understand how your pelvic floor works with your breathing and stomach muscles, how to support the recovery of your diastasis recti and how your core works as a whole.

You can then translate that into strong movements in real life—like picking up your growing children with strength—and into exercise, so that whether you want to run, go to the gym or do something else you enjoy, you know how to do it in a way that supports your postnatal body.

But we are so let down as women because the education and support we need to properly understand our bodies after pregnancy and birth is so often diminished to: “Do your squeezes.”

That’s exactly why I created my 4-Week Postnatal Recovery Programme.

The practical bits first—for anyone who came here looking for the dates!

Before I tell you exactly what we’ll be covering and what makes this programme so different, here are all the practical details.

I know some of you have probably arrived on this page specifically to find the dates, so I’m not going to make you scroll through my entire life story before I tell you.

In person at Cloud Nine in Guisborough

The next in-person Postnatal Recovery Programme will take place at Cloud Nine Play Café in Guisborough on:

Thursday 7th January 2027
Thursday 14th January 2027
Thursday 21st January 2027
Thursday 28th January 2027

Time: 9:30–11am

Cost: £70 for the complete four weeks, including your printed workbook, WhatsApp support and time for individual questions.

Group size: Maximum of six women

Babies: Very welcome.

To book your space, I ask for a £20 deposit and then the rest to be paid two weeks before the programme starts.

WhatsApp me on 07769357334 to book your spot. Or contact me on my socials @karenpostrehab.

If you’d like to understand exactly what we’ll be doing, what you’ll learn and why this is very different from simply being told to “do your squeezes”, keep scrolling—I’m about to tell you everything. 👇

Live online—register your interest

I know most of the women who follow me don’t live anywhere near Guisborough, and I would really love to do this programme with you online too.

As soon as four women tell me they would like to take part in a live online version of the Postnatal Recovery Programme, I’ll make it happen.

I’ll offer some possible dates and times and find an option that works best for the group. You don’t need to commit to a date that hasn’t been chosen yet—at this stage, you’re simply registering your genuine interest.

It will be the same four-week programme, taught live in a small group of no more than six women, and it will cost £70 for the complete programme—that’s the full four weeks, including your workbook, WhatsApp support and time for individual questions.

Karen Ellis sitting beside a hand-drawn pelvic floor diagram during a postnatal recovery workshop in a play café.

What actually is the Postnatal Recovery Programme?

This is a small, baby-friendly programme designed to help you understand what has happened to your body during pregnancy and birth—and what you can actually do to support your postnatal recovery.

It isn’t about turning up, being told which exercises to do and then absolutely knackering yourself for 45 minutes.

There will be practical movement, obviously—hence the pile of very squishy and luxurious yoga mats I bought when I finally decided to run this programme—but that isn’t the whole point.

I want you to understand your body and know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and what you should actually be feeling.

I want you to understand how your breathing, pelvic floor and stomach muscles work together, so that you can use that knowledge in everyday life and when you’re ready to return to exercise after having your baby.

This is education, movement and support all brought together across four weeks.

What will we cover during the four weeks?

Your pelvic floor after having a baby

We’ll talk about what your pelvic floor actually does, how to connect with it and how to exercise it properly.

This is not simply about squeezing your pelvic floor as hard as you can.

Your pelvic floor needs to be able to contract, but it also needs to be able to relax and work with the rest of your body. Sometimes a pelvic floor that doesn’t feel right doesn’t need more and more squeezing—it needs you to understand what it is doing first.

We’ll talk about how a pelvic floor contraction should feel, how to coordinate it with your breathing and how it should work during movement.

Your core and stomach muscles after pregnancy

We’ll look at how your stomach muscles have been affected by pregnancy, how they connect with your breathing and pelvic floor, and how you can begin rebuilding strength and connection.

You’ll learn how your core should support you during everyday movement—not just while you’re lying on an exercise mat concentrating really hard.

Diastasis recti

We’ll talk about what diastasis recti—sometimes called abdominal separation—actually is and what it means for your recovery.

You’ll learn how to support and strengthen your stomach muscles without being frightened of moving or feeling as though there’s an enormous list of things you’re never allowed to do again.

The aim is to help you better understand your body and make informed decisions about how you move and progress.

Breathing and managing pressure

The way you breathe affects the pressure placed through your pelvic floor and stomach muscles.

We’ll explore how your breath, core and pelvic floor work together and how to avoid putting loads of unnecessary pressure through your recovering body.

This is information you can use while exercising, but also while lifting your baby, getting up from the floor, carrying a car seat, pushing a pram and doing all the other repetitive things that come with looking after a small human.

Rebuilding your strength after birth

We’ll look at how to start rebuilding your strength gradually and confidently after pregnancy and birth.

I don’t want you to feel as though your only options are to do nothing because you’re frightened of causing damage, or to jump straight back into everything you did before having your baby and just hope for the best.

I want you to understand how to begin, what to look out for and how to progress.

Karen Ellis explaining diastasis recti and postnatal core recovery during an in-person workshop.

This isn’t about “getting your pre-baby body back”

I’m not interested in telling you how to make your body smaller, lose your “mum tum” or punish yourself with exercise because you’ve had a baby.

Your body has grown and birthed a human being. It deserves considerably better than that.

This programme is about understanding the body you have now, supporting its recovery and helping it feel strong and functional.

It’s about being able to lift, carry, walk, play and eventually return to the activities you enjoy with more confidence in your body.

What happens during an in-person session?

The in-person programme takes place in a deliberately tiny group at Cloud Nine Play Café in Guisborough.

We begin at 9:30am, but there’s time to arrive, get settled, feed babies, change nappies and generally deal with whatever chaos our small humans have brought with them that morning.

Please don’t panic if you arrive a little late. Just come in and join us.

The aim is to begin approximately 45 minutes of postnatal recovery learning and practical movement by 9:45am and finish that part at around 10:30am.

That leaves another half an hour to purchase a hot drink or snack from the café, chat with the other mums and ask me questions.

You can also use that time for those little:

“Karen, can I just ask you about this thing my body is doing…?”

conversations that can be difficult to have in a large group.

There is convenient parking beside Cloud Nine, and babies are very welcome throughout the session.

If you can manage without bringing your buggy inside, that helps us save space, but there are a few spaces for prams and buggies if bringing yours makes life easier.

What support will I receive between sessions?

You’ll receive a workbook covering the information we discuss, so you don’t have to try to remember absolutely everything while also looking after your baby.

You’ll also have access to a private WhatsApp group throughout the programme.

You can use the group to:

Ask me questions
Check that you’ve understood something
Reach out for support between sessions
Tell us when you’ve practised something at home
Celebrate the changes and progress you begin to notice

I would genuinely love to hear how you’re getting on as we work through the four weeks together.

Why is the group so small?

There will be a maximum of just six women in both the Guisborough and live online programmes.

I’ve made that decision very deliberately.

I want to have enough time to listen to you, answer questions and offer more individual support. I don’t want you to feel lost in a big class or worry that your question is holding everybody else up.

Your body, pregnancy, birth and recovery are personal to you. Although the programme teaches important information that every woman deserves to understand, there also needs to be room for you to ask what that information means for your own body.

Who is the programme for?

This programme is relevant whether your baby was born vaginally or by C-section.

The information is valuable whether you had your baby two weeks, two months, two years or two decades ago. If you have never been properly taught how your pelvic floor, stomach muscles, breathing and core work together since having your baby—or babies—this is exactly where to start, and you are very welcome.

If you are in the very early stages of postnatal recovery, please speak to me before booking so we can make sure the timing is right for you.

If you have diastasis recti, pelvic floor symptoms, bladder or bowel symptoms, or anything else you’re worried about, this could still be a really useful place to come and learn about your body.

However, the programme doesn’t replace an individual assessment or treatment when that is needed. If you’re unsure, please speak to me before booking. I can help you work out whether the programme is appropriate for you, whether it would be better to see a pelvic health physiotherapist first, or whether you could arrange a referral while also learning more about your body through the programme.

Where does the in-person programme take place?

The in-person Postnatal Recovery Programme takes place at:

Cloud Nine Play Café

3 Chaloner House

Bow Street Centre

Guisborough

TS14 6PR

North Yorkshire, Redcar and Cleveland, Teeside area

It is suitable for mums looking for postnatal recovery support in Guisborough and the surrounding Redcar and Cleveland and Teesside areas, including Redcar, Saltburn, Marske, Great Ayton and Stokesley.

A little bit about me

Hello! I’m Karen.

I’m a mum, a former midwife and a postnatal recovery specialist.

For years, I’ve taught women about their pelvic floors, stomach muscles, postnatal recovery and returning to movement after having a baby.

I created this programme because I’ve seen how much difference it can make when women are given the right information—not just told to do a few squeezes and sent away.

I want you to understand your body, feel confident asking questions and know how to continue supporting your recovery long after our four weeks together have finished.

Want to join us?

Join the Guisborough programme

The next in-person programme will take place at Cloud Nine Play Café from 9:30–11am on:

Thursday 7th January 2027
Thursday 14th January 2027
Thursday 21st January 2027
Thursday 28th January 2027

The complete four-week programme costs £70, babies are welcome and there will be no more than six women in the group.

To book your space, I ask for a £20 deposit and then the rest to be paid two weeks before the programme starts.

WhatsApp me on 07769357334 to book your spot. Or contact me on my socials @karenpostrehab.

Not local? - Register your interest in the live online programme

If you would love to take part but Guisborough is absolutely no use to you, please register your interest in joining me live online.

As soon as four women are interested, I’ll offer some possible dates and times and begin arranging the first online group.

It will cost £70 for the complete four-week programme, with a maximum of six women.

To register your interest, WhatsApp me on 07769357334, or contact me on my socials @karenpostrehab.

Whether you join me in Guisborough or online, my aim is the same: I want you to finish these four weeks understanding your body, feeling more connected to it and knowing how to continue rebuilding your strength.

I would absolutely love to work with you.

Much Love

Karen

P.S If you want to start your postnatal recovery right away with my support, the postnatal recovery membership could be a good fit for you. Check it out here.